1 the lab fellows, and providing venues and logistic backing for lab events. Unlike in Healthy Street Lab where social workers of partner organizations in the community took part as lab fellows, staff of partner organizations in the Market Lab had limited role in the social lab process, apart from serving as resource and contact persons to liaise with community members. Focus group was held with the contact persons of these local organizations to understand their perception of the Market Lab. Although contact staff of the partner organizations did not play an active role in the Market Lab process, they were impressed by the social lab methodology and caliber of the lab fellows. “Many fellows were professionals. They could deliver the service independently with strong abilities…they had clear principles to direct their operation.” (Informant N, focus group) Apart from being inspired by the high caliber and conscientiousness of the lab fellows, the informants from the partner organizations also pointed out in the focus groups that the Market Lab was a showcase to them on how to generate solutions to community problems using design thinking methods. Meanwhile, the Market Lab has also provided opportunities for networking among the community organizations. “If networking could be done earlier, there might be greater chance of sustaining the project...We don’t know each other before…we might start thinking how we could follow up after the social lab team has left…the Market Lab has helped connecting us to the FEHD too.” (Informant O, focus group) Sustaining local initiatives by establishing community networks was in fact an initial plan of the Market Lab organizers. Despite that staff from the partner organizations cherished the exposure to the social lab methods and the opportunity for networking, they were unable to join the market lab as lab fellows due to their tight work schedule. As we observed, the momentum was not great enough for any further action plan in the community at the time when we conducted the evaluation.
Mixed feelings about bottom-up community engagement among lab fellows from government offices As an endeavor to introduce change within the public service system, the social lab project in Hong Kong has been inviting civil servants of relevant government departments to join as lab fellows since the first phase of social lab, the LIBoratory Project. Five civil servants from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and Policy Innovation and Coordination Office (PICO) joined the Market Lab as lab fellows, to partner with young people in the community engagement and experimentation process. Focus groups were held with these lab fellows from government offices to understand their experience in the Market Lab and their support of the social lab principle and methodology. Unanimously, lab fellows from government offices did not see community engagement or user participation a novel principle in government practices. For example, the FEHD used to consult tenants of market stalls on matters like regular repairs and maintenance of market facilities. Notwithstanding, lab fellows from FEHD observed a remarkable difference between “regular participation” of the market tenants and their participation in the Market Lab. The tenants had higher participation in the Market Lab than in events launched by our promotion team…The process was longer (in the
