In recent years we have witnessed a discussion on the role of regional universities within a pragmatic epistemology or linguistic philosophy of social science. In this article we criticise the pragmatic approach, not in its general formulation, but on practical grounds. We will demonstrate that the pragmatic approach fails to incorporate important societal aspects of the development of working life and argue that action researchers at the regional university should not altogether drop the

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... cal Humboldtian idea of universal ("allgemeine") orientations in science. What we need is an unauthoritarian or democratic interpretation of Humboldt's concept. Two Danish action research projects provide illustrative material for the discussion.