Living lab: Format for rehearsing a new (service) practice

Citizen engagement and the citizens as a resource are key concepts in rethinking the Danish welfare system to meet the challenges of delivering better services for the elderly, while simultaneously reducing the cost of healthcare. In this method paper, we address how the co-design of new digital service platforms takes place in the format of living labs. We characterize living labs as the design of experiential spaces where ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’ are explored over a longer period of engagement. The labs are staged to integrate multiple stakeholders’ issues and resources and to create new technologies, concepts, or service designs. This paper unpacks the practices of living labs with questions of what is being produced, not only in terms of products, but also in terms of changes in practices, roles, and relations. To analyze and discuss this question the authors report about their engagement in two co-design projects that focus on a digitally mediated community practice of sharing and exchanging.