You’re probably here because you’re a doer, an encourager, or simply curious.
CoLab Dudley makes it easier for people to create, share and learn things together.
What we are
We are a social lab working at a local scale in Dudley town centre, in the West Midlands, UK. Social labs initiate and support ongoing experiments to address complex social challenges. We seek to return agency to the people of Dudley as leaders and designers of change and innovation for a more socioecologically sustainable future. You’re warmly invited to join our adventure.
What we do
We invite participation by people with diverse experiences, skills, talents, knowledges and interests, from different sectors of society. In Dudley we have met and connected hundreds of doers; people with all kinds of skills, talents and knowledge who want to connect and co-operate in practical activities and projects which make the place they live feel safe, kinder and creative. We inspire people with stories from innovative projects from around the world. We help local doers to bring these ideas to Dudley or design their own projects by reconfiguring and re-mixing all kinds of dormant resources around them.
We create learning, connection and inspiration experiences for encouragers. Encouragers are people from a range of organisations and sectors who have capacity to encourage and support engagement by doers and projects, spaces and the lab.
We invite the super-curious to bring their combined research and life skills to collectively explore the designing and doing of social change. In Dudley we call this detectorism. Together we think about, collect, map, analyse and share data relating to CoLab Dudley projects, processes, experiences and impact. We seek to understand more about the root causes of problems and the interconnected webs of relationships which produce patterns of behaviours which lead to social challenges persisting. We use systems practice to try to make sense of this complexity.
CoLab Dudley brings new ways of thinking that present alternative approaches to risk, measurement, organisational cultures, and planning. We have a bias towards action, producing practice-based evidence. We experiment with new models of relationships and engagement to increase opportunities for creative and practical participation. Our experimentation and culture of shared learning (detectorism) informs strategic design and further prototyping.
To learn more, please visit: CoLab Dudley
