Niklas Luhmann's Social Systems Research Articles

Social media, echo chambers and contingency: a system theoretical approach about communication in the digital space

PurposeThere is a growing worry about people possibly isolating themselves in online bubbles and avoiding contact with ideas that differ from their beliefs, creating a scenario of ideological polarization. To investigate into this matter, this work aims for a reflection about the contingency of communication in social media. Does social media make the experience of communication in the digital space more contingent (providing it with more possibilities, with people accessing different contents and ideas) or less contingent (reducing the available possibilities, making people isolate themselves)?Design/methodology/approachThis is a theoretical work, constructed through bibliographical reviews. To reflect about the question that are posed, the author selected Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory to approach the concept of contingency. In addition to that, the author presented the main arguments of the debates about echo chambers and online bubbles. In the end, the author combined the two reviews together using elements of the Luhmannian theory and drew some conclusions about the initial question.FindingsThe study concluded that social media have an ambivalent potential regarding contingency in the digital space: it can both expand or reduce the available possibilities of communication, depending on criteria like topic, potential of diffusion and focus of attention. There is no one-side effect.Research limitations/implicationsThe approach at echo chambers does not reflect “the” form of contingency in social media, but “a” form. Therefore, the study cannot provide any general conclusions about the relation between contingency and social media. The digital space is a large one, and more studies are required to achieve more substantial propositions.Originality/valueThe research has an originality value both for systems theory and social media studies. First, because, as far as the author knows, no other system-theoretical argument has taken the connection between contingency and social media as a primary analysis object. Second, because of a theoretical interpretation effort, the studies of echo chambers indicate mixed results about the phenomenon of online isolation, but no attempt was made to make sense of these mixed results from a specific sociological theory. The author did that by using Luhmann's theoretical framework, which proved to be a good tool for explaining and unifying these different results on a more abstract level.

Deutschlands Ölfelder: Eine Stoffgeschichte der Kulturpflanze Raps (1897–2017)

Deutschlands Ölfelder: Eine Stoffgeschichte der Kulturpflanze Raps (1897–2017)

Musical Vitalities: Ventures in a Biotic Aesthetics of Music by Holly Watkins

Reviewed by: Musical Vitalities: Ventures in a Biotic Aesthetics of Music by Holly Watkins Karen Olson Musical Vitalities: Ventures in a Biotic Aesthetics of Music. By Holly Watkins. (New Material Histories of Music.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. [200 p. ISBN 9780226594705 (hardcover), $40; ISBN 9780226594842 (e-book), price varies]. Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. Holly Watkins's Musical Vitalities is a slim volume, but like a carefully packed overnight bag, it holds a surprising amount of material. Combining "roughly equal parts philosophy of music, history of aesthetics, and analytically informed criticism" (p. 2), Watkins explores how twentieth- and twenty-first century studies in biology, cognition, and semiotics can revitalize nineteenth-century aestheticians' struggles to compare humans' experience of music with their experience of nature. In so doing, Watkins refreshes a body of literature and music that might seem worn out while simultaneously addressing many topics of current musicological interest: music and the body, musical cognition, and, of course, ecomusicology—the intersection of music and the natural world. Watkins explains that Musical Vitalities "[explores] how analogies between musical and natural processes, which appear repeatedly in the [nineteenth century] literature on musical aesthetics, encourage us to develop modes of thinking that challenge presumed divisions between cultural artifacts and natural entities" (p. 11). If the emotive excesses of romanticism overstated the music's transcendent qualities, and the countervailing rigidity of musical formalism failed to account for music's bodily effects, how might modern science fill these nineteenth-century gaps? The six chapters of Musical Vitalities function largely as stand-alone essays grouped around this question. As such, the book is difficult to summarize; even the individual chapters are so dense as to resist easy summation. The first chapter tackles organicism in nineteenth-century music criticism—the idea that a composer develops a single motivic seed to form a unified work. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory, Watkins explores the self-organization of organicism as expressive of larger systems of composers, performers, and listeners, wherein, just as seeds do not grow without being influenced by their environments, pieces of music are not created in vacuums. In chapter 2, Watkins offers another plant-based analogy, the arabesque, as a way to expand Eduard Hanslick's well-known Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (On the Musically Beautiful; Leipzig: Rudolph Weigel, 1854). Here, the arabesque is not the ballet pose but the stylized leaf design you might see climbing up old wallpaper. Both naturally plant-like and artificially formal, the self-organized repetition displayed in such arabesques is analogous to the self-organized patterns that give structure, purpose, and [End Page 454] vitality to objects and entities in the natural world. In this way, Watkins develops "a mode of criticism attuned to both the formal resemblances between music and other worldly processes and the meanings that arise from that convergence" (p. 44)—that is, the ways the formalist arrangements Hanslick championed as purely human constructions have parallels in the natural world. Watkins's third chapter turns to Arthur Schopenhauer, reworking his oft-maligned analogy between four-part harmony and the natural order, wherein humans are the soprano melody, the stodge of earth is the supporting bass line, and the organisms in between are the inner voices. Watkins finds this analogy unexpectedly useful because it suggests that music "affords listeners aesthetic access to organic and inorganic dimensions of existence which both inform and extend beyond the human" (p. 68). Schopenhauer, she argues, allows for an ecocentric musical experience, situating and attuning the human mind and body within (not apart from) the broader environment. This is a more holistic transcendence than that usually preached in nineteenth-century romanticism. Chapter 4 detours from these philosophical abstractions, offering a more straightforward historical interpretation and contextualization of Robert Schumann's Blumenstück (Flower Piece), op. 19. While the plentiful musical, visual, and literary examples mean this chapter is the most accessible to read, it is also the most difficult to situate within the overall trajectory of the volume. The main connection to the previous chapters is the continued emphasis on plants and music as mutual analogs. Watkins explores how the language of flowers popularized by floral guides largely written...

