Re-tooling the triple helix: Georg Simmel’s Tertius Gaudens as an anchor?

Abstract

The Triple Helix of university-industry-government linkages as a concept of organizing innovation is utilized by advocates and critics in a variety of ways. In spite of the diversity of use and increasing appeal, there is the realization that the model requires a considerable theoretical re-tooling to enhance its explanatory capabilities. So far, effort to re-tool has focused on self-organization and co-evolutionary theories with limited success. This paper proposes the Sociology of Georg Simmel as a way of complementing the re-tooling efforts that have thus far been predicated on self-organization and co-evolutionary theorizing. The sociology of Simmel is essential because the original intention of the Triple Helix is to explicate how the university provides a subtext for a sociological expression of contemporary knowledge society. Thus, as the university transitions from public good knowledge actor into an actor that is strongly interested in the economic outcomes of its major product—knowledge, working in tandem with the two market based actors, government and industry but playing more the role of conciliator, embedding the model within Simmel’s concept of tertius gaudens would secure a theoretical legacy whilst jump starting a critical reflection within social theory and innovation studies. In fact, Georg Simmel provides an enduring legacy and offers a theoretical reprieve for a return of the model to its sociological roots