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Nations and territories have new and varied challenges with respect to promoting continuous growth in the economy. The purpose of this article is to determine the opportunities and difficulties faced by the territory of Gipuzkoa in the field of economics. In interviews and discussion groups with the principle agents of the territory, the unified commitment to industry over the last decades is unanimously appreciated. This commitment involves the complete transformation of the social and economic structure of the territory. However, disparities in business dynamism are evident, and the capacities and resources of companies to bring industry up to date in the digital economy and respond to new competitive factors are very different. This being the case, different perspectives are emerging to respond to challenges among agents. Nevertheless, two general issues are agreed upon: the territory is conceptualized as an active agent, and the need for updating the innovation system is recognized. This makes it possible to share strategies and to respond in a cooperative way to productive specialization.

At the center of the debate about the social impact of the university we find a new division of work in the production of knowledge that can respond to the challenges of society. This new division of work is more complex and signals an epistemological turn in the form of organizing interaction between academic knowledge and society. This article poses four challenges that were identified based on a case of the construction of a dialogic space for the co-generation of knowledge. The case, which was developed through action research, questions the scheme in which knowledge generated in a university is packaged in the form of articles, books, reports, or conferences and communicated linearly, and suggests another that is based on dialogue and that allows other actors to contribute their knowledge as well.