This article describes the basic elements of an intensive action research process. The process started from an educational programme offered to professional groups interested in the problems in developing the public sector as a forum that would transcend the boundaries separating different work organisations. The introduction of the programme coincided with a radical socioeconomic change that affected very basically the role of public services in Finland. The researcher/practitioner co-operation continued in different forms for several years. The article interprets the setting and processes of the programme through the concept of space, paying special attention to the dynamics between different aspects (physical, mental and social) of space.