The potential of the Hanseatic city
The interdisciplinary research conducted by the New Production Institute examines both local and online communities with the aim of creating value in the most inclusive and participatory way possible, with and for the people.
The Hamburg metropolitan region has great potential to take on a pioneering role in the transition to a participatory circular economy through cooperation between representatives from politics, business and science with companies, associations and citizens in the global Fab City network of cities.
The communities in the Hanseatic city and the metropolitan region – OpenLabs, repair cafés, innovation hubs, neighbourhood initiatives, citizens’ associations, schools, educational institutions and crowds – should be networked and, wherever possible, linked with stakeholders from politics and business.
Hamburg is Germany's first Fab City
In June 2019, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg became the first German city to join the global Fab Cities initiative, which already includes 56 cities and regions worldwide.
Their goal: the sustainable city of the future, which can produce (almost) everything it needs itself. The city will become a data-based circular economy with a digitally networked manufacturing infrastructure in which as many residents as possible participate and become producers themselves.
By 2054, this process is expected to be so advanced that Fab Cities will only import and export data. To advance and realise this vision, Hamburg’s Fab City community, consisting of open labs, makerspaces, workshops, innovative start-ups and research institutions, institutionalised itself in October 2020 as the Fab City Hamburg e.V. association.
In addition to local networking, integration into the global Fab City network also enables connection to the international community, for example within the framework of the annual Fab City Summit.
The New Production Institute’s current projects are promising and are having a noticeable effect: city residents have the opportunity to experience social inclusion and participation in value creation, thereby fostering greater cooperation in and for Hamburg. The projects also aim to strengthen group cohesion among participants.
Fab City Hamburg, with its rapidly growing start-up and maker scene and an emerging creative industry, is a particular focus of activities in this regard.
Understanding the network
The analysis of urban conditions, existing stakeholder constellations and knowledge networks as a starting point (e.g. in the form of a network analysis) is crucial here.
On this basis, local needs (bottom-up initiatives) can be reconciled with strategic and political objectives of spatial planning and urban and economic development.
Measuring urban potential
Our objectives
Determine requirements
A needs and potential analysis of the production resources will be carried out, and requirements will be determined with regard to the digital platforms being examined as part of the ‘Interfacer’ project. The aim of this project is to produce a socio-technical requirements catalogue.
Thanks to its local, national and international networks and extensive project experience in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary contexts, the New Production Institute is a strong partner and mediator for industry, science, politics and civil society.
In some industries, a paradigm shift away from traditional company-centered, top-down value creation toward more open and collaborative bottom-up concepts can already be observed.
Promote citizen innovation
Through various collaborative open innovation and co-creation formats (e.g. idea competitions, hackathons and build workshops), all interested parties are invited and supported to contribute their own ideas for physical products either locally in one of the Fab Labs or via the Citizen Innovation Platform, and to develop these ideas – whether hobby projects or start-up ideas – together with local experts, from design prototypes to small series production.
The New Production Institute supports and examines these formats using various methods from the social and economic sciences in order to explore how as many people as possible can be involved in local innovation and value creation processes in a low-threshold manner.
Collaboratively evaluating ideas
In order to involve as many people as possible in solving local problems and in evaluating and making decisions regarding the potential and relevance of product ideas, collaborative and participatory crowd voting mechanisms are being developed and tested so that as many knowledge carriers and (potential) users as possible can have a say and thus influence local value creation.
Specifically, the aim here is to examine how decisions can be made jointly in order to ensure the highest possible level of participation and thus high acceptance and user preference.
