Re-reading sustainability through the Triple Helix Model in the frame of a Systems Perspective

The urgent priority for our planet is to understand and activate a transition towards sustainability, intended as a complete transition of our worldview, our customs, institutions, behaviours. The core question we ask herein is: ‘Why is it that so much knowledge and publicity about sustainability at so many levels has led to so little action?’. In attempting to provide an answer, we analyze the barriers and challenges that prevent an effective transition towards sustainability, outlining paths for the change needed in the interfacing mechanisms between “Science” and “Policy”, and between “Science” and “Society”. We assume a different perspective on sustainability, intended as an open-ended process of social learning, in which a new balance is continually being sought between multiple social, economic and environmental challenges and goals. Accordingly, the chapter describes the achievement of sustainability as harmonic interactions derived from the integrated action of different agents, represented by the dimensions of the triple helix, conceptualised by Etzkowitz and revised by the authors. The analytical framework used for describing the dynamic interactions among Science, Policy and Society, represented by the blades of the re-interpreted triple helix, and for providing avenues for the required change, is based on the general scheme Necessities-Possibilities-Effectiveness, derived from modal logic.