Papers by Øyvind Pålshaugen
Rhetorica Scandinavica, Nov 16, 2022
RhetoricaScandinavica, ISBN 1397-0534
Rhetorica Scandinavica
Opprinnelig en kategori innen retorikken, har begrepet om det sublime tatt form og blitt omdannet... more Opprinnelig en kategori innen retorikken, har begrepet om det sublime tatt form og blitt omdannet i ulike versjoner opp gjennom historien, i ulike typer estetiske og filosofiske diskurser. Det viktigste fellestrekket i de versjoner som har fanget Pålshaugens interesse, dreier seg om det sublime som kategori for en type erfaring som sprenger alle kategorier: det sublime setter vår erfarings- og erkjennelsesevne ut av spill – for et øyeblikk. Diskursen om det sublime i kunsten dreier seg ikke minst om å utforske hva som finner sted i slike øyeblikk. Dette er også tema for denne artikkelen.
Media Management and Digital Transformation, 2019
International journal of action research, 2014
Many proponents of action research for democracy seem to presuppose that to anchor action researc... more Many proponents of action research for democracy seem to presuppose that to anchor action research in democratic ideals is a sufficient base for action researchers to legitimate their democratic purposes and intentions. This article starts out from the presupposition that anchoring action research in democratic ideals is in fact idealism, and argues the case that action research for democracy has to be anchored in some democratic institution of society to have a real legitimacy base for engaging in co-operation with others on democratic development. From this point of departure, a Scandinavian approach for democracy that aims at impact on society as well as social science is presented. The article presents just selected aspects of this tradition. The presentation is based on the presumption that some of the aspects, that seem to be relevant only within a Scandinavian context, may in fact have general relevance for any other approach of action research for democracy.
International journal of action research, 2014
Theoretical and empirical studies that demonstrate and discuss the importance of interactive lear... more 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 eighties. More recently, studies that emphasise the importance of context-sensitive regional innovation policies for releasing the innovation potential have added new arguments for the importance of interactive learning in regional innovation systems. However, innovation researchers operating at the national and/or regional level still seem not to consider themselves as the kind of actors who might enter into any kind of processes of interactive learning with other institutional actors. Against this backdrop, this article develops the argument that interactive research will provide new knowledge on how to realise context-sensitive innovation policies, by supporting interactive learning for the purpos...
Towards Quality Improvement of Action Research, 2008
International Journal of Action Research, Aug 31, 2007
I When reading accounts of action research projects, we may now and then notice the use of the ex... more I When reading accounts of action research projects, we may now and then notice the use of the expression "as an action researcher I ..." or, in plural "as action researchers we...". This expression is most often used as part of an explanation or justification of why some part of the project has been undertaken in a certain way, e.g. like this: "As action researchers, we have been careful to make everybody in the group [or organization, or community] have a voice in the change process". However, we will hardly ever run into any similar kind of expression while reading reports from mainstream social research. Social researchers who undertake empirical studies of a descriptive kind, do not seem to need to refer to themselves as a "social researcher" in the texts they write from their research projects. The main reason for this difference, I think, is this: Most social researchers simply find the methods and ways of proceeding in doing social research as well established part(s) of the social sciences, and the very application of these methods and procedures by inquiring into some social phenomena is just what makes their inquiry a scientific undertaking. If you happen to work in an institution that enables you to be called a "social researcher" or a "social scientist", and you perform an empirical study in accordance with some particular selection or combination from the repertoire of the established methods and procedures, you are simply doing a piece of social research. Of course, you will have to give reasons for your choice of methods, theoretical framework etc., but this reasoning is about whether the choice of methods and theory are in accordance with the phenomenon to be studied. You cannot justify your choice of using one particular method or theory by claiming that "as a social researcher, I ...". If you are a social researcher, you are expected to behave as one: Social researchers are allowed to use a broad spectrum of methods to gather data about the field; they are, however, not expected to intervene into the field. That would be "deviant behaviour", according to the etiquette of social research. Here, I think, we also find the main part of the reason why so many action researchers tend to justify elements/aspects of their approach by referring to themselves as action researchers. As we know, the criteria for identifying approaches of social research as scientific have constantly been debated since the emergence of the social sciences, and there are to some extent competing sets of criteria between different "schools" or approaches of social research. Nevertheless, anyone who at any time has been educated to become a social scientist/social researcher has been taught how to proceed in accordance with what counts (at the time) as criteria for scientific approaches when undertaking social studies. Also all action researchers have once been taught what is to be regarded as scientific behaviour when undertaking a research process. If applying the criteria they have been taught, most action researchers would have no problem in identifying their intervention into the field of research (the collaboration with