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Article

Co-Creating Sustainability Interventions in Practice—Coping with Constitutive Challenges of Transdisciplinary Collaboration in Living Labs

REZ–Reutlingen Energy Center for Distributed Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency, Reutlingen University, 72762 Reutlingen, Germany
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Sustainability 2025, 17(16), 7197; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17167197
Submission received: 19 March 2025 / Revised: 30 June 2025 / Accepted: 29 July 2025 / Published: 8 August 2025

Abstract

Sustainability research in Living Labs promises innovation through real-world experimentation. These settings require the integration of key design principles—such as participation, co-creation, and real-life application—into everyday research. Yet collaboration among diverse actors is often accompanied by persistent tensions and conflicts. This study examines a Living Lab project embedded in the net-zero transformation of a corporate city. It focuses on identifying and explaining key challenges in the daily collaboration between academic and non-academic actors, as well as the strategies used to cope with them. Following a qualitative approach, data were generated through twenty in-depth interviews and participant observations. We identify uncertainties, frustrations, overload, tensions, conflicts, and disengagement as recurring reactions in transdisciplinary collaboration. These are traced back to the following five underlying proto-challenges: (1) divergent interpretations of Living Lab concepts, (2) conflicting views on sustainability interventions, (3) difficulties in role positioning, (4) processes of instrumentalisation and over-identification, and (5) the embedded complexities of Living Lab governance. By linking these findings to Institutional Theory and Paradox Theory, we argue that the proto-challenges are not merely contingent barriers but constitutive tensions—implicitly inscribed into the normative design of Living Lab research and essential to engage with for advancing collaborative sustainability efforts.
Keywords: living lab; transdisciplinary research; co-creation; collaboration; challenges; sustainability interventions; experimentation living lab; transdisciplinary research; co-creation; collaboration; challenges; sustainability interventions; experimentation

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

König, W.; Schwarz, L.; Löbbe, S. Co-Creating Sustainability Interventions in Practice—Coping with Constitutive Challenges of Transdisciplinary Collaboration in Living Labs. Sustainability 2025, 17, 7197. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17167197

AMA Style

König W, Schwarz L, Löbbe S. Co-Creating Sustainability Interventions in Practice—Coping with Constitutive Challenges of Transdisciplinary Collaboration in Living Labs. Sustainability. 2025; 17(16):7197. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17167197

Chicago/Turabian Style

König, Werner, Lisa Schwarz, and Sabine Löbbe. 2025. "Co-Creating Sustainability Interventions in Practice—Coping with Constitutive Challenges of Transdisciplinary Collaboration in Living Labs" Sustainability 17, no. 16: 7197. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17167197

APA Style

König, W., Schwarz, L., & Löbbe, S. (2025). Co-Creating Sustainability Interventions in Practice—Coping with Constitutive Challenges of Transdisciplinary Collaboration in Living Labs. Sustainability, 17(16), 7197. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17167197

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