ASISTED LIVING INSTITUTIONS AS THE BASIS OF ORDER AND A FORM OF BEHAVIOUR CONTROL FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ERVING GOFFMAN’S SYSTEMS THEORY

Assisted living institutions such as nursing homes were established to answer a vital social need. Such services are needed by the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill. The social demand for these institutions is growing due to a deficit of care functions in families, among other factors. Undoubtedly, assisted living institutions play a vital role by providing help and assistance to less-independent individuals, and for many, they are a chance for survival or a dignified life because they offer food and shelter. However, nursing homes as assisted living institutions are not limited to satisfying the needs of their residents. There is something surprising and worrying about their functioning. To use R.K. Merton's terminology, they operate according to latent functions that maintain social order and social control. To better understand the problem, it is worth looking at Erving Goffman' s popular theory of total institutions and Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory.

Is a Dramatic Bakhtiyār-nāme Possible? Sketch of a Social Systems Theoretical Adaptation Methodology

AbstractThe abundant literature on adaptation theories and methods stop short of offering an abstract model which suits adaptation across all different literary modes and genres. Instead, they mostly cover the adaptation of one communication system to another, for example, literature to film. To close this gap, I rely on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory and his communication model as well as notions of medium and form. Coupling his theory with the literary theories of Northrop Frye and Mikhail Bakhtin, I not only revive these theories in a new context, but also propose a method for literary adaptation that serves adapting across different modes and genres within the subsystem of literature. To render this theory and its applicability more vividly, I introduce how I applied it to a thirteenth-century Persian-language romance, namely Bakhtiyār-nāme, to adapt it to drama. In doing so, I demonstrate how my suggested methodology serves to determine the mode and genre of the original work as well as those of the adapted work by spotting certain adaptation potentials within the original. These include silenced voices and contradictions that make way for a deconstructive re-reading of it in the form of an adapted work of literature.

The Persistence of Tightly Coupled Conflicts. The Case of Loisaba, Kenya

Contributing to the debate on the multidimensional nature of resource-based conflicts in political ecology, and building upon Niklas Luhmann's Social Systems Theory, we have studied the persistent and shifting nature of conflicts as well as their dependencies on other conflicts in and around Loisaba conservancy. This private conservancy is situated in northern Laikipia (Kenya). For a long time, its management was focused on wildlife conservation, high-end tourism and commercial ranching. Developments and events at neighbouring ranches and community conservation areas shifted this focus. Decades of more or less peaceful regional co-existence has recently transformed into conflictual, sometimes even violent situations. At first sight, these emergent conflicts seem related to recurrent droughts, competing resource dependencies, national elections, or incitements by wealthy and influential politicians. For this study, however, we conceptualise conflicts as particular kinds of discourses that emerge, exist and change. This happens not only according to their own internal logics, but also through their dependencies with other conflict discourses. In this paper, we characterise the relations between conflicts on a range from tight to loose couplings and introduce three related forms of coupling (overpowering, resisting, and resonating) to provide a more detailed understanding of how conflicts may interrelate.

On Human Involution: Posthumanist Anthropology and the Question of Ecology in the Work of Hans Blumenberg and Niklas Luhmann

Scholars in the environmental humanities frequently argue that a clear understanding of humanity's ecological embeddedness is sufficient to dismantle the anthropocentric biases of traditional humanism. Following Hans Blumenberg's interpretation of the Copernican turn, this article argues that the proponents of this view fail to recognize that the desire to overcome anthropocentrism was central to Enlightenment thought. Like the latter, ecological posthumanism accords itself cognitive privileges that presuppose a successful distantiation of the world. According to Blumenberg's anthropology, the need to turn away from the world in order to engage with it is a distinctly human trait. However, second-order cybernetics and Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory offer ways to conceptualize this “involution” as a general feature of living things, whose relative autonomy is predicated on the possibility of operational closure.

