ABSTRACT
In the Introduction to this book we posed two main challenges. The first was how social researchers can engage with and play a more direct role in territorial development. The second was how policy makers can learn and redefine policy making approaches to territorial development. Throughout the previous seven chapters we have discussed these challenges in the intersection of territorial development and action research. Our main proposal is that researchers and territorial actors must meet in agoras and create collective knowing, which is fundamental for generating actionable knowledge for changes in territories. Collective knowing is knowledge generated in action by actors participating and collaborating to create social innovation in situations of territorial complexity by moving from conflict to consensus. We have argued in favour of a pluralistic action research approach for generating collective knowing.
