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Technical Reports

Vol. 2

Potential practical outcomes and learning from a Change Laboratory

Submitted
September 3, 2025
Published
2025-09-03

Abstract

This paper examines the potential practical outcomes generated during and from Change Laboratory (CL) interventions. Based on my experiences from interventions from Brazil and Finland, the study emphasizes two key results: conceptual learning and structural transformative learning. Conceptual learning involves changes in how the participants understand themselves and their activity systems, enabling participants to recognize contradictions, strengthening collective agency, and co-design solutions. Structural transformative learning here refers to actual changes in the activity, such as the implementation of a new object-purpose and a new model of the activity. It may also include new tools, new models, new techniques, new rules, new division of models that may contribute to the resolution of the contradictions. To illustrative I use a case from an intervention in the activity of resocialization of adolescents in conflict with the law located in a center in São Paulo, Brazil. The case shows how CL enabled participants to reconceptualize problems and redesign their purpose, giving new meaning to the instrument - the Individual Care Plan, which started following a new principle of listening to the youth participation, and significantly reduced violence. The findings highlight that CL interventions can foster meaningful transformation. However, broader systemic changes require continuity, inter-institutional collaboration, and supportive policies.

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