The importance of multi-roles and code-switching in living labs

Hanna Noller and Ayat Tarik published their Article „„The importance of multi-roles and code-switching in living labs“ in the highly ranked Journal Buildings & Cities.

“Who is doing the work?”
Invisible work often determines whether cooperation succeeds or fails. Constantly switching between roles and translating across administration, planning, and civil society—so-called code-switching—is central to participatory and transformative processes, yet it is rarely recognised as a genuine competence. The analysis shows that those who speak multiple “languages” in participatory projects, mediate expectations, and absorb conflicts make a significant contribution to the cooperative shaping of cities. This additional labour requires far greater political and institutional recognition and support.

Abstract:
The challenges and opportunities for multi-roles in participatory urban development projects are investigated. An analysis of bottom-up initiatives in two living labs in Germany: Quartier:PLUS (Braunschweig) and Österreichischer Platz (Stuttgart) demonstrates that the capacity to assume multiple roles and to code-switch across social and institutional domains is a critical factor in project success. Drawing on intersectional and postcolonial perspectives, as well as auto-ethnographic reflections and peer interviews, the study highlights how social positioning – shaped by class, gender and ethnicity – structures role allocation and the often-invisible labour of translation. While multi-roles facilitate mediation between institutional, civil society and marginalised actors, they also entail risks including overburdening, a lack of recognition and the reproduction of structural inequalities. Code-switching is conceptualised as a key socio-cognitive practice that enables the negotiation of divergent perspectives. As prerequisites for more equitable participation processes and democratic urban development, institutional strengthening of mediating practices is required along with the systematic integration of intersectional approaches into planning and research.