Experimenting with collaboration in the Smart City

Experimenting with collaboration in the Smart City: Legal and governance structures of Urban Living Labs

Voorwinden, Astrid (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
van Bueren, Ellen (TU Delft Management in the Built Environment)
Verhoef, Leendert (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS))

Management in the Built Environment

2023

Urban Living Labs (ULLs) have been implemented in many cities, but their organizational and legal structure has not often been analyzed. ULLs aim to provide a space for different parties to research, develop, and test solutions to urban problems whilst engaging with local communities. Their experimental approach to urban innovation and to public-private collaboration makes flexibility, openness, and informality important. However, ULLs are also confronted with existing legal frameworks, responsibilities, and liabilities. Whilst they aim at shared decision-making and horizontality, they must navigate public and private interests, and interact with local government as well. To understand these dynamics, this article examines the legal and organizational structures of ULLs, the factors and trade-offs that influence it, and the role municipal government plays in in these structures. This article analyzes the different forms and trajectories of ULLs in practice, through semi-structured interviews held in four labs in Amsterdam. Through qualitative research, we found that 1) ULLs are partnerships that exist on a spectrum of formalization, from informal to highly formal; 2) the degree of formalization is influenced by financial, legal, and organizational factors that change over time; 3) each degree of formalization is associated to trade-offs, even if these trade-offs are not explicitly formulated by the people involved; 4) tensions arise from the municipality's double role as public authority and as partner. We conclude that ULLs could gain from clearly identifying the legal frameworks that condition their structure, actions, and future.

Accountability
Collaboration
Innovation
Living lab
Local government
Municipality
Public-private partnerships
Smart city
Urban living lab

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7965961d-30cd-4335-9bcc-df19164ba722

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2023.101875

0740-624X

Government Information Quarterly: an international journal of information technology management, policies, and practices, 40 (4)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2023 Astrid Voorwinden, Ellen van Bueren, Leendert Verhoef