This is a CTP of initiative: Living Labs - Laurea (Finland)
This critical turning point (CTP4) is constructed around challenges in the cooperation between mainly entrepreneurs, civil servants and residents within the living lab project Sharing and Caring Networks of Laurea Living Lab Network. In this project there were several issues, but particularly the issue of constructing a community center rose many questions for the residents. They did not manage to get their questions answered and this caused a divide between the ‘professional’ and the ‘community actors’ in the project.
The project ‘Sharing and Caring Networks’ is funded by the Finnish Ministry of Environment, and has a number of focus points. Firstly, it aims at promoting residents’ interest and participation in the development of their neighborhood. Secondly, by getting the residents’ cooperation it hopes to create a networking model for regional development. Lastly, it aims to develop efficient means for stakeholder cooperation including residents, developers, communities and companies. The activities of the project include workshops and various meetings in which matter concerning urban development and cooperation is discussed. Not only ideas are brought to the table; actors are expected to take on responsibilities when working out the ideas.
The activities of the project take place in the Espoon Keskus neighborhood of the city of Espoo. The three focus points together form the main objective of establishing a local model for urban development which empowers residents to participate in city planning.
The CTP arose when the Laurea Living Lab had to work together with other actors in these workshops. This was during the last year of the project. A number of actors who held key positions like entrepreneurs and civil servants started to use their status as an established organization in a way that it overshadowed the participation of the residents. Because of this, residents did not feel like they were being heard, and put a strain on the co-production of the project. This was problematic because the residents were so important to the project, as the major goals were built around resident participation in Sharing and Caring Networks.
The Laurea Living Lab network calls itself an 'innovation ecosystem', working together with various actors or 'social partners' like mentioned under 'Contents'. These actors share a common interest in developing service innovation and smart solutions in certain domains of life. All actors collaborated on a voluntary basis, but each actor could benefit from the project in their own way. These benefits could translate into exposure or having influence in innovation processes. The 'Sharing and Caring Networks project' is a project under the umbrella of the Laurea Living Lab.
A variety of actors were made part of the Sharing and Caring Networks project, as each actor (residents, governmental organizations and entrepreneurs) could bring along their own set of skills and knowledge. As the goals of the Sharing and Caring Networks project mostly focused on gaining the interest and participation of residents, residents were important participants to include in the co-production process. They (like other actors) were expected to participate in the project on a voluntary basis. However, the residents were not treated like equals, the interviewee explains; ‘’The civil servants of the governmental institutions and some entrepreneurs of some companies tried to hold on to their position, they couldn’t go to the level of the residents’’. Because these civil servants and entrepreneurs tried to hold on to their established status so much, their working attitude was not compatible with the working style of the residents. ‘’Our idea was to bring together all these different actors [residents being one of them], and have them come up with ideas and get their opinion.’’ When asked about the effect of the ‘established’ behavior of the civil servants and the entrepreneurs on the residents, the interviewee replies that it worked demotivating on the residents part. ‘’Residents asked straight questions in the workshops about the building of a community center; who was going to build it? Who is going to maintain it? What is the residents’ role? But the civil servants and entrepreneurs could not give them straight answers back. They could not speak directly, because they had so much own priority in keeping their status as an established entity.’’ As the residents were left in the vagueness of the institutionalized processes, it demotivated them on being a part of the project. Contrary to the priorities of the civil servants and entrepreneurs, a big priority of the Laurea Living Lab was to keep the residents interested en participatory in the Sharing and Caring Networks project. The whole goal of the project was to create a ‘user centered’ (= resident centered) regional model for urban development, and not to service the vanities of civil servants or entrepreneurs.
Starting point of the Sharing and Caring Networks. Related events that led up to this CTP were the starting point of the Sharing and Caring Networks project after the decision of the Espoo city council to re-develop the Espoon Keskus area back in 2010. In turn, this decision led to the establishment of the Sharing and Caring Networks project and the creation of its goals in 2013, after initial interviews showed the need for the project. When developing the Sharing and Caring Networks project, it was found important to involve the residents of the Espoon Keskus area, as it was their neighborhood that was being re-developed. Naturally, as residents had to bear the consequences of this re-development The residents would become part of the workshops in the ending phase of the project in 2015. The earlier event of project design from 2013 created a large degree of dependency, as the participation of residents two years later would be on a voluntary basis.
