This paper examines the impact of a new national R&D programme in Norway, Programme for Regional Innovation and R&D (VRI), which uses action research (AR) to facilitate innovation-oriented collaboration between regional industry, R&D and public institutions. While the VRI programme builds on a...

This article addresses a key problem of the German system of co-determination that primarily relates to the changed economic framework conditions of work. It presents a find as a variant of democratic participation that could function as a hinge between direct participation and representative...

Participation has become a buzzword and lost much of its impact. Nevertheless, there are enough arguments to revisit the concept and its use in social research. One of them is that it is part of a tradition of action and participatory research which acquired specific features in different parts...

Participation has become a buzz word in many an economic and social context. This however hides the fact that there is a great variety of different participative practices, both on micro and macro levels, practiced for very different purposes. Sometimes speaking of participation is just juggling...

This paper takes another look at the concept of employee participation in European Workplaces. It does so by combining a review of the research literature and case study material to describe contemporary practice inside enterprises, and documents the variety and differentiated forms of workplace...

Exploring and exploiting the richness and reach of large scale action research projects is a challenge. This challenge focuses inwards as it addresses critical issues of enacting, managing and coordinating the actions of the project and engaging in the reflective processes of learning-in-action...

The article tries to explicate and illustrate a type of qualitative practitioner research in the field of professional training and to shed light on its practical uses for the acquisition of analytical skills and the fostering of professional discourse. The discussion is based on the author’s...

European trade unions are facing a very serious crisis of identity and strategy. Probably the worst for a long time. Practically all the principal organisations appear to be in serious difficulty in intercepting the new typologies of employment relationships; in interpreting their new identity...

Taking as points of departure two concrete research projects carried out in Denmark, the article discusses some of the dilemmas faced by the action researcher while she takes turns with ideas of collaboration and community, both in relation to knowledge production, and in relation to the...

The article outlines the background and action research strategy followed in a large scale development project in the Telemark region SW of Oslo. The project is a part of a national, tripartite, R&D programme, “Value Creation 2010”, which started in 2000 as a continuation of the series of...