A new TIPC publication by Raúl Tabarés Gutiérrez and Alejandra Boni explores how social labs can help cultivate more responsible, participatory, and place-sensitive innovation ecosystems.

The article looks at social labs as spaces where people can experiment together, learn across differences, and work with the social and ethical dimensions of innovation. Rather than seeing innovation as something that happens only through technology, markets, or expert-led design, the authors focus on the relationships, practices, and conditions that allow communities to shape change more directly.

This speaks closely to questions many transformation practitioners face: how to create spaces where experimentation is meaningful, participation is not tokenistic, and learning can influence the wider systems in which people are working.

The publication may be useful for those interested in transformative innovation policy, responsible research and innovation, social labs, participatory methods, and community-rooted approaches to change.