Planned development of a community center in the Espoon Keskus area. An important related event during was the planned development of a community center in the Espoon Keskus area, this planning process took place from January –October 2015. As mentioned in ‘co-production’, there was much discussion between the parties about who was going to take on responsibilities in building and maintaining the community center. As civil servants and entrepreneurs were involved in a competitive squabble over who was going to take these responsibilities, the residents were left without action or answers. This was a main event in which the established and bureaucratic nature of civil servants and entrepreneurs harmed the co-production in the Sharing and Caring Networks project.
Community workshop to keep residents 'active'. Later in October 2015 the final project phase, various actors (among those the aforementioned civil servants and entrepreneurs) organized a community workshop with the residents, in order to keep them ‘active’. This workshop was additional to the five community workshops that were planned by the Laurea living lab. The interviewee elaborates; ‘’This was a nice idea, I think, but it also showed the residents that these actors had their own priorities. After the community workshop, we moved on to the ‘Restaurant day’, a day where we organize a street food festival once every three months. You could see that residents and resident organizations were now clinging together when organizing the restaurant day, and the civil servants and entrepreneurs on the other side.’’ Because of the attitude of the civil servants and entrepreneurs in the community workshop, a division of ‘us and them’ was created within the Sharing and Caring Networks project. This hindered the manner of co-production as was originally intended by the Laurea Living Lab.
The contestation within this CTP evolved around the co-production. As the ending phase of the project had started, actors of various standing had to collaborate on an equal level. The interviewee mentions that civil servants and entrepreneurs that participated on the project tried to hold on to their positions as parts of an organizational construct. They were somehow not able to put themselves on equal footing with the residents, and communicative incompatibility caused a division between residents and the established actors. The third party in this was the Laurea living Lab, for which it was desirable for the residents and established actors to work together, as this was according to the projects’ original design.
In ‘related events’, the community workshops that were set up by the established actors was mentioned. In this workshop, the question who was going to supervise the building and continuous maintenance of the center arose. The established actors however could not work out the division of tasks that were mentioned in the planning process. The community workshops were an important point of realization for the residents that even though they were part of the Sharing and Caring Networks project, they were not so much in control as these civil servants and entrepreneurs were. ‘’It seemed already in those community workshops… I mean, it was so obvious that some of those actors already had meetings beforehand [before the community workshop with the residents surrounding the development of a community center]. The kind of planned what to say [to the residents], so collaboration was kind of a thing they lacked.’’
The interviewee elaborates that the researchers of the Laurea Living Lab noticed this established behavior immediately during the community workshop, but it was a difficult problem to solve as the actors started to prioritize their own goals from that point onwards. The problem was also not explicitly mentioned to the actors involved, and no mediation was done to alleviate the situation. The contestation was not overcome in the sense that the original concept of co-production as devised for the Sharing and Caring Networks project was fully maintained.
The CTP of the exclusion of residents from community workshops was immediately noticed by the Laurea Living Lab at the time of the community workshop, so it was foreseen that the position of residents was weakened. However, the process leading up to this was quite unforeseen. This is probably because actors worked on the Sharing and Caring Networks separately before the ‘co-production’ ending phase of six months started. In ‘related events’ the project design was explained, in which all actors would brainstorm and co-produce after two years of working independently. Although not confirmed by the interviewee, it is possible that the Laurea Living Lab could not have seen this ‘established attitude’ before the ending (and co-producing) phase begun.
In short, at the time the CTP occurred, the Living Lab understood what was going on and understood the direct or indirect consequences of it. The process leading up to the CTP however (the two years before the ending phase would commence) the civil servants, entrepreneurs and other actors would work separately. Therefore, it was difficult for the Laurea living Lab to monitor these actors in the process leading up to the CTP.
The interviewee mentions that something that was absent during this project, was the commitment of actors towards the project, but also towards each other. ‘’The commitment towards the project should not be directed towards own interest. I would highlight this more on future projects.’’ When asked what the interviewee would do differently when a similar problem would arise in future projects, she goes on to say that; ‘’Especially the role of the residents is important, in fact in the future it might be better to give residents a leading role in the workshops.’’ By doing this, the residents could feel more invested and significant to the project. ‘’I think it is important to give a voice to those we have invited to participate.’’ Lastly, the interviewee elaborates that the ‘restaurant day’ that was organized after the community workshops, had a great effect on the collaboration of various actors. In the restaurant day, every actor would sell their homemade food in a street festival. The interviewee recalls that a common concept like food really got all actors to work together on an informal and equal footing. So, a common commitment should be found in future projects in order to achieve the desired co-production.
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