Living labs are increasingly popular in discussions on co-creation, destination design and education, particularly with regards to their potential to deal with so called ‘wicked’ problems. However, the living labs concept is ill-defined and critical practitioners warn that this undermines the potential of living labs and may lead to inflated expectations. This article seeks to provide more clarity on living labs, the kind of work that can take place in them and the depth of insights that they can deliver. We provide a taxonomy of different lab environments and the different purposes that they can serve within a tourism context. Based on experiences in two urban tourism living labs in the Netherlands, it is argued that living labs are not suited for solving wicked problems per se, and that greater modesty is required when discussing their potential. The paper concludes with a critical discussion and avenues for further research on the possibilities and limitations of using living labs to facilitate innovation in research and higher education practice.

中文翻译：

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你的实验室有多深？了解旅游业生活实验室的可能性和局限性


生活实验室在共同创造、目的地设计和教育的讨论中越来越受欢迎，特别是在它们处理所谓“棘手”问题的潜力方面。然而，生活实验室的概念定义不明确，批评人士警告说，这会削弱生活实验室的潜力，并可能导致过高的期望。本文旨在更清晰地介绍生活实验室、可以在其中进行的工作类型以及它们可以提供的见解的深度。我们提供不同实验室环境的分类以及它们在旅游环境中可以服务的不同目的。根据荷兰两个城市旅游生活实验室的经验，有人认为生活实验室本身并不适合解决棘手的问题，在讨论其潜力时需要更加谦虚。本文最后对使用生活实验室促进研究和高等教育实践创新的可能性和局限性进行了批判性讨论和进一步研究的途径。