Mediation roles and ecologies within resilience-focused urban living labs

Urban living labs (ULLs) are increasingly exploring resilience and sustainability-related themes. This paper contributes to the gap in the research of ecologies of intermediation in processes of ecological transition through civic resilience. It investigates mediation roles and ecologies in four ULLs: a civic network in Bagneux, Paris, France; the Urboteca fellowship in Bucharest, Romania; a learning initiative at Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden; and a civic activation project in Hammarkullen, Gothenburg, Sweden. The research questions address mediation’s importance in supporting civic resilience, mediator roles within European living labs, and the mediation types necessary to sustain, scale up or instigate civic resilience. Mediation is understood in the Latourian sense as transformative, a capacity of both humans and non-humans. Mediation ecologies require the connection and creation of relations (when the social field is fragmented), the negotiation and balance of positions (when there are conflicts or oppositions) and catalysis (when collective initiative is missing), but that mediation can also be obstructed. PRACTICE RELEVANCE Understanding mediation ecologies and the roles within them can be of use to future ULL networks, allowing them to anticipate and increase the agency of particular types of actors/relationships early on in processes of ecological transition. The study proposes mediation role categories for initiating and sustaining ULLs: catalyse and strategise; support and sustain; negotiate and balance; connect and reach out; and obstruct. Mediation needs a diverse ecosystem of actors: the roles of strategists and supporter/sustainers are key to ULL resilience; negotiators are critical to mitigate obstructions; and ‘double agents’ enable increased connectivity.