This is a CTP of initiative: Living Labs - Laurea (Finland)
The project ‘Sharing and Caring’ 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 neighbourhood. 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 neighbourhood 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 (CTP5) arose when the Laurea Living Lab had to work together with other actors in a Sharing and Caring project called ‘restaurant day’. This was during the last six months of the 2,5 year Sharing and Caring project. The CTP described here is actually closely related to CTP4 that discussed the competitive attitude of some stakeholders, including civil servants and entrepreneurs and the consequences this also had for residents. This competitive attitude overshadowed the voices of the residents and resident organizations in the project. Because of this, the residents and resident organizations decided to work separately from these civil servants and entrepreneurs in the next sub-project within Sharing and Caring. In this project, called ‘restaurant day’, the residents and resident organization had considerably more success in terms of connecting people within the Espoon Keskus neighbourhood. The CTP discussed here was an indirect consequence of the aforementioned CTP, and describes how the organizations (who wanted to organize their own version of the ‘restaurant day’) were less successful compared to the restaurant day organized by the residents. Because of this success, civil servants came to realize that an established and competitive attitude in projects does not always render a higher success rate. This event constituted a CTP because the civil servants and entrepreneurs were now willing to work according to the residents’ (and project designs’) pro-active working style. For the civil servants and entrepreneurs, this was a transformation in working style that was beneficial to the Sharing and Caring project.
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. The 'Sharing and Caring project' is a project under the umbrella of the Laurea Living Lab. A variety of actors were made part of the Sharing and Caring 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 project mostly focus on gaining the interest and participation of residents, residents were important participants to include in the co-production process.
Thus far, the co-production process was not going according to project design. Established actors like civil servants and entrepreneurs were not following the pro-active working style that was intended (also see CTP 3. Civil servants and entrepreneurs were holding on to their positions in the sense that they would not do anything practical. They would help brainstorming and bring ideas to the table, but would not actually take initiative and responsibilities. ''They [the established actors like civil servants and entrepreneurs] did not feel like actually working, they held their institutionalized positions and also seemed to have a competition going on amongst themselves.’’ Because of his, residents and (immigrant) resident organizations decided to go their own way when organizing the restaurant day. It was made clear by the interviewee that both residential groups with natives and ones with immigrants collaborated on this version of the Restaurant day. Governmental and entrepreneurial organizations did their own version behind closed doors. The civil servants and entrepreneurs in turn did not want to collaborate with the residents on the restaurant day anymore. ‘’Some employees of governmental and corporate organizations where actually pulled from the restaurant day project by their supervisors or CEO’s, because they did not believe the residents’ restaurant day would contribute to their cause.’’ After the success of the residents however, the corporate and governmental organizations now work together with the residents on the next restaurant day.
Start of restaurant day project. Related events that led up to this CTP were the starting point of the restaurant day project (within Sharing and Caring) that took place in May 2015. The nature of this project was to organize a street festival where homemade food would be offered in the Espoon Keskus area. With food as a biding factor, this could contribute to neighbourhood connectedness. All actors would collaborate on equal footing, and bring both ideas for the restaurant day and would perform operational tasks. This project was preceded by other projects within the Sharing and Caring tract. In these previous projects, the working styles of the various actors did not align; this created a division between the residents on one side and civil servants and entrepreneurs on the other when the restaurant day had to be organized. ‘’These actors wanted to do their own restaurant day, they did not want to collaborate. They wanted to do it behind their own doors. This was kind of a critical moment for us because we looked at what we could do about it. We tried, we actually wrote a letter to the leaders of these organizations that this is not the way we work. We said we saw that they had their own interests but thought it would be nice to collaborate and work together in the Espoon Keskus area. But the answer was that their workers did not have the time to do all this work, while referring to the closing times of the institution [institution not specified by interviewee]. This closed all the doors for collaboration.’’ This event created the division and the two ‘restaurant days’, which in turn led to the realization of governmental and corporate organizations that the residents’ pro-active working attitude would actually yield more success.
Follow up restaurant days. The restaurant day also resulted in follow ups. There was a next restaurant day on 21 November 2015, and it was a very successful day again. The group then decided to skip the originally planned restaurant day on May 2016 they did not since they were focusing and putting their energy on an event in September 2016 (still upcoming during the time of the interview) soon), which should become a real street festival on the streets (with bazaars etc.) in the area which is under the re-construction.
