Abstract
Citizen Innovation Labs (LabICs) have emerged as experimental infrastructures for collective design and civic transformation. Operating in close partnership with public institutions, these laboratories create collaborative spaces where urban publics co-design responses to issues of shared concern. Yet, little is known about how these laboratories operate as long-term supports for community-driven initiatives beyond their initial phases of experimentation or incubation. This paper investigates how LabICs mobilise processes of infrastructuring to support broader cycles of social transformation by analysing the case of Conectando Cozinhas, a citizen-led initiative developed within LabIC Novale (Brazil). Using a retrospective qualitative case study, the research reconstructs the initiative’s trajectory across five stages. Findings suggest that LabIC Novale acted as an enabling infrastructure that fostered public formation, collective ownership, and translation of grassroots initiatives into institutional contexts. Yet sustaining participation beyond the incubation phase remained a challenge.
Keywords
citizen innovation labs, participatory design, public sector collaboration, civic design infrastructures
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.756
Citation
Tarachucky, L., Ayala, D.H., and Ersoy, A. (2026) From citizen innovation labs to social transformation: analysing the Conectando Cozinhas case through the lens of infrastructuring, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.756
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
From citizen innovation labs to social transformation: analysing the Conectando Cozinhas case through the lens of infrastructuring
Citizen Innovation Labs (LabICs) have emerged as experimental infrastructures for collective design and civic transformation. Operating in close partnership with public institutions, these laboratories create collaborative spaces where urban publics co-design responses to issues of shared concern. Yet, little is known about how these laboratories operate as long-term supports for community-driven initiatives beyond their initial phases of experimentation or incubation. This paper investigates how LabICs mobilise processes of infrastructuring to support broader cycles of social transformation by analysing the case of Conectando Cozinhas, a citizen-led initiative developed within LabIC Novale (Brazil). Using a retrospective qualitative case study, the research reconstructs the initiative’s trajectory across five stages. Findings suggest that LabIC Novale acted as an enabling infrastructure that fostered public formation, collective ownership, and translation of grassroots initiatives into institutional contexts. Yet sustaining participation beyond the incubation phase remained a challenge.