ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop an understanding of the processes involved in the restructuring of Rjukan, a company town in Norway. It presents the analysis which seeks to build on the ideas of structuration theory and theories of learning and knowledge production to understand the restructuring of a company town in terms of the dynamics of value creation through learning, innovation, networking and competencies. Generic technological knowledge consists of general principles usable under different circumstances and by many different users. Since 1962, the dominant company, individuals, the local and national government and a range of public agencies have worked to restructure the town and the remaining activities and other businesses. A firm has the opportunity to move on to another site and still be in the same line of business, following the same technological path. New socio-economic perspectives on local economic growth, have brought new challenges and new directions to economic geography.
