The article sets out an experience-based account of “Learning from Differences”, underpinning engaged research as an alternative to conventional detached social science. There is a central focus on Action, and Action Research, with particular reference to policy development at regional...

The aim of this article is to clarify the ontology of knowledge, and to point out methodological implications hereof for action research aimed at action researchers’ and practitioners’ co-creation of knowledge. The article is motivated by the observation that action research literature tends...

Hayek schimpfte sie einst ein Wieselwort: Die soziale Marktwirtschaft. Noch bis vor kurzem sah sich das Konzept der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft heftigster Kritik ausgesetzt und wurde als ungeeignet angesehen, um den oekonomischen Herausforderungen im Zuge der Globalisierung begegnen zu koennen. Die...

The experience of participatory budgeting that began in Porto Alegre in 1989 was carried over to the state level in Rio Grande do Sul in 1999. Since then, governments have tried out different modes of popular participation and consultation, culminating with the creation of a system of popular...

This paper discusses how roles in R&D-projects can transform and develop through the duration of a project and how different types of knowledge reciprocate with policy learning at different scales. Research, practice and policy represent different but interconnected social spheres, each with...

Theoretical and empirical studies that demonstrate and discuss the importance of interactive learning for releasing the innovation potential within national as well as regional innovation systems have been steadily increasing since Lundvall’s first publications on this topic in the late...

This article discusses action research strategies in regional development. It argues that regional settings are complex, and conceptualises this as the “third place”. This complexity implies a democratic challenge. Furthermore, using regional leadership as a case, it argues that in order to...

This article is about a six year policy learning process named Gipuzkoa Sarean in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa. In the article we reflect on how action research contributed to policy learning. The process consists of three stages: 2009-2011: Initiation of the project and development of a work...

Condemnation or glorification of luxury is a classic and recurrent question in the history of political ideas. Today, it continues to generate a set of conflicting emotions. In order to understand this debate, we chose to immerse ourselves in the history of economic thought, and, more...

Although field experiments and classroom surveys are ambiguous about whether economists are less likely than others to cooperate in social dilemmas, three important points remain clear: economics training encourages the view that people are motivated primarily by self-interest; there is clear...