IC as Intellectual Companionship

When former president of EU-Commission Jacques Delors died in December 2023, European heads of states gathered in commemoration of his great deeds for the Union. Another achievement meant just as much to him: The agenda for education in the twenty-first century, composed by the UNESCO commission under his chairmanship, advised by politicians, artists, business people and researchers—poetically named: Learning: the treasure within, a holistic approach of tremendous relevance—that was hardly commemorated. Outstanding IC (intellectual capital) accomplishments like IC reporting or the future-centre endeavour, once developed as two sides of a coin in the pursuit of bonding, knowing, feeling, and acting share a similar fate. Approaches are fragmented and each specialisation is commercialised. Much of the transformative energy and sense of societal relevance faded. Now actors in other not strictly academic fields like “the arts” are inviting academic disciplines to co-create; also Frankfurt International Book Fair debates sources of critical thinking; and Global Assembly, a kind of modern agora, is the place to go, all without labelling themselves IC. This chapter compares this paradoxical fulfilment of IC goals rather outside than inside the IC communities and thus reveals intellectual companionship as a valuable essential to re-paradigm IC tools and approaches. Transformative societal innovation needs to leverage IC’s own “treasures within”—best in companionship with the unlabelled in the regained sense of relevance.