Urban Living Labs for Healthy and People-Centered Cities: A Nordic Model

Discussions on Urban Living Labs (ULLs) have been diffused in the last decade, especially concerning the issues of sustainability transition. In the EU, ULLs have been mainly conceptualized as niche innovations to develop various types of local networks, knowledge, products, services, capacities, and capabilities. ULLs represent a lower form of institutionalization, as they often do not show the capacity to align with—or have a real impact on—existing planning processes. This chapter reviews the various ways to conceptualize Urban Living Labs and develops a viable approach for aligning understandings across an international interdisciplinary research team of Nordic researchers. The NordicPATH’s model is based on the co-creation of mechanisms of knowledge generation for planning healthy and people-centered urban environments in four Nordic cities through science–policy interactions applied in urban contexts (Aalborg, Gothenburg, Kristiansand, Lappeenranta). The NordicPATH’s model has been advanced and performed since March 2020, in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, during forced isolation and periods of social distancing. The chapter highlights how the pandemic conditions may have strengthened researchers’ interdisciplinary process through digital connectivity and forced slowdown in outward activities with a potential for a resilient governance model.