Challenges to Bridging Discrepant Knowledge Bases: A Case Study of the Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy

From a theoretical perspective, it is possible to enhance the innovation of firms and institutions by combining the analytic (scientific) knowledge base of research and development (R&D) institutions with the synthetic (practical) knowledge base of industries. Such combinations of knowledge are also believed to support regional development. One such initiative to bridge knowledge from the R&D sector and industry is the Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy (NORCOWE). However, as our case study shows, it is hard to bridge knowledge from these two partner groups. We found that this is mainly because of differences in the partners' timelines (long versus short), their attitudes toward knowledge (research based versus experience based), application of the knowledge (knowledge per se versus commercialization), and organizational dimensions (linear/closed process versus interactive/open process). These differences show that the knowledge bases of these two groups may not just be different; they can also be seen as discrepant. We also argue that the NORCOWE initiative is influenced by a “policy push” logic. This implies that the initiative was not properly embedded in the industrial or R&D institutions before being launched, but was instead driven by a political will to promote the development of a new renewable energy source.     

ON PITCHFORKS AND TOMAHAWKS*

ABSTRACT The core‐periphery model of the new economic geography has two “dramatic” implications: catastrophic agglomeration and locational hysteresis around the symmetry breaking level of trade freeness. In this note, we study a generalized version of this model with constant elasticity of substitution (CES) instead of Cobb‐Douglas upper tier preferences. The possibility of a continuous and easily reversible transition from symmetry to agglomeration now arises. One of the most prominent results of the new economic geography literature—the catastrophic consequences of small parameter changes—therefore, hinges crucially on specific functional forms for consumer preferences.     

Was the Fishing Village of Lepenski Vir Built by Europe’s First Farmers?

Journal of World Prehistory - It is now widely accepted that agriculture and settled village life arrived in Europe as a cultural package, carried by people migrating from Anatolia and the Aegean...     

Saul and Cultural Memory

ABSTRACT

In recent years a number of biblical scholars have shown that the Hebrew Bible contains both the collective memory and amnesia of ancient Israel. The differences between the portrayals of Saul in the books of Samuel and 1 Chronicles have long been explained in terms of redaction history, inner-biblical exegesis and other intertextual reading strategies. Using the insights from the fields of sociology and psychology cultural memory theory suggests that it was the dynamics of structural amnesia that made it necessary to suppress the memories of Saul that were not useful to the reconstruction of the past, and that the new “master narrative” in the Book of Chronicles may be seen as a post-trauma solution to the Israelites’ painful retrieval of memories of guilt and trauma.     

Fregatten Mynden: a 17th-century Danish Frigate Found in Northern Germany

The remains of a small 17th-century Danish frigate were investigated off the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, northern Germany. Through research in the Danish National Archives in Copenhagen it was possible to identify the ship. Using documentary and archaeological sources, the layout, equipment and appearance of one of the small and less prestigious warships of the 17th and early 18th century could be reconstructed. In addition, aspects of shipboard life will be illustrated.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

A review of archaeological research on sami prehistory

Abstract

The English botanist and gardener John Tradescant the Elder's diary from a voyage to northern Russia in 1618 has lately attracted attention as a potential source on early Russian sea mammal hunting on the Svalbard archipelago. This article examines the usefulness of Tradescant's diary in this respect, but comes to a negative conclusion.