Differentiation and complexity in the functionalist corpus: Rethinking the metaphor of system

Abstract

The following paper examines the cybernetics trajectory of Parsons’ later work and its extension in the work of Luhmann. While the earlier work was focused on social action as a basic unit of sociological analysis, in The Social System Parsons articulates a notion of systems as self-generating and self-regulating. In Luhmann’s Social Systems this trajectory is made more explicit and developed in opposition to the early Parsons. Its metaphorical dimensions are also developed, creating additional levels and layers of abstraction. Those developments are deemed necessary in order to come to terms with the increasingly “complex” nature of modern society; however they are problematic in several respects—including their tautological nature which provides a basis for the unrestrained explanatory power of “system.“