Luhmann's Systems Theory Research Articles

“God as a Communicative System Sui Generis

. With an aim to develop a public theology for an age of information media (or media theology), this article proposes a new God-concept: God is a communicative system sui generis that autopoietically processes meaning/information in the supratemporal realm via perfect divine media ad intra (Word/Spirit). For this task, Niklas Luhmann's systems theory is critically appropriated in dialogue with theology. First, my working postmetaphysical/epistemological stance is articulated as realistic operational constructivism and functionalism. Second, a series of arguments are advanced to substantiate the thesis: (1) God is an observing system sui generis; (2) self-referential communication is divine operation; (3) unsurpassable complexity is divine mystery; (4) supratemporal autopoiesis of meaning is divine processing; (5) agape is the symbolic medium of divine communication. Third, this communicative model of God is developed into a trinitarian theology, with a claim that this model offers a viable alternative beyond the standard (psychic, social, process) models. Finally, some implications of this model are explored for constructive theology (conceiving creation as divine mediatization) and for science-and-religion in terms of derivative models: (1) God as a living system sui generis and (2) God as a meaning system sui generis.

The interplay between individual and collective knowledge: technologies for organisational learning and knowledge building

This article presents a framework model that defines knowledge building as a co-evolution of cognitive and social systems. Our model brings together Nonaka's knowledge-creating theory and Luhmann's systems theory. It is demonstrated how collaborative knowledge building may occur – in an ideal situation – within an organisation, when people interact with each other using shared digital artefacts. For this purpose, three different technologies are introduced as examples: social-tagging systems, pattern-based task-management systems, and wikis. These examples have been chosen to demonstrate that knowledge building can occur with respect to both declarative and procedural knowledge. The differences and similarities between these technologies, as far as their potential for organisational knowledge building is concerned, are discussed in the light of the framework model.

GOD AS A COMMUNICATIVE SYSTEMSUI GENERIS: BEYOND THE PSYCHIC, SOCIAL, PROCESS MODELS OF THE TRINITY

Abstract.With an aim to develop a public theology for an age of information media (or media theology), this article proposes a new God‐concept: God is a communicative systemsui generisthat autopoietically processes meaning/information in the supratemporal realm via perfect divine mediaad intra(Word/Spirit). For this task, Niklas Luhmann's systems theory is critically appropriated in dialogue with theology. First, my working postmetaphysical/epistemological stance is articulated as realistic operational constructivism and functionalism. Second, a series of arguments are advanced to substantiate the thesis: (1) God is an observing systemsui generis; (2) self‐referential communication is divine operation; (3) unsurpassable complexity is divine mystery; (4) supratemporal autopoiesis of meaning is divine processing; (5) agape is the symbolic medium of divine communication. Third, this communicative model of God is developed into a trinitarian theology, with a claim that this model offers a viable alternative beyond the standard (psychic, social, process) models. Finally, some implications of this model are explored for constructive theology (conceiving creation as divine mediatization) and for science‐and‐religion in terms of derivative models: (1) God as a living systemsui generisand (2) God as a meaning systemsui generis.

Communication and Language in Niklas Luhmann's Systems-Theory

This article investigates the function and reality of language in Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. How can one interpret the systems-theoretical assumption that language is based on communication? Luhmann describes language as a dynamic media/form relationship, which is able to couple the social and psychological system. This structural coupling, which constructs consciousness and language as two autonomous systems, raises problems if one defines language from a cognitive point of view. This article discusses these problems and aims to develop assumptions and questions within the systems-theoretical approach.

