TY - JOUR T1 - Contextuality and Co-Creation Matter: A Qualitative Case Study Comparison of Living Lab Concepts in Urban Research JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2015 A1 - Yvonne Franz A1 - Karin Tausz A1 - Sarah-Kristin Thiel KW - co-creation KW - innovation ecosystem KW - participation KW - social innovation KW - urban living labs AB - Innovation development is key to transforming a product-based economy into an innovative service economy by integrating users as co-creators in real-life environments. User co-creation and user involvement are key elements in living labs. Urban living labs add not only the urban component to the conceptual design, but also societal, political, and technological questions. Fields of analysis in urban research relate to socio-spatial environment, living together, and urban policies. The leading question of this article is: to what extent can urban living labs be used as an instrument to support these fields of investigation? Comparing three different approaches for urban living labs, ranging from socially-centred to more technology-centred, we offer a more nuanced understanding of urban living lab design in diverging research contexts. All three case studies manage to go beyond testing and improving new products, which is normally the aim of existing living labs, by embedding innovation in appropriate social, structural, and institutional frameworks, and targeting civil society involvement. The community benefits from this case study comparison because it contextualizes living labs as research methodology to be applied in future urban research projects. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 5 UR - http://timreview.ca/article/952 IS - 12 U1 - Institute for Urban and Regional Research Yvonne Franz is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Urban and Regional Research within the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She studied Economics and Geography at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, the University of Cologne, and the University of Vienna, and she received her PhD on gentrification processes in New York City, Berlin, and Vienna in 2013. She is now involved in two JPI Urban Europe projects dealing with gentrification processes (Practices and Policies for Neighbourhood Improvement: Towards Gentrification 2.0) and interethnic coexistence (ICEC - Interethnic Coexistence in European Cities) that includes the urban living lab approach. She is a lecturer at University of Vienna and co-organizer of the Vienna Summer School in Urban Studies. U2 - AustriaTech Karin Tausz is Head of Innovation & E-Mobility at AustriaTech. She received a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Vienna, Austria. Her experience includes policy consulting and innovation management for urban mobility, ITS and e-mobility, addressing public authorities, and companies. She was previously research coordinator at the Mobility Department of the applied science organisation AIT. She has been active for over 20 years in regional and urban development as a project manager, evaluator, and consultant with an emphasis on public participation, transport, and governance. U3 - Telecommunications Research Centre Wien Sarah-Kristin Thiel is a Project Manager at the Telecommunications Research Centre Wien and is pursuing a PhD from the University of Salzburg. In her thesis, she investigates the influence of game-inspired elements in civic engagement platforms. She received a Master’s degree in Media Informatics from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. During her studies, she has gained experience in the automotive industry, human–machine interaction, and mobile development. Her research interests include (mobile) human–computer interaction, interaction design, and technology in society. ER -