Living Labs as a Field of Research and Social Change: Towards Creating and Testing Democracy

This paperexplores the concept of the Living Lab as a dynamic space for experimenting with co-creation and democratic practices in education. Within the Polish educational context, the Living Lab is emerging as a novel arena for interaction, exchange of ideas, and collective learning, where teachers and students jointly design, implement, and evaluate educational innovations. As such, it functions as a social tool for fostering awareness and shared responsibility for change in spheres closest to individuals, including schools, families, and local communities. The analysis draws on empirical material gathered within the Horizon Europe DEMOCRAT project. The data include in-depth individual interviews with teachers involved in the Polish DEMOCRAT Living Lab (conducted between March and September 2024), field notes and observations collected by the authors during Living Lab meetings held in 2024 and 2025, and a focus group interview with Living Lab participants. The paper examines the social and pedagogical processes unfolding within the Living Lab, highlighting its potential as a laboratory of grassroots democracy and as a safe space grounded in openness, dialogue, and participation. It argues that the participatory nature of the Living Lab enables the co-creation, refinement, and validation of educational innovations that are deeply rooted in the lived experiences of school communities. Consequently, the Living Lab is presented as both a promising research methodology and a transformative space that supports the development of more democratic, reflexive, and flexible educational practices.