The Technological Unconscious in German Modernist Literature: Nature in Rilke, Benn, Brecht, and Döblin. (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture) by Larson Powell

Reviews Mein); Raabe's engagement with Schopenhauer (Soren Fauth), Schiller (Gabriele Henkel), and Thackeray (JeffreySammons); references toWolfenbuttel (Herbert Blume), aswell as rereadings of selected works from theperspective of the period's family journals (Christof Hamann), Homer's epics (Heiko Ullrich), Clemens Lugowski's theory of the novel (Heinrich Detering), and the twentieth-century detective novel (Julia Bertschik). Not all contributors succeed in significantly advancing often well-established knowledge; some resort to rather extensive commentary, others summarize findings or extend lines of enquiry developed more extensively elsewhere. The editors' brief preface wisely resists the temptation of retrospectively imposing coherence on this successful collection of interesting chapters, which often demonstrate the wider relevance of contemporary Raabe research fornineteenth-century literary and cultural studies overall. University of Nottingham Dirk Gottsche The Technological Unconscious in German Modernist Literature: Nature in Rilkey Benn, Brecht, and Doblin. By Larson Powell. (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture) Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2008. vii+256 pp. $65; ?35. ISBN 978-1-57113-382-3. For Larson Powell, 'the intellectual techno-rave' is decidedly over. Against the 'thinkliness' of cultural-studies accounts of the world and the text, grouped together here as so many 'Imaginary Theories', Powell poses the 'thingliness' of the natural world. Drawing on Adorno's aesthetics, Lacan's psychoanalysis, and Luhmann's systems theory, he protests against the exclusion of nature, technology's repressed other, from studies ofmodernity. A diverse theoretical manifesto (variously referencing Kant, Bataille, Kafka, Langs Metropolis, Eagleton, and Jelinek) is followed by studies of fourmodernist writers. These begin with Rilke's short work on painting, Worpswede, inwhich landscape is seen to recede in anticipation of the indifferent Thing of the Dinggedichte. Throughout, Powell's locating of the subject within nature offers refreshing challenges to widely held views, for instance of Rilke's destabilized lyrical subject: the poem Archaischer Torso Apollos' is shown to offer a potential retrieval of voice in the famous imperative to change. The place of the subject figures equally in the comparative reading of Benn's Tkarus' with Goethe's 'Prometheus' and Nietzsche's 'Dionysios-Dithyramben'. Here, Benn's autopoietic subject is situated within modernity's destructive self-referentiality. But it is theDoblin chapter that offers themost pointed critique of technology's fantasies?repeated by contemporary theory?of sovereign self-construction. Addressing itself to a postcolonial and natural Real, Doblin's Die drei Spriinge des Wang-lun is presented as handling more irreducible traumata than those thematized by an academy locked in 'self-styled subversion'. The concluding chapter on Brecht turns to a different mode of subversion: Luhmannian terminology adds to the established political reading a definition of his poetry as second-order observation, which can index and challenge systemic blind spots. MLR, 105.4, 2010 1185 The backbone of the book, Powell's critique of the 'technological sublime' and the related prevalence of 'rhetorical figurality' in cultural studies, is delivered with an often extraordinary rhetoric of its own: Lyotard's sublime is likened to 'self-parodying camp', and JudithButler's gender performativity to 'the "lifestyle" sections of the newspapers'. Meanwhile a theory of gender underlies the project, as Powell comments on Rilke's 'emancipated' Madchen and Nietzsche's hysterical Ariadne. But the gendering of nature and the articulation of psychoanalytic theory around familial models require further critique. The lack of paternal authority inWang-lun is diagnosed as a cause ofmania; this apparent valorization of the (hetero)norm carries through in repeated references to nature's motherliness, and one aside that casts all transsexuals as psychotic. Powell's theoretical agenda occupies as important a place as the subsequent textual analyses. In this sense, those reading for the poetry may be frustrated. However the close readings that do feature are illuminating: an examination of syntax and movement in Rilke's 'Der Ball' elucidates Lacan's extimacy, and Benn's rhythms,metaphors, and metonymies are related indetail to his competing subject-positions. Although its theoretical density may appear forbidding, the book will be of interest to those working on the radical potential of the 'other' (for instance nature) to disrupt totalizing systems. Moreover, as a manifesto for reading literaturewith, or indeed as, theory, it isworth the challenging read. Newnham College, Cambridge...

