From The Industry 5.0 Paradigm To The Formalization Of Industry 6.0: Generative Capacity, Governance And Safeguards In Governing The Industrial Ecosystem

The Industry 1.0–6.0 sequence is often presented as a technological progression. This reading is useful but not sufficient when the object of analysis becomes the governance of transformation into complex and interdependent socio-technical systems. This contribution takes as its normative pivot the definition of Industry 5.0 contained in UNI/PdR 155:2023, including its interpretative framework, to show how the 5.0 paradigm introduces a governance criterion that integrates human centricity, sustainability and evolutionary resilience, orienting prosperity beyond growth alone and anchoring choices to safeguards and legitimacy constraints. On this basis, and in coherence with the institutional documents of the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, an operational definition of Industry 6.0 is proposed as an organizational and governance mode of the industrial ecosystem founded on generative capacity, decision traceability and responsible control of technological autonomy, within sustainability and circularity constraints oriented to shared value and the common good. The definition is accompanied by four interpretative notes and is contextualized with respect to the recent literature on Industry 6.0, including contributions on roadmaps, scenarios, skills, sustainability and energy, in order to strengthen its scientific robustness and its translatability into verifiable criteria.