The Fourth Generation University

Transdisciplinary Learning Architectures for Institutional Plasticity and Societal Transition in a Multipolar World
Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-0-443-58883-9
Verlag: Elsevier Science

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

The Fourth Generation University: Transdisciplinary Learning Architectures for Institutional Plasticity and Societal Transition in a Multipolar World presents a new conceptual architecture for understanding how universities, innovation ecosystems, and governance systems can support societal transitions. The book introduces the Fourth Generation University (4GU) as a learning architecture designed to address complex challenges such as energy transition, mobility, digitalization, and institutional transformation through collective intelligence, transdisciplinary collaboration, and real-world experimentation. Drawing on systems thinking, deepsearch methodology, and field-based research, it develops the concept of institutional plasticity as a capacity for coordinated adaptation across sectors and cultures.

The book examines the evolution of digital systems, high-tech development, energy and mobility transitions, artificial intelligence, biology, healthcare, food systems, organizational change, collective intelligence, governance innovation, university transformation, multipolar development, and emerging global coordination mechanisms. Through the GovLab framework, the text connects technological development, institutional design, and societal learning into a coherent model for understanding and navigating transitions.

This book will benefit policymakers in research, innovation, and higher education; government advisors; university leaders; strategy directors; research and innovation managers; innovation ecosystem practitioners; public-private partnership leaders; think tank researchers; governance researchers; and scholars in science, technology, innovation, and higher education studies. It provides practical and conceptual tools for designing adaptive institutions, coordinating diverse stakeholders, and managing complex transition processes.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kiemen, Mixel

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: Learning in Motion
2. Digital Transition
3. High-Tech Transition
4. Hard GovLab: Energy and Mobility
5. Hard GovLab: Data, AI, and Biology
6. Hard GovLab: Chemistry, Healthcare, and Food
7. Soft GovLab: Higher Education Experiments
8. Soft GovLab: Organisations and Change Dynamics
9. Soft GovLab: Digital Modernity and Institutional Evolution
10. Top GovLab: Institutional Plasticity
11. Top GovLab: Multipolar Tropic Cascade
12. Top GovLab: Ultra-Cosmolocalism
13. The Coming Alive of the 4GU Community
14. Cultural Foundations of Societal Transitions
15. Leap Regions and the Formation of 4GU
16. The Emerging Global Mind and 5GU

Über Autor(innen)

Kiemen, Mixel
Mixel Kiemen is a researcher and practitioner with over twenty years of experience at the intersection of artificial intelligence, collective intelligence, and institutional innovation. He holds a PhD in Creative Technology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2015), where his doctoral research examined novelty regulation and radical change, building on earlier work applying artificial intelligence and agent-based modelling to the study of creativity. After several years as an entrepreneur and consultant/coach (2015–2021), he returned to academia as a University Researcher in Mechanical Engineering (Group Steinbuch) at Eindhoven University of Technology, where his postdoctoral research with the NEON program examines how universities can evolve into learning architectures for societal transitions. This work culminated in the concept of the 4th Generation University (4GU), a university model embedded in innovation ecosystems capable of orchestrating multi-stakeholder collaboration around complex societal challenges.