Lab Matters publication summarised in Social Space

An insightful and practical illustrated summary of Marlieke Kieboom’s ‘Lab Matters: Challenging the practice of social innovation laboratories’ is now available online under a CC BY 4.0 licence. Social Space, an annual publication that provides a platform for local and international thinkers on social innovation, published the shortened version of Lab Matters, summarised by Chee Soo Lian.

Marlieke wrote Lab Matters in 2014, based on insights generated during social innovation labs at the first international meet-up Lab2: a lab about labs. The paper aims to move beyond the current lab hype and deepen the discussion about labs by asking tough questions. How do we ‘lab’ social challenges? Does labs’ pursuit of systemic impact miss the point? And how could we better prompt social change?

Over the past year, Kennisland has experimented with several labs++Our labsTake a look at the work in our labs in Amsteldorp, with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, with a domestic violence shelter and in Dordrecht. and lab-related projects++Our lab-related projectsSee Lab2 and Labcraft, a book written by lab practitioners, for lab practitioners with Kimon Moerbeek and Marlieke as co-authors.. Lab Matters functions as a red wire in the development of these labs and may be useful for both lab practitioners and those interested in labs++Case about labsBe sure to check out our case ‘Labs: test beds of the terra incognita’.. Are you curious to see what the paper holds? Lab Matters’ highlights combined with some helpful illustrations will show you around.

This years’ Social Space focuses on social innovation labs and innovations in poverty alleviation. In addition to Lab Matters, two more articles on labs were published. Philip Colligan shows us around in Nesta’s labs with ‘Are we really making a difference? Lessons from Nesta’s Innovation Lab’, whilst Bernise Ang writes about blending methods in ‘Innovating without a Brief: Tackling urban poverty through anthropology, data, design and lean methods’.

Social Space is an initiative of the Lien Centre for Social Innovation. Each edition is launched at ThinkFest, where leading minds from the social and business fields convene. The Social Space publication of Lab Matters is licensed under CC BY and can be found here and on the website of the Lien Centre.