The massive contact restrictions in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic have also presented real-world laboratories with difficult situations. In the DuPa project launched in 2020, researchers from the Karlsruhe Transformation Center for Sustainability and Cultural Change (KAT), based at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), have turned this crisis into an opportunity. Within three years, they developed new formats that combine digital and personal participation options. In the long term, these increase the inclusivity of real-world laboratories by enabling the participation of people who cannot or do not want to participate on site.
Fear of infection, compulsory mask wearing, closures: Until 2022, the on-site exchange between science on the one hand and interested citizens on the other, which is typical for real-world laboratories, had largely come to a standstill. This is where the project “DuPa – Dual Mode Participation: Window of Opportunity for Inclusive Real-World Labs” came in: The aim of the researchers at KAT was to develop new, more inclusive participation formats.
“As elsewhere, Covid has escalated existing problems,” says sociologist Pia Laborgne from the KIT Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS).
She led the now completed project, the results of which are now being disseminated. “Even before the pandemic, it was clear that we need to involve broader sections of the population in the face of a societal challenge such as the sustainability transformation.”
More diversity in real-world laboratories
As a result, the researchers developed and tested a series of dual participation formats that make citizen participation more diverse and representative. For example, they used the mobile participation laboratory “MobiLab”, which was created at KIT in 2021, as a place for hybrid encounters – in the center of cities and via the Internet. On a tour of the marketplaces of the EUCOR region, the rolling tiny house proved to be a multifunctional platform for participatory research, citizen science, and science communication.
The scientists tested another innovative approach in a map-based online survey on the topic of heat in the city. A so-called participatory mapping was used. This combines spatial data with the perceptions of local residents. The method, which is familiar from urban and regional planning, was further developed for real-world laboratories.
A blog as a method exchange
The DuPa project also explored the mix of analogue and digital in two exchange workshops conducted jointly with the Urban Europe Research Alliance. An online forum of the
real-world laboratory “Quartier Zukunft”, also run by KIT, in which citizens came together to discuss the topic of balcony power plants, as well as other real-world laboratory initiatives, such as the “Green Lung” project, provided practical illustrative material for this purpose.
Another characteristic of the DuPa project was the emphasis on an exchange between national and European experts on hybrid forms of participation. For this purpose, the blog “Opportunity Window” was launched on the website of the national network Real-World Laboratories for Sustainability. With numerous contributions in the form of podcasts, videos, interviews and texts, the blog has developed into a platform for communicating new approaches to participation in transdisciplinary research.
“Experience in the area of digital participation is still limited, especially when it comes to hybrid formats,” explains project manager Laborgne. “For example, it can be difficult to create a sense of community and collaboration and to ensure that all participants have the opportunity to contribute their ideas and perspectives. Our conclusion: Only with well-thought-out combinations of both forms of encounter will we be able to involve noticeably more people.” The project was funded by the VW Foundation from 2020 to 2023.
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