The triple and quadruple helix, Society 5.0, and why the ‘lone genius’ is a myth that leaves people out.
August 2026 · Case 3 of 6
As you read — hold this question
If innovation is a collaboration between academia, industry and government, who speaks for the people it is supposed to serve?
3
strands in the triple helix — academia, industry, government
+1
civil society — the fourth strand of the quadruple helix
2016
the year Japan named Society 5.0
The examinable core
The textbook version
The helix — innovation is never a lone genius
Innovation is rarely a lone genius in a garage. Scholars picture it as a helix, strands winding around each other (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff):
Academia
Makes the knowledge.
Industry
Turns knowledge into products.
Government
Sets the rules and the funding.
That is the triple helix. A fourth strand was then added — civil society, ordinary people and what they value — making it the quadruple helix.
Carry this
Triple helix = academia + industry + government. Quadruple helix adds civil society. Innovation is a system of relationships, not a single inventor.
Society 5.0
The rest of the story
Japan gave the human-centred aim a name
In 2016 Japan named Society 5.0: technology aimed deliberately at a human-centred society — following hunting, agrarian, industrial and information societies. It is the social mirror of Industry 5.0’s industrial goal.
The quiet point
Everyone now says ‘human-centric’ — Industry 5.0, Society 5.0, design thinking. Yet IDEO has been working exactly that way since the 1990s. The frameworks converged on an idea that human-centred practitioners had been living for decades.
The lesson
The other side
Who is the fourth strand?
Adding civil society is not decoration. It asks: when academia, industry and government innovate together, whose values steer it? The quadruple helix puts ordinary people into the model on purpose.
The other side
A triple-helix project can be brilliant and still miss the people it is for. The fourth strand exists so that ‘who is this good for?’ is built into the system, not asked afterwards.
Quick recall — without looking back
Test yourself on this case
Question 1 of 3
What are the three strands of the triple helix, and what does each do?
Academia makes knowledge; industry turns it into products; government sets rules and funding (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff).
Question 2 of 3
What does the quadruple helix add, and why?
Civil society — ordinary people and their values — so that whose needs the innovation serves is part of the model.
Question 3 of 3
What is Society 5.0?
Japan’s 2016 vision of technology aimed at a human-centred society, following the hunting, agrarian, industrial and information societies.