the actors in the field, etc.) as an example of "deviant behaviour". However, as we know, most action researchers are not inclined to just passively being considered as "deviants". Rather, they are quite more offensively inclined to identify themselves as representatives of a kind of social research in its own right, namely action research, and they also want the "social science establishment" to accept action research as such. But, as we also know, such an acceptance of action research by the social science establishment still seems to be rather far ahead. Indeed, during recent decades we have witnessed a growth of interest in action research worldwide, an increased number of projects within an increasing number of fields of study, and an increased number of publications. This notwithstanding, the overall situation still is that courses for students or doctoral courses in action research, university positions and positions at research institutions dedicated to action research, etc. …
International Journal of Action Research, Aug 31, 2006
Today, the concept of action research covers a wide range/variety of approaches. Common for most ... more Today, the concept of action research covers a wide range/variety of approaches. Common for most of them is that the task of making new knowledge becoming useful in order to create new, better practices, is considered of equal importance as the creating of new knowledge as such. The theories and methods by which this task is performed vary a lot, but common to all of them is some kind of collaboration with actors in the field of study. Within the communities of social science the strategy of 'collaborating with the field' or 'object of study' has been subject to some methodological controversies. However, with the development of both the broad spectre of so-called qualitative methodology within the social sciences on the one hand and the philosophy/theory of science on the other hand, these kinds of controversies have culminated. Today we witness a growing interest in action research within academic institutions, particularly within those whose subject of study is organizations, institutions, professions, particular social groups, social movements etc. (Reason/Bradbury 2001). Issues like organisational renewal, organisational change and development, continuous improvements, total quality etc. have been among the main research issues from the very beginning of action research until today, together with community development and regional development (Cooke/Cox 2005). In accordance with the variety of approaches, also the outcome of the research projects varies a lot, regarding both the theoretical and practical outcome. There is, however, a significant convergence in the research findings, namely that they underline the importance of participation from the organisation members in enterprise development, organisation development or community development, as a condition for successful results. These findings coincide with - and supplement - the findings from cross-national surveys that explore the relationship between representative and direct participation in enterprise development (Frolich/Pekruhl 1996; Markey/Monat 1997; Heller et al. 1998). Even though today action research exists in a broad spectre of approaches, coexists in productive relations with other forms/approaches of social science, and is expanding into new fields of research, the institutional conditions of action research within the academic institutions around the globe are not really good and solidly anchored. Main evidence for this is to be found in the fact that action research is still not very high on the agenda of the national research policy in most countries, and action research still has a rather modest place and status in the curricula of universities/university colleges (Greenwood/Levin 2005). Thus, compared to the number of action research projects carried out today in an increasing number of academic milieus and research institutes the impact of action research at the national level still remains limited in most countries. Dilemma: The single action research project and the common project of action research Against this background the importance of action research conferences, action research journals and action research networks - both virtual and real - are acknowledged. These are necessary not only as a means of communication within the action research community. They are also necessary as a means of making action research become more strongly institutionalised within higher education, universities and research institutes. In short, the forums that today make up what we might call the (international) action research discourse also have to work as forums of action research policymaking. Indeed, the very existence of a number of journals particularly devoted to publishing articles on action research, like Educational Action Research, Systemic Practice and Action Research, Action Research and this journal, International Journal of Action Research, is - explicitly or implicitly - part of an effort to promote action research within the overall scientific community. …
Concepts and Transformation, 2004
This article argues that the question of what actionable knowledge is, can hardly be answered app... more This article argues that the question of what actionable knowledge is, can hardly be answered appropriately either by solely theoretical argumentation or by solely practical demonstration. It is in the very interplay between theory and practice that knowledge can prove to be actionable. Thus it becomes crucial to come to an adequate theoretical understanding of this interplay on the basis of practical experiences. This article, however, does not argue in favour of any particular theoretical model as the only adequate interpretation of this interplay. Rather, the main argument is that experiences from Scandinavian action research programs over the last decades indicates that it is necessary to deconstruct the conventional concepts of general knowledge to be able to construct actionable knowledge. The briefly article presents some of the main steps in this development, and thereby some new perspectives on the main features of actionable knowledge. On this basis, the final part of the ...
