Original Article

Industry 5.0: making workers and civil society strong − a comprehensive approach for skill-based human centricity and stronger focus on social challenges

TU Dortmund, Faculty of Social Sciences, Social Research Centre, Evinger Platz 17, 44339 Dortmund, Germany

^* Corresponding author: ralf.kopp@tu-dortmund.de

Received: 13 August 2024
Accepted: 25 February 2025

Abstract

The article is based on the Bridges 5.0 project, which looks at how Industry 5.0 can be designed as a successor to Industry 4.0 by promoting aspects of human-centricity, sustainability and resilience. The project focuses on skill requirements and new approaches to skills development that bridge Industry 4.0 with Industry 5.0. Insofar as Industry 5.0 is to be understood as an “evolving concept”, it is also a process of its profiling in relation to Industry 4.0. This requires an exploration of the distinctive features of Industry 5.0. An examination of the EU’s basic 5.0-concept reveals a dual intention: Human-centricity, sustainability and resilience should be promoted within the company framework, and, at the same time, the work and production process of the companies should no longer primarily serve the interests of the shareholders but rather contribute to solving societal problems. Against this background we want to argue that the EU concept of Industry 5.0 can be understood as a multidimensional innovation ecosystem and as such can contribute to both the humanisation of working life and the democratisation of socio-ecological transformation. To this end, it is necessary, on the one hand, to consider current company-related developments (e.g. in advanced approaches in the steel sector) and, on the other hand, to examine perspectives for opening up companies to society must be examined. While the academic debate mainly focuses on the enterprise level, we want to show that the Industry 5.0 approach encourages the search for solutions to democratise the socio-ecological transformation. This requires a broadening of relevant external stakeholders − especially the civil society − that should have an impact on company decisions. Although the EU explicitly calls civil society elements to drive change, further conceptual underpinning of this ambition is still lacking. Proven and tested practicable forms of collaboration between civil society and company actors are hard to find but at least some tentative approaches (e.g., transformation councils and networks) can be outlined.