Urban Living Labs: Innovation for Resilience

Cities in the Global South require innovative institutional frameworks for climate adaptation decision making that are iterative, adaptive and participatory. Current centralized arrangements in urban local bodies are unsuitable for resilience planning in light of the obduracy of current urban systems and complexity and uncertainty associated with escalating climate risks.

Urban Living Labs (ULLs) have proliferated, particularly in Northern Europe, as way to test socio-technical innovation in the ‘real life laboratory’ of the city, often in collaboration with technology partners.

Exploring their applicability in India, Transitions Research institutionalised India’s first ULL, Project Urban Living Lab (PULL) in Panaji, Goa in 2020. Over the last two years, it has served as a platform to test innovation, bring diverse partners and stakeholders together and engage citizens while addressing urban challenges and building resilience.

This dialogue, hosted by Transitions Research and the Global Resilience Partnership, seeks to learn from the experiences of implementing ULLs in both Europe and India. We aim to both examine their utility in building resilience and supporting planning efforts and also interrogate their applicability and role in addressing climate change in the context of growing cities in the global South.

Talking About Transitions feature critical conversations on the systemic shifts at the interplay of technology, society and sustainability. We seek to discover just and sustainable transition pathways for India’s future. Our Dialogue series provides a platform for thinking together about three major areas of change and challenge – urbanization, climate change and digitalisation.