Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0: Explorations in the Transition from a Techno-Economic to a Socio-Technical Future

This is an Open Access book.

In 2015, Industry 4.0 was announced with the rise of industrialization by the European Parliament, supporting policy, research, and infrastructure funding. In 2020, Industry 5.0 was launched as an evolution of Industry 4.0, towards societal and ecological values in a sustainable, human-centric, and resilient transition. In 2023, the IN4ACT research project team completed 4 years of research on the impact on these initiatives.

Presentations reviewing the progress of management practices and economics led to conversations about what’s next. The unanticipated rise in late 2022 of Generative AI technologies (e.g. ChatGPT, DALL-E) sparked dialogues with an extended circle of researchers on impacts not considered in 2015 or in 2020.

This collection of chapters reflects multiple perspectives on research findings to 2023, prospects for 2024, and considerations on ways the techno-economic industrial revolutions may be reshaped into desirable futures respecting social and ecological concerns.

Susu Nousala is a Project Researcher with the IN4ACT project at Kauno Technologijos Universitetas (KTU) School of Economics and Business. She is Founder and Director of the Creative Systemic Research Platform (CSRP) Institute centered in Ticino, Switzerland. Recent appointments have included: Professor of Design and Innovation at Tongji University (Shanghai; and China Scholar Professor at Wuhan University of Technology; and Senior Research Fellow at Aalto University (Helsinki, ). Her time is segmented across offices in Espoo, Finland; Móra d’Ebre, Spain; and Melbourne, Australia.

Gary S. Metcalf is President of InterConnections LLC, coaching executive leaders and consulting on human resources. He is a past-president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, and is a Fellow and past-president of the International Federation for Systems Research. Book series that he has edited include Translational System Sciences (Springer Japan), and IFSR Systems Sciences and Systems Engineering (Springer USA). Appointments have included Professor of Leadership and Management at Saybrook University, and Distinguished Lecturer at Sullivan University. He works in Ashland, Kentucky and Atlanta, Georgia.

David Ing is a Research Fellow with Creative Systemic Research Platform (CSRP) Institute, as well as a Research Fellow with Code for Canada. He serves as a Trustee for the International Society for the Systems Sciences, with a prior role as past-president. A previous 28-year career at IBM Canada included assignments in management consulting, headquarters planning and executive education. Previous book projects include Open Innovation Learning, and The Marketing Information Revolution. He resides in Toronto, Canada.