Social innovation living labs and public action: an analytical framework and a methodological route based on pragmatism

Abstract This article proposes an analytical framework and a methodological route to understand the processes of collective learning, co-construction and diffusion of knowledge in social innovation ecosystems put into practice through social innovation living labs. We propose a dialogue between the debate about living labs and the pragmatist authors of the sociology of public problems and public action fields that adopt the notion of public inquiry developed by John Dewey. The study contributes to the field by proposing a new theoretical approach to study the process of democratic experimentalism in public arenas and discusses the challenges of its application, presenting the methodological path adopted in the empirical research carried out in the public arena of protection of children and adolescents’ rights in Florianopolis, Brazil. The findings help to advance the understanding of social innovation living-labs and their contribution as spaces for strengthening local public action, promoting democratic learning and inventing new responses to public problems.