Human Body, Consciousness and Identity in the Mirror of Life Interviews with Female Coaches

Human Body, Consciousness and Identity in the Mirror of Life Interviews with Female CoachesOne of the recurring themes when conducting life-interviews with women coaches is their confrontation with the fact that their physique does not correspond to the body-frame considered to be ideal in their respective sports disciplines. Since they can preserve their athletic identity only with the help of their physique, the course of their careers depends on the solution they find to this problem. The study presents this decision-making process using Luhmann's systems theory: as an environmental interaction between a neurophysiological (the body), a psychological (the identity of women coaches) and a social (sports) system. It looks upon this situation as a communication between female athletes and competitive sport as a social system, in which observation is accorded an outstanding role. Assuming the role of an observer, female athletes see the series of movements and solutions that their coach does not recognize. Instead of physical perfection, they develop the individual perfection of movement execution.

Between Law and Social Norms: The Evolution of Global Governance

Abstract. It is commonplace that economic globalization poses new challenges to legal theory. But instead of responding to these challenges, legal scholars often get caught up in heated yet purely abstract discussions of positivist and legal pluralist conceptions of the law. Meanwhile, economics‐based theories such as “Law and Social Norms” have much less difficulty in analysing the newly arising forms of private and hybrid “governance without government” from a functional perspective. While legal theory has much to learn from these approaches, we argue that they fail in one crucial point: They cannot uphold the analytical distinction between law and non‐law. The reasons for this shortcoming are theory‐immanent in that the economic theories' focus on efficiency and their actor‐based perspective are necessarily blind to “law's own rationality.” We therefore propose to further develop those functional approaches to the study of global governance by complementing them with elements from Niklas Luhmann's systems theory of law. This will provide us with a conceptual framework for analyzing the workings of global governance regimes without ignoring their potential for “legalisation” and “constitutionalisation.” As we will show in three concrete examples (Corporate Social Responsibility,lex mercatoria, and internet regulation) we can thus describe the evolution of new forms of legal regulation beyond the nation‐state. This will also allow us to draw some preliminary conclusions on the role of law in the context of globalization and, at the same time, show the direction for further empirical research.

Moment of Stasis: The Successful Failure of a Constitution for Europe

AbstractThe 2005 French and Dutch negative votes on the Constitution open up a space of conceptualisation, not only of Europe's relation to its demos, but significantly to its failures. Through a critical analysis of mainly Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, the article proposes taking a distance from traditional constitutional dogmatics that are no longer capable of dealing with the paradox of contemporary society, and more specifically with the eventual resurgence of the European project as one of absence and stasis: the two terms are used to explain the need, on the one hand, to maintain the ‘absent community’ of Europe, and, on the other, to start realising that any conceptualisation of the European project will now have to take place in that space of instability and contingency revealed by the constitutional failure. The relation between law and politics, the location of a constitution, the distinction between social and normative legitimacy, the connection between European identity and demos, and the concept of continuity between constitutional text and context are revisited in an attempt to trace the constitutional failure as the constitutional moment par excellence.

An A-Cultural, Scientific Supertheory of World Society?

All the contributions to this Forum raise incisive questions about Mathias Albert's (2007) attempt to inject new life into “globalization theory” with the help of Luhmann's systems theory of world society. While I agree with some of the criticisms of this particular appropriation of Luhmann's theory, I would surmise that these do not point to inherent limitations of a Luhmannian approach but partly reflect a number of misconceptions about what such an approach entails. Among these misconceptions (some of them perhaps invited by Albert's IPS piece, though much less by his other work involving modern systems theory) three seem particularly noteworthy: 1. that Luhmann's theory necessarily figures as a kind of supertheory for IR; 2. that a Luhmannian approach seeks to bestow a “scientific” aura on international political sociology; and 3. that it is unable to grapple with questions of culture or discourse. Let us consider each of these misconceptions in turn. Leander and Hindess directly take Albert to task for proposing Luhmann's systems theory of world society as a supertheory for globalization, and the specter of systems-theoretical imperialism also seems to lurk behind Thomas's and Robertson's calls for a broader theoretical agenda in globalization studies. Albert's seemingly supertheoretical ambitions with respect to “globalization theory” notwithstanding, he has generally favored a more selective and pragmatic engagement with Luhmann's theory as “a source and… strategy for concept-formulation” (Albert 1999:242) and as in fact open to revision by IR theories (including theories of globalization) (Albert 2002, 2004b). More generally, as a grand theory Luhmann's systems theory has always been a somewhat self-subverting enterprise given its (epistemologically) constructivist commitment to the polycontextuality of observations (that is, the ever-present possibility to observe observations and to observe otherwise). Once we bear in mind this commitment and consider Luhmann's theory more as a “toolbox” (Albert 2004a:3) than a …

