ABSTRACT
The globalisation of knowledge has begun to matter in the media, to political parties, employers' associations and trade unions. Global knowledge is it in engineering or on the shop floor is increasingly important to companies and interest groups. Qualitative methods are needed to discover the unknown dimensions of knowledge and interpretation. New empirical trends in the globalisation of knowledge are hardly foreseeable ex ante and thus need to be revealed through an explorative approach. Trade union and works council members were interviewed in countries in which they were relevant and where they influenced the processes of learning. The selected industries are relevant sectors in the regions examined and are strongly involved in global production networks. In these industries, the duration and dimension of internationalisation are particularly pronounced. Although the precise methodology is a clear advantage, it also makes Oevermann's notions vulnerable, not only on account of the sophisticated, time-consuming procedure.
