Small Society Lab is an open project which explores the development and understanding of the small city of the future. Over the years SSL has worked with residents and local and international partners to explore themes of democracy, making and digital value, through to placemaking and serendipitous communities.

Find out more about previous Small Society Labs through the links below:

Small Society Lab 2021 – Connecting Dundee with fellow UNESCO City of Design, Kobe, Japan, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lab sessions focused on reimagining ways for international communities to connect and create together, exploring new metaphors and future generational thinking.

Small Society Lab 2015 – Connecting Dundee a city with 149,000 residents to Mexico City, a megalopolis with 22 million residents. Artists, designers, technologists and citizens joined the two day simultaneous lab events in both cities to explore and celebrate their cities. Groups remixed aspects of both cultures to design collaborative, experimental and playful tools which considered issues relevant to city life – and shared this digitally over the weekend.

Small Society Lab 2014 – The focus this year was ideas around value. Digital value, democratic value, cash value, cultural value, and the value of making in Dundee and India.

Small Society Lab 2013 – From fungi, to origami, to games design, to exploring play and concepts of the classroom, SSL 13 featured a number of speakers and interactive sessions.

Small Society Lab 2012 – Exploring the link between building communities through music, serendipity and bread, SSL 12 was joined by King Creosote and many others.

Small Society Lab 2011 – The inaugural Small Society Lab was launched as a pop-up research space; a collaboration between DCA and the Product Design Research Studio at DJCAD – aiming to spark outlets for creativity.

Hosted by Creative Dundee since 2015, Small Society Lab was originally founded by DCA and University of Dundee in 2011.