ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how one can organise learning processes that manage to activate the embedded knowledge and develop it further by exposing it in social deliberations. It deals with the question of how dialogue and learning can build a capacity to cope with the future, with learning including reflection on action. The chapter explores learning through engagement in social action, which is called social learning. It offers new cross-disciplinary perspectives. The chapter explores some radical features. It recognises the importance of the local community and distinctive cultures of dialogue and development. Developments in pedagogy and distance learning enable universities to address and engage in such cultures. The chapter also recognises the contribution of learning to processes of regional development and offers a fresh vision of the university as an actor in the process of coping with the future. The university with this vision can be a powerful catalyst for development in the region: intellectual, social and economic.
