The emergence and development of a regional living lab: the case of San Luis, Argentina

Abstract

The article describes the results of a field research on the characteristics and reaches of the Digital San Luis Program (San Luis Digital, SLD) promoted by the provincial government and in which the municipalities have been actively involved. The paper focuses on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the social innovation processes promoted by the Provincial Government through agreements with other social actors. Through the analysis of the SLD paradigm, the paper develops the hypothesis that the Province is an actual living lab. The research methodology was mainly meta research, i.e. the integration of models, theories, data and information from various local and international sources, validated with input from field surveys made ad-hoc in San Luis province by the Provincial Directorate of Statistics and Censuses. The scope and impacts were studied in 10 municipalities of the province through 108 interviews with leaders, participants and beneficiaries of San Luis Digital: responsible for programs, employers, providers, mayors, directors of schools, teachers, members of community organizations, teachers college, students, users of cyber AUI, centres of Digital inclusion, etc., and institutions or partners or recipients of San Luis Digital programmes. After analyzing the characteristics of San Luis Digital paradigm, the article describes its achievements.