Challenges and lessons learned by applying living labs in gender and IT contexts

Abstract

Women interested in computing are still facing several problems considering equality and career chances. Companies realize the opportunities of diversity and yet for several reasons they are struggling to hire or integrate young female professionals. Although gender study research provides promising frameworks there are still issues in applying them in working environments and practices. For this purpose, we made use of the Living Lab approach in the context of gender and IT. The Living Lab's methodology offers opportunities to reveal new, relevant insights and create social change in a collaborative way. We stretched the existing understanding of this concept and follow a Participatory Action Research approach. In this paper we describe the setup of the Living Lab and present first insights from our research. We found that showing patience, organizing adequate spaces for reflection as well as facilitating motivation and trust is vital in such a sensitive research context.

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