Intergenerational Learning: in honor of Meinolf Dierkes

Abstract

Inhaltsverzeichnis: Jürgen Kocka: Meinolf Dierkes zum 65. Geburtstag (5-8); Ariane Berthoin Antal: Intergenerational learning - the Leitbild of lifetime for Meinolf Dierkes (9-11); Helga Nowotny: Transmitting experience - what generations can learn from each other (12-19); Neil J. Smelser: Academic generations and academic mentorship (20-32); Gerald D. Feldman: Historians and generational learning - the case of the Sonderweg (33-43); Julian Dierkes: How did we become a learning generation? (44-50).

"(...)Meinolf Dierkes has been ”doing” intergenerational learning firstly by agenda-setting. He has been helping define what is worth learning about. And that has been a multinational process from the beginning. His early research on business and society in France, then in the US, then again in Germany, made ideas move between communities of researchers in different countries. He can be credited with having launched corporate social accounting in Germany in the 1970s. He launched academic research on the topic and he stimulated companies to experiment with fresh approaches in practice. Similarly, he brought the topic of Technology Assessment alive here in Germany. In this area too, he activated researchers and practitioners to learn from each other. Together with his team here at the WZB he created the field of Technikgenese, an innovation that spawned projects in areas as diverse as mo- Intergenerational Learning The Leitbild of a Lifetime for Meinolf Dierkes Ariane Berthoin Antalbility and the internet. Working with researchers, managers, and consultants in Germany and abroad, he developed the concept of a Leitbild and he helped organizations develop their own Leitbild. It is not by chance that I am sticking to the German in both of these terms: Technikgenese and Leitbild are words that should enter the English language to enrich it alongside Weltanschauung, Kindergarten, and Rucksack. The impact of Meinolf Dierkes’ agenda-setting for intergenerational learning has been magnified through his publications. Hundreds and hundreds of articles, as well as text books and handbooks are being used in universities around the world.(...)" (Textauszug)