Can living labs offer a pathway to support local agri-food sustainability transitions?

Living labs are defined as both an approach and an arena for supporting experimentation in natural settings with a wide range of actors. In this article we explore the potential and limits of living labs for analysing and supporting the local transition of agri-food systems. We base on a bibliometric analysis and insights from our transdisciplinary research team's experience with agroecological transition. It appears that living labs informed mainly by strategic managerial and user-centric approaches benefiting the dissemination of (technological) innovation, require certain changes in order to address sustainable development issues. Citizen-centred living lab approaches are better suited to increase capacity building and empowerment through action, iterative learning, and capitalization of experience. Faced with the specific issues of local agrifood system transition, we propose to (re)-introduce the notion of "commons" in order to support the collective territorial management of both material resources (food, environment) and immaterial resources (values, ideas).