KULeuven, Leuven, België

8-10 April 2026

Tijdens de BeNeLux Geografie Conferentie presenteren we UUtopia met een poster tijdens de sessie “Geography goes public: The past, present and future of making impact”. Deelnemers gaan hier het gesprek aan over de rol van publieke geografie in de 21ste eeuw.

Lees hieronder de samenvatting van onze presentatie (in het Engels gezien het een internationale conferentie betreft):

UUtopia: Towards a living lab for place-based co-creation in the city of Utrecht.   

While global trust in science remains high overall, recent studies have shown that trust in science could be strengthened by expanding science communication and in particular bottom-up participatory forms such as citizen science and public dialogue. Science communication efforts are especially important for strengthening trust among marginalized and over-researched communities.   

We argue that to strengthen science communication efforts from the bottom-up, we need new, visible and sustained forms of engagement that reconnect scientific knowledge with local communities. ‘UUtopia’, an urban living lab in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands, builds on the rich engaged research and teaching tradition of the Human Geography and Spatial Planning department at Utrecht University.   

Taking a place-based approach to co-creation with local communities, the UUtopia project develops infrastructures for long-term engagement and mutual learning between residents, researchers, students and societal partners. By simultaneously developing UUtopia and making a case comparison between already existing living labs in the Netherlands, we aim to establish more robust conditions for aligning local knowledge with academic research and education.  

As conceptions of the ideal urban society diverge, UUtopia aims to stimulate encounters and interactions between people with different perspectives on and for the city. Transformative learning experiences can only be achieved when participants approach friction and discomfort as opportunities for boundary crossing. Therefore, this project addresses the following question: To what extent can place-based co-creation help address local societal issues whilst enhancing reciprocal learning?