11 Real-World Laboratories Initiated by Practitioner …
209
for transformation research has only just begun.
2 Real-world laboratories are “in
their infancy” (Beecroft and Parodi 2016: 4), and a detailed methodological and
theoretical concept has yet to be developed (Grunwald 2016: 204f). Although it can
be assumed that real-world laboratories initiated by practitioner stakeholders have
high deployment potential on account of the practical approach they take, they have
attracted little attention in the scientific debate to date (Engels and Rogge 2018;
Menny et al. 2018).
Real-world experiments are generally considered to be the core of the real-world
laboratory approach (Schäpke et al. 2017: 3). This idea is not new in the field
of sustainable land management. In fact, the approach of experimentally investigating social change processes at the urban level goes back to the sociological
Chicago School of the 1920s (Gross et al. 2005: 65ff; Schneidewind 2014: 3). In
land management, for example, there are many projects and model projects of an
experimental nature that are not, however, termed real-world laboratories. Examples include the International Building Exhibitions (IBA), state and national flower
shows, the regional structural aid measures in North Rhine-Westphalia called the
REGIONALE, and various regional development processes in the context of European regional assistance (see De Flander et al. 2014: 285; Hohn et al. 2014). As
yet, the experience gained in these measures is largely detached from the real-world
laboratory debate, meaning that a great deal of research is needed to bring together
these aspects (De Flander et al. 2014: 285).
These two desiderata provide the starting point for the present article. The objective is to integrate into the scientific debate real-world laboratories that have been
initiated and coordinated by practitioner stakeholders for the purpose of sustainable land management, and to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of those
approaches. In the process, questions that have not been addressed in the scientific
discussion to date are of importance: What challenges arise when real-world laboratories are initiated by practitioner stakeholders? Are those challenges similar to
those arising in real-world laboratories designed by scientists? How do they differ?
What opportunities do they offer, and what added value can be expected from the
real-world laboratory format? To answer these questions, Sect. 11.2 provides an
account of the real-world laboratories initiated by the Energieavantgarde Anhalt
(EAA) association, which include the urban laboratories undertaken within the joint
research project “The re-productive town”
3 funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The core characteristics of real-world laboratories are
then identified from the scientific literature. These characteristics provide the theoretical basis for discussing the special features of real-world laboratories that have
been initiated by practitioner stakeholders (Sect. 11.3). This discussion is based not
2 Concerning classification in transdisciplinary research and transformation research, see, e.g.
Wittmayer and Hölscher (2016), Rogga et al. (2018).
3 The project entitled “The re-productive town. Changing towns for achieving the energy and sustainability transition” [original in German: Die re-produktive Stadt. Die Stadt verändern, um die Energieund Nachhaltigkeitswende zu schaffen] receives BMBF funding under the FONA/Social-Ecological
Research: “Sustainable Transformation of Urban Areas” funding line from August 2016 to July
2019; see https://re-produktive-stadt.energieavantgarde.de.
209
for transformation research has only just begun.
2 Real-world laboratories are “in
their infancy” (Beecroft and Parodi 2016: 4), and a detailed methodological and
theoretical concept has yet to be developed (Grunwald 2016: 204f). Although it can
be assumed that real-world laboratories initiated by practitioner stakeholders have
high deployment potential on account of the practical approach they take, they have
attracted little attention in the scientific debate to date (Engels and Rogge 2018;
Menny et al. 2018).
Real-world experiments are generally considered to be the core of the real-world
laboratory approach (Schäpke et al. 2017: 3). This idea is not new in the field
of sustainable land management. In fact, the approach of experimentally investigating social change processes at the urban level goes back to the sociological
Chicago School of the 1920s (Gross et al. 2005: 65ff; Schneidewind 2014: 3). In
land management, for example, there are many projects and model projects of an
experimental nature that are not, however, termed real-world laboratories. Examples include the International Building Exhibitions (IBA), state and national flower
shows, the regional structural aid measures in North Rhine-Westphalia called the
REGIONALE, and various regional development processes in the context of European regional assistance (see De Flander et al. 2014: 285; Hohn et al. 2014). As
yet, the experience gained in these measures is largely detached from the real-world
laboratory debate, meaning that a great deal of research is needed to bring together
these aspects (De Flander et al. 2014: 285).
These two desiderata provide the starting point for the present article. The objective is to integrate into the scientific debate real-world laboratories that have been
initiated and coordinated by practitioner stakeholders for the purpose of sustainable land management, and to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of those
approaches. In the process, questions that have not been addressed in the scientific
discussion to date are of importance: What challenges arise when real-world laboratories are initiated by practitioner stakeholders? Are those challenges similar to
those arising in real-world laboratories designed by scientists? How do they differ?
What opportunities do they offer, and what added value can be expected from the
real-world laboratory format? To answer these questions, Sect. 11.2 provides an
account of the real-world laboratories initiated by the Energieavantgarde Anhalt
(EAA) association, which include the urban laboratories undertaken within the joint
research project “The re-productive town”
3 funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The core characteristics of real-world laboratories are
then identified from the scientific literature. These characteristics provide the theoretical basis for discussing the special features of real-world laboratories that have
been initiated by practitioner stakeholders (Sect. 11.3). This discussion is based not
2 Concerning classification in transdisciplinary research and transformation research, see, e.g.
Wittmayer and Hölscher (2016), Rogga et al. (2018).
3 The project entitled “The re-productive town. Changing towns for achieving the energy and sustainability transition” [original in German: Die re-produktive Stadt. Die Stadt verändern, um die Energieund Nachhaltigkeitswende zu schaffen] receives BMBF funding under the FONA/Social-Ecological
Research: “Sustainable Transformation of Urban Areas” funding line from August 2016 to July
2019; see https://re-produktive-stadt.energieavantgarde.de.