A concise, practical guide to structuring participatory processes, engaging diverse user groups, and co-creating solutions.
Cultural heritage thrives when communities actively help shape its future. In this context, social labs offer a valuable approach to fostering meaningful participation. Designed as collaborative and experimental environments embedded within real cultural heritage settings, social labs bring together stakeholders from research, innovation, cultural heritage practice, and civil society to co-create and test solutions based on a shared understanding of local challenges.
To support the adoption of this innovative participatory approach, INHERIT has recently published a handbook that guides the planning and implementation of social labs. The publication builds on the insights and lessons learned from the eight pilot sites where social labs were implemented throughout the project.
The handbook presents a four-step guide for developing effective social labs. It highlights the importance of understanding the local context and specific needs, engaging stakeholders to identify priorities, co-developing concrete proposals, and testing the most promising solutions in real-world settings to assess their feasibility and impact. For each step, the handbook also illustrates how these activities were carried out within the INHERIT initiative.
The publication provides an in-depth overview of social labs, demonstrating how this iterative learning process can lead to more robust, inclusive, and broadly supported solutions for cultural heritage contexts.
Read and download the handbook here!
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Cover photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash