Theory Of Autopoietic Systems Research Articles

Organisaatio Luhmannin autopoieettisen systeemiteorian mukaan tulkittuna

Organization interpreted according to Luhmann’s autopoietic systems theory The theory describes systems that reproduce their unity recursively through their own operations. This is autopoiesis. As social systems organizations consist solely of communication. A structural coupling allows the environment to affect the organization’s functioning. Openness of the organization is possible through its closure. Reproduction is based on the distinction the organization makes in relation to its environment. It does this by utilizing its own codes and decision-making programs. Coding is a prerequisite for information that affects events in organization. Organization’s decisions are events that link to past and future decisions. Coding is also a reduction of the complexity of the environment. Simultaneously the organization produces itself and maintains its autopoiesis. At the center of Luhmann’s theory is an organization that makes itself and adapts as part of its constantly changing environment. Often, this is an organization that copes with conflicting demands.

“But his sense of justice turned him into a brigand and a murderer.” On Gunther Teubner’s “Self-subversive Justice: Contingency or Transcendence Formula of Law?”

Abstract Teubner’s article on self-subversive justice is an inspiring example of the way in which he tries to move forward Luhmann’s sociological endeavour of understanding law in terms of how it understands itself. Moving Luhmann’s autopoietic systems theory forward is something that Teubner significantly does in many of his writings. Here he contrasts various social and legal philosophical accounts with a potential sociological account of justice that utilises the contrasting versions of both Luhmann’s autopoietic systems theory and Derrida’s deconstruction theory. To appreciate how justice operates self-subversively is to appreciate how law cannot avoid striving to overcome itself, and how justice both in its many universal and alterity forms enables this. Teubner gets close to marrying not only Luhmann and Derrida, but also sociological theory and literary or poetic theory; also marrying judicial creativity with that of other creative arts. Law constantly looks to justice within its own practices, but at the same time beyond those practices and thereby challengingly confronting itself and its search for justice in doing so.

Differentiation and Dedifferentiation: A Latin American Approach to Systems Theory

This paper evaluates the use of the concept of dedifferentiation in Neves’s and Mascareño’s work. These authors assume that Grundrechte’s findings can be integrated into Luhmann’s autopoietic systems theory without any contradictions. However, this is not fully supported by Luhmann’s texts. In Neves’s work, dedifferentiation arises from corrupt practices and the distortion or breakdown of the separation of powers. In Mascareño’s theory, stratificatory and reciprocity networks intervene in the operativity of functional systems, causing the disappointment of expectations. We suggest that theories based on the concept of dedifferentiation ignore the Ebenendifferezierung and wrongly assign all of an organization’s operations to a functional system. This omission leads the authors to conclude that interactional or organizational level phenomena result in functional systems undergoing dedifferentiation. According to Bora, dedifferentiation can be defined as a shift in the systemic reference during individual communication episodes.

A Neopragmatic Perspective on the Processual Nature of Landscape—Coastal Land Loss in Louisiana in the Context of Scientific Findings, Social Patterns of Interpretation, and Individual Experience

The changes on the Louisiana coast due to land loss can be understood as a process, and the social construction of these processes is highly complex. Due to this complexity, we will examine these social patterns of interpretation as well as individual experiences of coastal land loss in Louisiana within a neopragmatic meta-theoretical framework using several methods, data, researcher perspectives, forms of representation, and theories, with a special focus on the construction of coastal land loss by the media. For this purpose, comments below a YouTube video on a hurricane event on Grand Isle, Louisiana, as well as on-site interviews with people affected by coastal land loss, were qualitatively analyzed. The results were interpreted with the help of various theories such as the theory of three landscapes, Dahrendorf’s conflict theory, Bourdieu’s theory of social capital, and Luhmann’s autopoietic systems theory. The research reveals patterns of interpretation, categorization, and evaluation of processes from an internal and external perspective that are highly morally charged.

Organizational Structure and Business Growth of Pharmaceutical Industry in Delta State, Nigeria

This study examined influence organisational structure on business growth of pharmaceutical industry in Delta State. A cross-sectional research design and convenience sampling technique were adopted. A questionnaire was employed as the research instrument for this study with 109 respondents deemed usable. The autopoietic systems theory was used to explain how organisational structure might enhance business growth in Nigerian manufacturing firms. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 23.0 was used to perform descriptive and inferential statistics, correlation analysis, and simple regression analysis on the collected data.The results of the study revealed that organisational structure has a very strong positive and significant relationship with business growth. The study confirmed what was expected by demonstrating that organisational structure has a positive, significant impact on the expansion of the pharmaceutical sector in Delta State. The study's findings suggest that, in order to improve business growth, management in Nigeria's pharmaceutical industry should create the proper organisational structures to increase worker productivity and working conditions. In order to promote business growth, the study advises management in the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry to use formalised, a lower layer of organisational hierarchy, technology, and loose boundaries.

New Ecological Realisms: Post-apocalyptic Fiction and Contemporary Theory

New Ecological Realisms: Post-apocalyptic Fiction and Contemporary Theory

Mathematics education as a systems of society


 Este ensaio explora a filosofia da educação matemática a partir de uma perspectiva sociológica histórica. Este examina a natureza da construção de significado à medida que os sistemas sociais de matemática e educação matemática emergem como parte da sociedade. Para fazer isso, baseio-me na teoria dos sistemas sociais que postula uma teoria geral dos sistemas autopoiéticos a partir da qual consciência e comunicação, como sistemas baseados no significado, são acoplados através da linguagem. A teoria dos sistemas tem recebido pouca atenção na educação matemática e meu objetivo aqui é delinear a abordagem apresentando uma análise funcional superficial da educação matemática. Isso permite a possibilidade de teorizar a educação matemática como um sistema social de comunicação e tem a capacidade de mostrar como as partes constituintes da educação matemática, por exemplo, pesquisa e prática se relacionam e como a educação matemática se relaciona com outros sistemas sociais na sociedade contemporânea.

Gender Aspects in Art and Religion from the Point of View of N. Luhmann’s System Theory

The article discusses the possibility of applying the theory of autopoietic communication systems to the scientific description of issues of gender differences. The proposed theory can act as a metatheoretical level of consideration of the topic and allows using the position of the observer of the “second order”, directs the focus of attention to the differences verbalized in communication, reveals the observing system based on the involved code. The specificity of gender aspects in the functioning and self-description of the systems of art and religion presented in the discourses “patriarchal bias” and “scholarly bias” is indicated. Gender differences as a topic of communication often actualize the systemic codes of political, legal and moral systems. They represent one of the forms of monitoring the fulfillment of freedom and equality, critically observe the availability of universal inclusion in systemic communications, including in the systems of religion and art, when success within the systems is governed by specific codes and programs, but not by gender differences. A positive strategy is demonstrated for replenishing self-descriptions of systems of religion and art, including the “absent presence” of women in the memory of systems, making the contribution of women to systemic autopoiesis “visible”.

Parliamentarisation of Brexit: legitimation games in the process of regional disintegration

ABSTRACT Over the period 2017–2019, the United Kingdom's House of Commons accrued more powers than usual in controlling the executive with respect to the latter's negotiations over the United Kingdom (UK) – European Union (EU) Withdrawal Agreement, an international treaty. The government (the executive), in its turn, lobbied to endow Stormont (the Northern Ireland Assembly – NIA), restored on 11 January 2020, with a decisive voice on the long-term application of relevant EU law made applicable by the protocol to this agreement in respect of Northern Ireland. This article seeks to present an original methodology based on Nicklas Luhmann's autopoietic systems theory of society and Foucaldian discourse analysis as helpful when accounting for these moves by exposing, as relational and contingent, interactions of the Members of Parliament in the House of Commons (MPs), as well as Members of the NIA (MLAs), with the central government in London. Westminster and Stormont, as well as the Supreme Court of the UK (UKSC), are presented here as ‘entangled’ collective agents of institutional change in the UK political system, involved in a combination of ‘nested’ Brexit political games.

Luhmann's theory of psychic systems and communication in social work practice

Summary The aim of the article is to increase interest in the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann among practicing social workers. The enigmatic statement from Luhmann that only ‘communication can communicate’ is explained with reference to his autopoietic systems theory which identifies three distinct types of systems: systems of communication, systems of life and systems of consciousness. The article proceeds to describe the meaning and nature of autopoietic systems before discussing the place of the individual in Luhmann’s theory and how it is relevant for practicing social workers. The concepts of psychic systems, structural coupling and communicative codes are described and discussed. Findings The conceptual framework derived from Luhmann’s systems theory is applied to a description of the social worker/client encounter. Communication in social work practice is polyphonic: it is structured by a hybrid of communicative codes which the practitioner must draw on depending on the auspices of the communicative context. The key conclusion of the article is that Luhmann retains a conception of the individual as an active agent in systems theory aiming ‘noise’ at the function systems with which the individual interacts. Applications The article suggests that the systems perspective presented provides social workers with a useful and nuanced framework for reflective practice because it makes the components of the practice system explicit and visible.

코로나19 범유행 재난과 사회적 체계들의 교란: 자기생산적 체계이론의 관점에서

코로나19 범유행 재난의 지구적인 규모의 장기화와 각국의 대응 및 극복 과정은 소통의 디지털화와 연계되어 세계질서가 근본적인 구조변동을 겪을 가능성이있음을 암시한다. 일부학자들은 감염병 재난이일으킨 사회 변동을이전/이후의 차이에 의해 관찰한다. 이전/이후의 차이는 자연적이든 인위적이든 우연적 사건들에 준거하지만, 온전히 소통으로 이루어진 사회적 사건이다. 질병은 개인에게 발생하지만, 의료체계가 예방과 치료를 통한 통제에 실패한 결과인 감염병 재난은 개인이 개별적으로 경험하는 것이 아니라 사회가 집단적으로 경험한다. 재난 개념은 물질적인 위해에 기초하지만, 사회가 재난과 관련된 복잡한 정보들을 질서/무질서의 구별을 통해 정치적 목적에 따라 처리하기 위한 주제이다. 체계들이 일상 상호작용을 급격히 위축시키는 과잉 교란들의 원천에 노출되어 있고 그래서 유사한 문제들을 반복적으로 다룬다면 체계의 구조발달이 일어날 수 있다. 그러나 감염병이 사회의 폐쇄적 기능체계들에 직접적으로 교란을 일으키지는 못한다. 구조적 연동 개념은 복수의 체계들이 자기생산을 수행하기 위해 서로 자신의 구조가 미치는 교란의 범위를 제한하는 현상을 일컫는다. 체계들은 감염병 범유행 재난으로 인한 교란들에 대해서도 역사적으로 형성된 구조적 연동의 통로를 통해서만, 그리고 이를 통해 유발되고 축적되는 자기교란 가능성의 틀에서만 대응한다. 코로나19 범유행 재난이 야기한 사회의 교란 수위가 높지만, 여전히 정치와 경제 간, 정치와 법 간, 법과 경제 간, 경제와 교육 간, 교육과 과학 간, 정치와 과학, 의료와 경제 간 상호교란들은 역사적으로 형성된 구조적 연동의 통로를 따라 작동함을 보여준다.

Social Systems as If People Mattered Response to the Kühl Critique of Theory U

ABSTRACT In his critique of Theory U, Kühl suggests that this approach resembles a management fashion based on four specific characteristics and claims, namely: (1) The simultaneous transformation of nearly everything, (2) The suspension of the differences between science, economics, politics, and religion, (3) Resolving conflicts of interest according to a community ideology, and (4) Reliance on purposive-rational thinking. The first part of this response to Kühl's critique argues that these four claims are unfounded or misguided and outlines why that is the case. The second part explores the questions not raised by Kühl. Finally, the third part of this response explores the blind spots of the framework that underlies Kühl's critique (Luhmann-inspired autopoietic social systems theory) and ways in which Theory U actually addresses these. Reflecting on the origins of Luhmann's approach in the early work of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela [1987. The tree of knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding. Shambhala Publications, Inc.], the question is asked what an alternative approach to social systems theory might look like if it were instead grounded in the more evolved and later work of both Maturana and Varela – which in fact turns out to be the case for Theory U.

Social Immune Mechanisms: Luhmann and Potentialization Technologies

Contemporary discourses of management are full of encouragements to ‘expect the unexpected’ and to celebrate ‘the future of the future’. Many new public managerial technologies of change – such as steering labs, future games, and managerial performance arts – promise the co-creative ‘potentialization’ of employees, citizens and organizations. This paper approaches such potentialization technologies as immune mechanisms which serve to protect the social system from itself. From a perspective inspired by autopoietic systems theory, potentialization technologies provide autoimmunity by problematizing institutional structures and providing ‘anti-structural’ space-times to facilitate transformation. There is a price to pay for this immune function, however, since these immune mechanisms cannot discriminate between productive and unproductive structures. By dissolving the certainty of the expectations that underlie the connectivity of diverse organizational operations, they risk harming the welfare systems that host them.

Cybersemiotic Systemic and Semiotical Based Transdisciplinarity

A transdisciplinary theory of cognition and communication based on the process self-organizing and autopoietic system theory of Niklas Luhmann integrated with a triadic semiotic paradigm of experience and interpretation with phenomenological and hermeneutical aspects of C.S. Peirce, goes beyond info-computationalism in its integrating of phenomenological and hermeneutical aspects of Peircean semiotic logic with a cybernetic and autopoietic systemic emergentist process view. This makes the emergence of mind and transdisciplinary view of sciences possible.

Not so Hard Problem: Francisco Varela on the Relations between Consciousness, Nature and Life

The author reconstructs the theory of F. Varela with relevance to the hard problem of consciousness. This problem was touched by Varela in relatively late period of his work. However, the implications for dissolution of this problem can be found in his earlier works with H. Maturana. Theory of autopoietic systems ties life and cognition together, resulting in natural historical comprehension of consciousness and its functioning. Autopoiesis, understood as network of processes of production of components used as resources for maintaining these processes, sets organizational invariances, distinguishing living system from its milieu. The main criterion of living system is an ability to maintain autopoietic organization while undergoing structural transformations with environment. Structural plasticity leads to multiple realizability of autopoietic organizations, which, in turn, leads to radical conclusion on nature of knowledge. One can distinguish the knower and the known only contingently, as the structure of knowledge reflects cognitive structure of the knower. This intertwinement permits Varela to introduce the enactivist program, which presupposes not simply reform in the scientific research of consciousness but also rethinking the implications of scientific knowledge itself. Cognition is a sensorimotor constitution of the world. Therefore, consciousness is not an object of material nature among other objects but provides our cognitive access to nature. Varela intended to abandon the theoretical approach to the problem of consciousness. His aim was not to provide a new argument. This is a consequence of the enactivist position which, according to theory of autopoiesis, must be applicable to the knower himself.

Freedom and Affordances of the Net

This article is about the relationship between technology and society in fundamental rights theory. So far, the discussion about law and technology has generally been one-directional within the most relevant branches of the social sciences; scholars of the law have been treating technology as a black box when conducting their analyses or developing their theories. In turn, science and technology studies have considered law and regulation as a closed book, which is unsatisfactory as well. Reductionist and compartmentalized theorizing is particularly problematic when it comes to conceiving a fundamental rights theory that is able to cope with challenges of the Internet. Guided by Niklas Luhmann’s autopoietic systems theory, this Article offers novel perspectives that aim at theoretically explaining how affordances can be conceptualized within constitutional rights theory, with the focus on the freedom of the Internet.

Freedom and affordances of the net

This article is about the relationship between technology and society in fundamental rights theory. So far, the discussion about law and technology has generally been one-directional within the most relevant branches of the social sciences; scholars of the law have been treating technology as a black box when conducting their analyses or developing their theories. In turn, science and technology studies have considered law and regulation as a closed book, which is unsatisfactory as well. Reductionist and compartmentalized theorizing is particularly problematic when it comes to conceiving a fundamental rights theory that is able to cope with challenges of the Internet. Guided by Niklas Luhmann’s autopoietic systems theory, this Article offers novel perspectives that aim at theoretically explaining how affordances can be conceptualized within constitutional rights theory, with the focus on the freedom of the Internet.

The Paradox of Scientific Expertise: A Perspectivist Approach to Knowledge Asymmetries

Modern societies depend on a growing production of scientific knowledge, which is based on the functional differentiation of science into still more specialised scientific disciplines and subdisciplines. This is the basis for the paradox of scientific expertise: The growth of science leads to a fragmentation of scientific expertise. To resolve this paradox, the present paper investigates three hypotheses: 1) All scientific knowledge is perspectival. 2) The perspectival structure of science leads to specific forms of knowledge asymmetries. 3) Such perspectival knowledge asymmetries must be handled through second order perspectives. We substantiate these hypotheses on the basis of a perspectivist philosophy of science grounded in Peircean semiotics and autopoietic systems theory. Perspectival knowledge asymmetries are an unavoidable and necessary part of the growth of scientific knowledge, and more awareness of this fact can help avoid blind and futile struggles between scientific perspectives, and direct efforts toward more appropriate ways of handling these fundamental knowledge asymmetries. Concretely, we show how different kinds of scientific knowledge, expertise, disagreement and learning can be correlated to the perspectival structure of science, and propose how polyocular communication based on (second order) observations of the observations made by specialised perspectives can be used to handle such perspectival knowledge asymmetries. This can help overcome the observed problems in carrying out cross-disciplinary research and in the collective use of different kinds of scientific expertise, and thereby make society better able to solve complex, real-world problems.

Social digital space analysis in management research: Proposal for a multidimensional methodology based on a systemic approach

Analyzing new digital spaces such as online forums in management research, especially in research fields related to human or organizational issues in management, involves methodological questions because of the emerging nature of these research subjects. How to observe a digital field? How to analy ze new digital spaces generated by the interactions which are increasingly temporal and mobile? What about research ethics for studies in a digital field? From a methodology developed after a study of digital social spaces assembling professionals from the French territorial public sector, this article proposes a multidimensional methodology based on the autopoietic systems theory [22, 29, 45, 46, 47] for analyzing new digital spaces in management research. This proposal also suggests that three aspects specifically need to be considered in order to develop new research methodologies in the field of social digital spaces analysis in management research: observation, analysis and ethics.

Preparing for the Field by Topics: A Systems Theory Inspired Strategy for Improving Social Access

This paper presents a preparation strategy for ethnographic field stays that seeks to speed up the process of gaining social access (after physical access) to the participants in the field by a thematic preparation for the stay. We build on our experiences of an ethnographic inquiry as well as on autopoietic systems theory by Niklas Luhmann. We shall argue that so far, little attention has been given to possibilities of preparation of topics of communication with field participants in the foregoing of a stay. However, the existing methodological literature in this respect so far focuses mainly on the preparation of professional topics for communication. We want to add to these strategies and propose to gain knowledge about possibly acceptable topics for sociable communication in the field by conducting ex ante interviews with existing gatekeepers. Researchers can therefore prepare those topics to quickly gain social access in the field. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.