The Limits of Planning: Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory and the Analysis of Planning and Planning Ambitions

In this article, we argue that Niklas Luhmann has a lot to offer present-day planning theory. Until now, planning theory has been engaged with Luhmann's work only minimally. Convinced of its potential, we want to show how Luhmann's systems theory offers fresh insight into both limits and possibilities of planning in contemporary society. We argue that Luhmann's understanding of society as functionally differentiated into self-referentially closed subsystems (politics, economy, law, science, etc.) creates space for a complex and subtle analysis of planning practice. In particular, we look at the role of planning within an autopoietic account of society, and its ability to steer other social subsystems. Planning is seen as the form of steering aiming to coordinate processes of spatial organization, therefore an activity dealing with steering problems. We illustrate key concepts of the systems theory in brief analyses of planning situations and interpret these situations using the systems theoretical framework. The analyses center around the questions of planning's steering capacity and the role of the planner, thus creating linkages with mainstream discussions in planning theory.

Objectivity, Value Spheres, and “Inherent Laws”

I give an account of Max Weber's views concerning the basis of the objectivity of the cultural sciences. In this connection, I offer a critical discussion of his distinction between different “value spheres,” each with its own “intrinsic logic.” I then consider parallels between Weber's “value spheres” and central elements of Bourdieu's field theory and Luhmann's systems theory, and try to show to what extent Bourdieu's and Luhmann's problems, and the solutions they suggest, can be seen as similar to Weber's. I conclude by a general consideration of Weber's, Bourdieu's, and Luhmann's approach to the problem of objectivity.

THE SELF-INFANTILISED ADULT AND THE MANAGEMENT OF PERSONALITY

The new practices of human resource management can be seen as an expression of management communication, which has become increasingly pedagogical. This article is based on Luhmann systems theory regarding second-order observation. The article tries to observe how management communications observe the self-observations of employees, and claims that these observations take place within the code of the pedagogic. A number of effects are discussed: how the employee becomes a formator of him/herself as the medium child, how the employee is expected to observe him/herself with a corrective pedagogical gaze, and finally how this installs a kind of a self-screening of the employee.

Luhmann’s Systems Theory/Postmodernism/Literature

Niklas Luhmann's systems thinking goes beyond Parsonian functionalism and evolves in the late 1970s and early 1980s into his systems theory with its boundaries between system and environment. His adoption of autopoiesis from biology increases the chance of a paradigm shift from modernity to postmodernity. As his autopoietic (social) systems are communication of difference, his Systems Theory operates as a framework that embraces both the modern or Parsonian functionalism as well as deconstructive (postmodern) elements. Although his social systems are communication of information, utterance and understanding, some critics have criticized the fact that communication is the fundamental concept of the system because communication cannot be a permanent and conceptual constituent in the system. Despite their criticisms, his social system offers a framework in which the communicative act is performed. This holistic system of Luhmann's includes postmodern elements in Wittgenstein's language games and Lyotard's differend. On the surface, paradoxical constituents of Luhmann's system seem to mar the holistic concept of the system. On the other hand, these paradoxical constituents offer some possibilities of overcoming the great divide between the modern epistemology and the postmodern one. As the modern epistemologists argue against the deconstructionists on a logocentric subject for any understanding, the scholars of both camps cannot reach any agreement. Granting such keen confrontations, Luhmann's Systems Theory offers an option to include both holistic and fragmentary constituents. In this context, Luhmann constructs a frame or system of embracing differences. It is appropriate to say that Luhmann's Systems Theory offers a way to understand human and social phenomena in the age of postmodernity and beyond.

