Alatalo, E; Laine, M and Kyrönviita, M (2025) Increasing civic resilience in urban living labs: City authorities' roles. Buildings & Cities, 6(1), pp. 917-933. ISSN 2632-6655
Abstract
When pursuing change through urban living labs (ULLs), local authorities encounter a dual imperative: they must act as drivers of change while remaining open to adaptation themselves. Navigating this tension requires a range of context-connecting practices among stakeholders. These dynamic interactions between citizens and city authorities are investigated in the transformation of an industrial area into a sustainable urban district, thereby foregrounding the civic dimension within the broader resilience discourse. The case study focuses on a ULL in the city district of Hiedanranta, Tampere, Finland, where citizen involvement and fostering bottom-up initiatives has been central. The analysis draws on ethnographic, interview and documentary materials from action research conducted between 2016 and 2025. This long-term data allows a question to be asked: how can city authorities increase civic resilience through different phases of a ULL? To understand the temporalities of ULLs, a system life-cycle view is applied, including the early phase of setting the stage, which can efficiently integrate citizens into the stakeholder network. Persistent collaboration with citizens was crucial in setting the tone for the entire area development process. These efforts were instrumental in realising new design concepts, such as Nordic superblocks, and highlighting the importance of shared spaces.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | civic engagement; co-creation; community participation; Finland; Nordic superblocks; placemaking; resilience; urban governance; urban living labs; urban planning |
| Index terms: | Finland, urban planning, interview, collaboration, temporality, stakeholder network, co-creation, case study, local authority, transformation, dimension, urban district, urban governance, action research, interaction, adaptation, community participation |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, user focus, participation process, design process, business, sociology, Geography, management, behavioral psychology, health monitoring assessment and metrics, urban planning, specific urban areas and projects |
| Topics: | Governance, Health and Safety, Geographical Context, Urban Studies, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, Design Practice, Stakeholder Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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