The Dynamics and Facilitation of a Living Lab Construct

During the last decade Living Labs have established itself as an attractive innovation approach. Living Labs are an interesting construction because it offers a collaboration platform for dynamic interaction with users in all the project phases. Living Labs frame knowledge about actors in their own settings, in which new opportunities for innovation can be discovered. However, the practical management of a Living Lab is often a great challenge. It involves managing several actors, who are working with different agendas and within very different development traditions. The managing of a Living Lab and the different actors, processes and methods are therefore interesting to put into perspective as it contains opportunities for staging a well-functioning Living Lab. This paper contributes to unfolding and discussing some of the main challenges in managing a Living Lab while keeping the different actors engaged in the process by drawing upon data from three Living Lab projects.