Knowmad Society

Knowmad Society explores the future of learning, work, and how we relate with each other in a world driven by accelerating change, value networks, and the rise of knowmads.

Knowmads are nomadic knowledge workers –creative, imaginative, and innovative people who can work with almost anybody, anytime, and anywhere. The jobs associated with 21st century knowledge and innovation workers have become much less specific concerning task and place, but require more value-generative applications of what they know. The office as we know it is gone. Schools and other learning spaces will follow next.

This book explores the future of learning, work and how we relate with each other in a world where we are now asked to design our own futures.

Key topics covered include: reframing learning and human development; required skills and competencies; rethinking schooling; flattening organizations; co-creating learning; and new value creation in organizations.

In this volume, nine authors from three continents, ranging from academics to business leaders, share their visions for the future of learning and work. Educational and organizational implications are uncovered, experiences are shared, and the contributors explore what it’s going to take for individuals, organizations, and nations to succeed in Knowmad Society.

Nine co-authors with perspectives from three continents

• John W. Moravec (editor, co-author, USA): John is the founder of Education Futures, a network of subject matter experts, big dreamers, and change agents. His research and action scholarship agenda are focused on building positive futures for human systems which are approaching an increasingly complex and ambiguous era. 


• Thieu Besselink (co-author, Netherlands): Thieu is the founder of The Learning Lab, a think-tank for social change. He is a learning innovator, researcher, philosopher, and social entrepreneur. He teaches social entrepreneurship, action research, system innovation, and leadership learning at Amsterdam University and Utrecht University.


• Edwin de Bree (co-author, Netherlands): Edwin is an organizational survival guide, and helps companies survive the post-hierarchic network society. He is a co-founder of the hybrid project, Entrepreneurial Organizations, and is also co-founder of the De Koers Sudbury-type school in the Netherlands.


• Cristóbal Cobo (co-author, Chile): Cristóbal is a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. He coordinates research on innovation, open educational practices and the future of the Internet (EU-FP7), and blogs at e-rgonomic.


• Christel Hartkamp-Bakker (co-author, Netherlands): Christel is co-founder of De Kampanje, a Sudbury-type school in Amersfoort, Netherlands. She has been actively involved in the European Democratic Education Community as a council-member, and developed her expertise on the wide variety of approaches that exist between democratic schools. In 2014, she co-founded Newschool.nu, a Sudbury-type democratic school.


• Ronald van den Hoff (co-author, Netherlands): Ronald is co-owner of CDEF Holding BV, and maintains a portfolio of companies active on the borderline of hospitality industry and the world of social media. CDEF operates innovative, disruptive Blue Ocean formulas such as the co-working and meeting centers Seats2meet.com, the virtual eco-systeem Mindz.com, the Internet communication company Cyberdigma BV and the Meeting Plaza convention centers.


• Christine Renaud (co-author, Canada): Christine is a Montreal-based social entrepreneur who is passionate about self-directed learning and community-based learning. As the CEO of E-180, she is responsible for managing the educational direction, sales, funding, partnerships, and the community building behind E-180.


• Pieter Spinder (co-author, Netherlands): Pieter is the founder of Knowmads Business School Amsterdam, where young people investigate and pursue what drives them in life. In addition to the one-year program, he is interested in entrepreneurial behaviour, creativity, and leadership.


• Bianca Stokman (co-author, Netherlands): Bianca has a background in organizational psychology, human resource sciences, and also studied voice at the Conservatory of Utrecht. In 2011, she started her own business, Messing & Groef, as a trainer and coach for personal and leadership development. She is fascinated by the biological foundations of human behavior and learning.


• Gary Hart (afterward contributor, USA): Gary has been extensively involved in international law and business, as a strategic advisor to major U.S. corporations, and as a teacher, author and lecturer. Gary Hart represented the State of Colorado in the United States Senate from 1975 to 1987. In 1984 and 1988, he was a candidate for his party’s nomination for U.S. President.


• Martine Eyzenga (layout/design, Netherlands): Martine is a graphic artist and information designer. Her creative work is featured in the core designs of the PICNIC Festival, Project Dreamschool, and Operation Education social innovation platforms.


• Symen Veenstra (cover illustrator, Netherlands): Symen (Enkeling) is an Amsterdam-based visual artist. His work is focused on illustration, typography, and portraiture.

Print edition and read online at Education Futures