(Urban) living labs as a form of civic university engagement: building relationships, fostering mutual learning

This article connects the civic university concept with urban living labs. ULLs are place-based and experimental spaces that encourage transdisciplinary cooperation and co-creation of knowledge, responding to complex global challenges and breaking them down to tangible and manageable problems on the local level. Even though, in ULLs, universities are not the main, but one of several important actors, both concepts have similar principles and normative ideas. Our aim is to shed light on processual aspects of relationship-building and networking of the civic university that reveal differentiations, conflicts, alliances and power relations between and within the various actor groups. We use the transdisciplinary research cluster and ULL OpenCultures in Braunschweig, Germany, as a case study. We have collected ethnographic data at various events during the year 2025 and analysed them via the ‘following a thread' framework for analytical integration. The analysis is further supported by a systematic mapping of network activities in the ULL. Findings suggest that ULLs function as a networking infrastructure and platform for academic and non-academic actors, thereby advancing a university’s civic engagement through collaboration. Also, using the campus and related parts of the city as a lab can be an effective method for mutual learning and engagement processes.