ABSTRACT
What governs a knowledge-based society? This question concerns society as studied by the human and social sciences and experienced by individuals in the overlapping spheres of activities in which they are socialized. What makes such a society governable? This book asks what connects these different fields of activities and how they can be connected differently in order to respond to constraints and generate innovation. Since innovation became a mantra, powerful models have been discovered to remodel social structures and manage innovation. Paradigms formulate problems, frame research, and guide policies; reflexive processes translate hidden constraints into explicit concepts. Individuals and groups are working with concepts, ideologies, models, and theories to adapt disciplines and reform institutions. This is how we design policies and produce and communicate knowledge. To innovate is to establish new connections between separate domains and to open new perspectives. Since the 1970s, two powerful models have been designed by social scientists: the concept of a national system of innovation and the “Triple Helix” theory. Their differences and complementarities are studied to evaluate their capacity to manage interactions between the ecology and structure of this emerging type of industrial society.