Different Kinds of Openings of Luhmann's Systems Theory: A Reply to la Cour et al

Various researchers have called for an `opening up' of Luhmann's systems theory. We take this short paper as an occasion for a critical reflection on the necessity, existence and possibilities of such an opening. We start by pointing out the inherent openness of Luhmann's theory, and, based on this, discuss three kinds of openings: the international opening, the theoretical opening and the empirical opening. With regard to the latter, we distinguish three general options of using Luhmann's theory for empirical research.

Opening Systems Theory: A Note on the Recent Special Issue of Organization

Organization recently devoted a special issue to Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. Since Luhmann's work remains relatively unknown in the English-speaking world, the issue was an important opportunity to introduce Niklas Luhmann's contribution to organization theory to this audience. Unfortunately, the primarily theoretical approach to systems theory presented in the issue may leave the reader wondering what, if anything, Luhmann's work might contribute to empirical research into organizations. This note is an attempt to draw attention to the potential of Luhmann's approach in this regard.

The economic survival of long stay institutions for impoverished aged people

OBJECTIVE: Identify structural couplings of Retirement Institutions for the Aged (RIA) with the economic system, in order to maintain those institutions that shelter the poor aged in the Brazilian context. METHOD: Qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study. The data collection was carried out through interviews with seven leading people and eight aged people, analysis of communication of 52 non-profit Brazilian RIAs, both public and private. The content analysis was performed based on the Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory. RESULTS: It was verified that in face of the aged scarce resources, a considerable share of the maintenance costs are supported by the institutions themselves, whose search for resources is done by leaders, team, the aged and communities. CONCLUSIONS: The excessive involvement of these institutions in the elaboration of programs for searching funds can harm the performance of their essential function which is to care for the poor aged.

Of Systems, Boundaries, and Regionalisation

For the analysis of regionalisation processes, this contribution calls for a mutual engagement between systems theory and critical geopolitics. Based on Luhmann's systems theory, the contribution proposes a framework based on the idea of a world society. This framework points to a changing mode of differentiation where there is an increasing overlap and collision between territorial and functional boundaries. Emphasising the concept of functional differentiation, a multiplicity of overlapping regional logics and forces appears where functional systems create their own ‘image’ of space. As a consequence, regions are not characterised by their physical or cultural boundaries but by collisions of different rationalities.

‘Polyphonic’ welfare: Luhmann's systems theory applied to modern social work

This article applies a series of concepts from Niklas Luhmann's systems theory in an analysis of modern welfare organisations. The point of departure is that social help in late modern welfare states has become ‘polycentric’ in that ‘help’ is today being defined by various different agents: public, voluntary and private care providers. Empirically, this article investigates re‐housing work with homeless people, a kind of social work which involves several different welfare organisations. The case study shows how these organisations define themselves by making internal constructions of their surroundings, and how their self‐enclosed nature creates a certain ‘insensitivity’ towards one another. How to coordinate and translate within this ‘polyphony’ of incomparable observations and values represents a major managerial challenge for present‐day social workers.

The evolution of Luhmann's systems theory with focus on the constructivist influence

In this paper, we develop an integrative view on the development of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory out of the constructivist perspective and the influence of the concepts of different proponents of constructivism on his theory. Additionally, the questions of whether social systems can be autopoietic, or why Niklas Luhmann is rather more well known in Europe than the US, will be addressed.

Cash, codes and complexity: New adventures in the public management of pay scales

Communication makes a difference. The manner in which we communicate creates the phenomena we communicate about. It can seem obvious, but we are nevertheless seldom aware of the complexity that this constructivist assumption implies. Through an analysis of a new pay reform in the Danish public sector, this article theorizes the complexity in terms of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. In an attempt to understand the ambiguities of today's management of pay, it identifies four wholly different ‘codes’ of communication; law, money, learning and love. Each of them struggles for the position to construct ‘pay’, ‘personnel’ and ‘management’ differently. Ambiguity is construed in terms of the complex interference that arises between the systems of communication that are coded in these ways. Through this codified complexity, the new pay reform does not merely represent an innocent ‘management technology’, but a productive ‘management policy’ drawing on conflicting codes setting specific distinctions for rewarding, distinct boundaries for managing work life.