Experimenting in Cities: A Deleuzian Approach to Urban Living Labs for Transformative Adaptation

Abstract

Urban living labs (ULLs) are increasingly recognised as strategic sites for experimentation in sustainability transitions. However, in sites of informality and complex urban governance, their transformative potential remains under-examined. Based on assemblage and actor-network theory, this article develops a framework to explore how ULLs reconfigure actor networks, affective relations and circulations of knowledge. Drawing on case studies in Ajmer, India, and Durban, South Africa, we examine how ULLs foster self-organisation and mediate new forms of authority and influence. In Ajmer, chronic water insecurity catalysed slow, trust-based collaboration among women’s groups, universities and municipalities. In Durban, major floods led to the scaling of a community-based flood early warning system through horizontal peer exchange. Despite contextual differences, both cases reveal the importance of mediators, inscription devices and affective intensity in enabling urban transformation. We argue for an expanded view of ULLs as affective-material assemblages capable of producing contingent, relational and plural futures through iterative, non-linear pathways of change.