Can living labs offer a pathway to support local agri-food sustainability transitions?

Abstract : Living labs are defined as both an approach and an arena for supporting experimentation in natural settings with a wide range of actors. In this article we explore the potential and limits of living labs for analysing and supporting the local transition of agri-food systems. We base on a bibliometric analysis and insights from our transdisciplinary research team’s experience with agroecological transition. It appears that living labs informed mainly by strategic managerial and user-centric approaches benefiting the dissemination of (technological) innovation, require certain changes in order to address sustainable development issues. Citizen-centred living lab approaches are better suited to increase capacity building and empowerment through action, iterative learning, and capitalization of experience. Faced with the specific issues of local agri-food system transition, we propose to (re)-introduce the notion of “commons” in order to support the collective territorial management of both material resources (food, environment) and immaterial resources (values, ideas).