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Lately, society has pressed for more direct societal relevance of social research. The argument of this special issue is that engaged research is an answer to the demand for a social science that matters. We define engaged research as a praxis where researchers actively engage in a social field in the pursuit of solving important local problems, while at the same time combining this with a scientific knowledge generation process. In other words, we discuss the conditions for research when researchers "go native" to solve problems and reflect along with participants. We have been able to find several sources of arguments supporting such a research strategy, but our search for methodological guidance on how to act as an engaged researcher has been in vain. What does it take for a researcher to do engaged research? The set of articles in this special issue all address certain aspects of this challenge. Some discuss the researcher's path towards deep field engagement, whereas others discover various challenges and skills involved in engagement, and the task of developing scientific knowledge based on engaged research.

This article discusses the changes in workers’ identity as blue-collar or salaried staff with respect to changing work content due to new models of industrial systems. Within these new industrial models, traditional blue-collar work is moving into areas of work previously held solely by salaried staff. This article argues that the merging of work content will cause a process of identity-mergers, a process calling for increased collaboration between blue-collar unions on the one hand, and salaried staff unions on the other. Reporting on four company cases, the authors argue that this process is caused both by labour unions’ efforts to increase workers’ motivation in work, as well as by market demands generating new models of industrial production. The authors conclude that the models of industrial relations must change so as to encompass cross-union collaboration and the diversity of professions.

The Scandinavian industrial democracy experiments (IDEs) contained elements of organization theories, based particularly on sociotechnical systems theory (STS). In this paper, we provide an introduction to some main points of these theories and their aftermath, as a context for the six papers of the special issue on the relevance of the organization theories of the IDE for contemporary organizational realities. The six papers are also summarized and positioned in relation to the theoretical insights from the IDE. KEy woRds Scandinavian industrial democracy experiments / sociotechnical systems theory / responsible autonomy / joint optimization

This conceptual paper underlines the necessity of research into sociotechnical systems in modern high-tech industries. Production of sophisticated products is foreseen to build the competitiveness of the advanced economies’ industrial sectors in the future. Increasingly, competitiveness in such industries depends on a complex interaction between social factors such as knowledge sharing, knowledge generation, learning and innovation, and technical factors such as robotization, automation and information systems. However, up to now, improvements and developments in these industries have tended to be biased towards the technology side. To balance this and to take into account the necessity of more effective human – machine interaction, and the need of knowledge sharing, learning and innovation, it proposes a mode for how to challenge highly automated, high-tech and knowledge based high-cost manufacturing, where: 1) State-of-the-art technology is necessary, but not sufficient; 2) state-of-the-art technology requires high level of competence and advanced organization, and 3) a joint organizational and technical perspective is needed in order to develop sustainable competitiveness through high performance work systems in high-tech manufacturing. Operational excellence in such niches requires companies that, through sophisticated practices of organization and management, are able to exploit systems of advanced manufacturing technology.