How Can City Labs Enhance the Citizens’ Motivation in Different Types of Innovation Activities?

Abstract

There is a wide diversity of city labs for collaborative innovation. However, in all cases their success depends on motivating citizens to participate in their activities. This article builds on the literature on innovation dynamics in Living Labs to link them with other kinds of City Labs. The contribution of this article consists on building on the types of innovation mechanisms in Living Lab networks (Leminen, Westerlund, and Nyström, 2012; Leminen, 2013) by relating each type to a different theoretical innovation logic (methods for creativity; social innovation; open innovation; user innovation). Each logic is related to a different type of localized space of collective innovation (Fab Labs, co-creation spaces, Living Labs, coworking spaces and hackerspaces) and participants’ motivation to collaborate. The literature review on the main characteristics of each logic provide some guidelines for City Labs practitioners about how to motivate citizens.