Govonos

Govonos is not a university in the institutional sense of the term. It is an ex ante institution, deliberately positioned upstream from the university, where thought precedes disciplinary stabilization, academic formalization, and regulation.

Historically, such spaces existed before the emergence of modern universities. In antiquity, they were designated by the term Didaskaleion: a place of intellectual transmission prior to institutional structures, faculties, and degrees. Govonos uses this reference solely for explanatory purposes, to situate its original position: before academic institutionalization.

Where the university intervenes primarily ex post — to teach, organize, and validate established knowledge — Govonos operates ex ante: before disciplines are stabilized, before norms are fixed, before governance transforms into regulation.

Govonos' vocation is to identify, elucidate, and structure the intellectual, ethical, and conceptual foundations from which new fields of research, new governance practices, and new forms of responsibility can emerge. This work is intended to be subsequently taken up, discussed, taught, or validated within existing academic and institutional frameworks.

Govonos does not confer any academic degree and does not replace any accredited university. It acts as a space for intellectual pre-structuring, where conceptual coherence, precision of language, and ethical rigor are formed upstream from any formal recognition.

This ex ante position also establishes the Institute's academic governance. The functions exercised there, including that of Dean, do not fall under regulated university titles, but rather internal institutional responsibilities. Their purpose is to ensure the intellectual direction, continuity of work, and conceptual integrity of the thought carried by Govonos.

Govonos thus defines itself as a place of emergence, situated before the university, intended to sustainably nourish the academic world, public institutions, and economic actors, without ever being confused with them.

Govonos participates in the debate on institutional reform, social contracts, and modes of governance.

It disseminates its work in an intellectual transmission and public service spirit.

The Institute organizes conferences, seminars, and publications to facilitate dialogue between the academic world, decision-makers, and civil society.