ABSTRACT
Similar to many other countries in Europe and the world in the second half of the twentieth century, the modernization of Norwegian socio-economic life meant a transition from an industrial to a knowledge-based pattern of development. For the country's peripheral regions, which had enjoyed a relatively special status in the Norwegian settings since the post-Second World War reconstruction, the transition meant a necessity to redefine their position in relation to the central government and to prove their value for the national interests in an increasingly global environment (Eriksen 1996; Østerud 2006). The University of Tromsø (UiT) has played a crucial role in the redefinition of the regional epistemic agenda, while along with this process the institution itself has experienced a significant expansion.