Concepts and Transformation, 2004
Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2011
ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between capital region location and the firm le... more ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between capital region location and the firm level decision to engage in innovation collaboration. Controlling for the impact of differences in the distribution of sectors, firm sizes, and other background variables, we find capital region location to be associated with a slightly lower propensity to engage in innovation collaboration within own region and a distinctively lower propensity to engage in domestic collaboration as a whole. By contrast, we find no substantial differences between firms in the capital and other Norwegian regions with respect to foreign innovation collaboration or with respect to innovation activity in general. This means that firms in the capital exchange knowledge among each other by other means than collaboration and draw comparatively less of their innovation input from the collaboration networks which define the national innovation system as a whole. Implications for regional innovation policy are discussed and important issues for future research identified.
Dialogues on Work and Innovation, 1998
1. Preface (by Henriksen, Ottar) 2. Chapter I: Enterprise Development 2000: A program for distrib... more 1. Preface (by Henriksen, Ottar) 2. Chapter I: Enterprise Development 2000: A program for distributive and interactive learning (by Gustavsen, Bjorn) 3. Chapter II: Mentor leadership and theory building in practice (by Knudsen, Harald) 4. Chapter III: Corporate efficiency and employee participation (by Colbjornsen, Tom) 5. Chapter IV: Organization development through development organization (by Palshaugen, Oyvind) 6. Chapter V: Developing the fish processing industry (by Agustsson, Bergur E.) 7. Chapter VI: Integrating engeneering and social science knowledge in participative enterprise development (by Levin, Morten) 8. Chapter VII: Networking to learn in Nordwest Forum: Optimizing the learning cycle of a regional network organization through action research (by Hanssen-Bauer, Jon) 9. Chapter VIII: Enterprise development in networks (by Claussen, Tor) 10. Chapter IX: Concluding Remaks (by Gustavsen, Bjorn) 11. About the authors
International Journal of Action Research, Dec 31, 2006
Nutzungsbedingungen: Dieser Text wird unter einer Deposit-Lizenz (Keine Weiterverbreitung-keine B... more Nutzungsbedingungen: Dieser Text wird unter einer Deposit-Lizenz (Keine Weiterverbreitung-keine Bearbeitung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Gewährt wird ein nicht exklusives, nicht übertragbares, persönliches und beschränktes Recht auf Nutzung dieses Dokuments. Dieses Dokument ist ausschließlich für den persönlichen, nicht-kommerziellen Gebrauch bestimmt. Auf sämtlichen Kopien dieses Dokuments müssen alle Urheberrechtshinweise und sonstigen Hinweise auf gesetzlichen Schutz beibehalten werden. Sie dürfen dieses Dokument nicht in irgendeiner Weise abändern, noch dürfen Sie dieses Dokument für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, aufführen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Mit der Verwendung dieses Dokuments erkennen Sie die Nutzungsbedingungen an. Terms of use: This document is made available under Deposit Licence (No Redistribution-no modifications). We grant a non-exclusive, nontransferable, individual and limited right to using this document. This document is solely intended for your personal, noncommercial use. All of the copies of this documents must retain all copyright information and other information regarding legal protection. You are not allowed to alter this document in any way, to copy it for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the document in public, to perform, distribute or otherwise use the document in public. By using this particular document, you accept the above-stated conditions of use.
International Journal of Action Research 2009 ;Volum 5.(3) s. 231-254, 2009
Why is Learning from National Working Life Programmes not a
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Papers by Øyvind Pålshaugen