Centre-Periphery and Learning in the AI-Informed Digital Society
The special issue is intended to attract manuscripts that will be presented at the NKL Conference on May, 20-21, 2026, as abstracts (NKL – Navigating Knowledge Landscapes; http://knowledge-landscapes.hiim.hr/).
The purpose of this special issue is to advance research-based knowledge on organisations’ capacity to support sustainable development through processes of learning, organising and change. Drawing on traditions such as organisational learning, learning organisation theory and practice-based learning, we invite contributions that examine how organisations develop adaptive, reflexive and transformative capabilities over time. We welcome methodological diversity and interdisciplinary approaches that deepen understanding of how learning is embedded in structures, cultures and everyday practices.
The issue particularly aims to illuminate learning dynamics in centre–periphery relations and bottom-up/top-down processes. Inspired by research on double-loop learning, knowledge circulation and power in organisations, we seek analyses of how learning processes reshape authority, participation and decision-making. How do digitalisation, migration, climate change, democratic backsliding and the aggregation and dissemination of knowledge reconfigure organisational boundaries and hierarchies and how do this influence and shape learning? In what ways do learning and communication across social, cultural and digital on/offline spaces challenge established centres and peripheries, and our assumptions about them?
We encourage empirical and theoretical contributions that contribute to theories of organisational development, learning organisations and change. This includes work that brings forward underrepresented experiences, epistemologies and learning practices, as well as studies where mainstream research actively engages with perspectives from marginalised regions and groups. By foregrounding diverse knowledge traditions, the special issue seeks to broaden the conceptual foundations of learning and sustainable change.
In this context, we also welcome contributions addressing Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) and related collaborative knowledge practices. From a learning organisation perspective, WIL can be understood as a boundary-spanning approach that connects formal education, work practices and societal challenges. We are particularly interested in how learning through work, co-creation and cross-sector collaboration may redistribute knowledge authority, bridge spatial and institutional divides, and foster more reciprocal and sustainable centre–periphery relations.
List of Topic Areas
This special issue welcomes empirical and theoretical contributions on the topic of on the topic of changes and learning in centre-periphery relations and bottom-up/top-down dynamics, including focuses in the following areas:
- How does learning and knowledge about life and communication in social, cultural and digital on/off-line spaces challenge established centres and peripheries and our perceptions of the same?
- How changes and learning pertain to issues such as digitalisation, migration, climate change, democracies in decline as well as aggregation and dissemination of knowledge?
- AI and digitalisation changing work–learning environments
- AI and its impacts on knowledge creation, sharing, and application
- Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) linking education and practice
- Individual and organisational adaptability
- Digital environments transforming communication and collaboration
- Knowledge flows in digital contexts
- Societal implications (inclusion, democracy, sustainability)
- Co-creation of knowledge and adaptation to contemporary challenges
Submissions Information
Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tlo
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/tlo
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.
Key Deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 29/05/2026
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31/01/2027
For more details refer here
