Living the Lab: Rethinking Collaborative Practices in Living Lab Contexts Amid Polycrisis

Antje Jacobs, Angela Hostetler, Koenraad Hinnekint, Yannis Perifanos, Juan Pablo Centeno, Rodrigo Cruz, Eylem Keskin, Louise Mazet, Giovana Navarro, Charlotte Parion, Amber Jenny Sels, Hanne Vrebos and Karin Hannes
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Antje Jacobs: Research Group TRANSFORM’s Idiosynchratic Inventors Collective, KU Leuven, Belgium / Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia
Angela Hostetler: Research Group TRANSFORM’s Idiosynchratic Inventors Collective, KU Leuven, Belgium / Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia
Koenraad Hinnekint: LUCA School of Arts, Belgium / Centre for Instructional Psychology & Technology, KU Leuven, Belgium
Yannis Perifanos: Centre of Expertise for Cooperative Entrepreneurship (KCO), KU Leuven, Belgium
Juan Pablo Centeno: Public Governance Institute (PGI), KU Leuven, Belgium
Rodrigo Cruz: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK
Eylem Keskin: Graduate School, Izmir Institute of Technology, Türkiye
Louise Mazet: Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University, Belgium
Giovana Navarro: Faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium
Charlotte Parion: Research Group TRANSFORM’s Idiosynchratic Inventors Collective, KU Leuven, Belgium
Amber Jenny Sels: Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Hanne Vrebos: Research Group TRANSFORM’s Idiosynchratic Inventors Collective, KU Leuven, Belgium / Research Group Sustainability Assessments of Materials and Circular Economy, KU Leuven, Belgium
Karin Hannes: Research Group TRANSFORM’s Idiosynchratic Inventors Collective, KU Leuven, Belgium / Research Group Sustainability Assessments of Materials and Circular Economy, KU Leuven, Belgium

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Positioned as a response to the proposition of conducting research in times of polycrisis, this article explores attentive collaboration as a research praxis for addressing cumulative societal challenges in living lab contexts. While living labs are inherently collaborative spaces, they have been criticized for prioritizing productivity and scalability, making the relational dimensions of collaboration difficult to realize. At the same time, the capacity of living labs to meaningfully involve people who are not typically in positions of power, as well as those experiencing crisis situations, has often been overlooked. In response to these challenges, this article presents a living lab workshop, designed as a space to experiment with collaborative research approaches in response to crisis scenarios. Rather than framing the workshop as merely a participatory research event focused on studying crisis, we approached it as a generative site of care‐full being‐with. During the workshop, temporal, ethical, epistemic, and affective tensions emerged, informing our conceptualization of attentive collaboration in living lab contexts. We argue that living labs must cultivate attentiveness not only to the complexity of issues, but also to the relationships necessary for responding care‐fully.

Keywords: attentive collaboration; collaboration; crisis; ethics; living lab; participatory research; polycrisis; slow science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:12026

DOI: 10.17645/si.12026

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