The contestation within this CTP concerned the complete turnaround in working attitude of some stakeholders (namely entrepreneurs and civil servants) after some time working separately on the same project ('restaurant day' - within the Sharing and Caring project). As mentioned, this CTP was a consequence of CTP 4 where residents and resident organizations felt overruled by the entrepreneurs and civil servants because of their competitive attitude. The restaurant day that was organized by the residents and resident organization turned out to be a big success, which led to the entrepreneurs and civil servants to once again become interested in working together with each other and with the residents.
''Finally, in the end when everything was over, they [some other organizations together] had organized their restaurant day, and the residents had organized their own restaurant day. Now they are together again, so I guess afterwards they came together with the other resident groups and are now collaborating.''
It was a very surprising turn of events, looking back at the collaboration issues the two groups had previously. The interviewee mentions that the 'success factor' may have contributed to the change of attitude of the entrepreneurs and civil servants;
''Maybe because the other organizations and residents wanted it [work together again]. The residents had a good experience [when organizing the restaurant day], even without these other actors. They were in the newspapers, the media with them and got exposure. It was a success. And I think the other actors did not believe it would be, at first. When the other organizations realized the success it had, they turned their understanding around, and started coming to the meetings again.''
Lastly the interviewee mentions that she thinks the main reason this change in attitude took place was because the other actors wanted to be where the action was. In other words, they wanted to share in the success and exposure that the residents received with their version of the restaurant day. In this sense, the reason this CTP occurred was out of self-interest, rather than commitment towards a common goal.
When asking if the critical turning point (of some stakeholders suddenly wanting to collaborate again) was understood as such at the time, the interviewee answers;
‘’Yes, immediately after the restaurant day was over, stakeholders approached us and said they wanted to take part in the next restaurant day in the autumn. They were eager to come to the meetings where the next edition would discussed and planned.’’
It was certainly met with positive reactions from the residents and residents groups, who did not appear to harbor any resentment because of the stakeholders’ earlier abandonment of the restaurant day project. The interviewee for the Laurea Living lab describes how the incorporation of a specific stakeholder is strongly desired for practical reasons;
‘’One of these stakeholders is of the better kind [In other words, more organized], they possess long mailing lists, good contacts and good networks. They also have the best knowhow on how to organize such an event.’’
It was unsure how this new collaboration would work out; if the collaboration would go smoothly, and what the contribution to the restaurant day project would be. But looking at what the partnership with some of these stakeholders could bring in terms of organizing power, the CTP of newfound partnerships was definitely present and realized in the moment.
The success of the restaurant day that was organized by the residents brought some additional interesting developments that were noticed by the Laurea Living lab. In this sense, a critical turnaround was definitely seen. For instance, some previously detached resident groups (mainly ones that represent minority groups, referred to as ‘immigrants’ in CTP3) also wanted to participate in future restaurant days that also did take place. The interviewee mentions that street food and music was a big contributor to the newfound interest from various (new) stakeholders;
‘’Food is such a good idea, everybody has something with food. Throw in some good music and balloons and you have a great binding factor. Actually, some residents groups that had been ‘sleeping’ for a long time, and even some we did not know about rose up and wanted to take part.’’
It can be concluded that the success of the first restaurant day was a stimulant for other stakeholders to combine effort in organizing the next restaurant day. This CTP can be seen as a critical turning that was realized in the moment, but the outcome of this new alliance will have to be experienced over time.
Looking back at the success of the restaurant day that was organized by the residents and resident groups, the interviewee mentions that it might be a good idea to give residents more power and responsibilities. As they are clearly capable of setting up and managing a successful project, the established position of other actors are no guarantee that a project will do well. Also, the established nature of these actors could damage partnerships between actors, demotivating actors to participate in the project. Secondly, a common commitment should be found, to which all actors can relate. The interviewee mentions the theme of the restaurant day as important when raising the motivation for collaboration amongst actors. The interviewee says:
‘’Food is such an easy concept, it connects people.’’
The ambitions of the project are still the same, to connect people and to organize a restaurant day for everyone to enjoy. The CTP opened new doors to expand this ambition, as the interviewee mentioned that some of these newfound partners have access to invaluable resources like contacts and knowledge. In this respect, the CTP did definitely make a positive contribution towards the projects’ ambitions. A lesson that can be derived from this CTP, is that a common commitment should be found to get all kinds of actors interested and involved in a project. This does not have to be a difficult shared interest; a simple theme like food can work wonders as this CTP has shown.
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