Institutional Economics, Social Dilemmas, and the Complexity‐Sustainability Trade‐off (A response to Hielscher and Pies)

Drawing inspiration from Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory, the present note argues that the complexity of social systems has the potential to undermine their sustainability and thus to generate social dilemmas. The conceptual construct of the ‘complexity‐sustainability trade‐off’ is invoked to make the point that ensuring sustainability, if at all possible, requires controlling the proliferation of systemic complexity. To some extent, this control is feasible through structural couplings that correspond to the economic concept of the internalization of externalities. If this solution falls short of meeting the sustainability goals, systemic complexity can be alternatively controlled through the dampening of systemic imperatives, which translates, at the individual level, into the weakening of incentives. Williamson's transaction cost theory of for‐profit hierarchy and Hansmann's trustworthiness theory of nonprofit organizations present cases in point.

Diakonie v perspektivě teorie sociálních systémů

This article is devoted to the differentiation of diakonia in modern society based on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory. It first addresses the inner differentiation of the religious system, the framework of which is to assign diakonia the task of creating a re¬lationship to other systems of society. Dierk Starnitzke attempts to formulate theologically a diakonia-code which facilitates diakonia in order to receive input from other systems it relates to, while at the same time, maintaining its identity. The article further reflects on the formation of the diaconal work-structures at the three levels where social systems operate: interaction, organization and society. The task of theology is to impart the vision for organized diaconal work which currently prevails. The differentiated approach to diakonia facilitates a more adequate analysis of the problems diakonia faces in modern secularized society and how to relate various conceptions of diakonia to one another.This article is devoted to the differentiation of diakonia in modern society based on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory. It first addresses the inner differentiation of the religious system, the framework of which is to assign diakonia the task of creating a relationship to other systems of society. Dierk Starnitzke attempts to formulate theologically a diakonia-code which facilitates diakonia in order to receive input from other systems it relates to, while at the same time, maintaining its identity. The article further reflects on the formation of the diaconal work-structures at the three levels where social systems operate: interaction, organization and society. The task of theology is to impart the vision for organized diaconal work which currently prevails. The differentiated approach to diakonia facilitates a more adequate analysis of the problems diakonia faces in modern secularized society and how to relate various conceptions of diakonia to one another.

Separation and reconnection episodic organizational arenas in the strategic process

PurposeWithin the strategy as practice field several studies have recently paid attention to organizational arenas like meetings, workshops and away‐days. There has, however, been a tendency to focus on what happens “inside” separated organizational arenas. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between the separated organizational arenas and other organizational activities in the strategizing process.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual. The framework rests on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory and draws on recent empirical studies.FindingsThe main contribution of the article is the presentation of a theoretically well‐founded framework that further specifies and problematizes the relationships of separated organizational arenas. By focusing and conceptualizing the conditions for separation and reconnection, a foundation for analyzing the interconnectedness between different arenas is provided.Practical implicationsThe paper contributes to our understanding of phenomena like meetings and work‐shops in the strategic process.Originality/valueThe framework is in line with, and expands the theorizing that Hendry and Seidl (2003) initiated about strategic episodes and the theorizing about first and second order observations in strategic processes initiated by Schreyögg and Kliesch‐Eberl (2007).

Is Europe 2020 Set to Fail? The Cultural Political Economy of the EU Grand Strategies

The European Union (EU) has been continuously rethinking its global position amidst emerging economic and geopolitical challenges and attempting to formulate strategies to increase its competitiveness. However, its long-standing policy implementation deficit is also recognized for its grand strategies, including the initially ambitious Lisbon Strategy. Is Europe 2020 set to fail as well? In this paper, we are arguing that strategic steering is essentially a discursive practice influenced by both semiotic and extra-semiotic factors. Hence, success or failure of a strategy essentially depends on ability to steer the discourse. Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory offers a theoretical framework against which limitations and potentials of strategic steering at the EU level can be analysed. While high levels of rationality and reflection capacities can improve strategic steering, it is limited by the increasing complexity. Recognizing limitations of direct and centralized interventions, we look for analytical and strategic solutions in sophisticated mechanisms of contextual steering: variation, selection and retention of strategic discourses. These mechanisms are integral to the “cultural political economy” approach. In the final part of the paper, we show how cultural political economy can explain the implementation shortcomings of the EU strategies.

Contested Delineations: Planning, Law, and the Governance of Protected Areas

In this paper we reflect on the relationship between planning and law. We analyse the Dutch interpretation and implementation of the European Union Habitats and Birds Directives by investigating the practices of delineation of protected areas. These directives provide a legislative framework for the designation of protected sites as well as for decision making about social and economic activities that might have negative effects on the conservation objectives. The formal boundaries of the protected area can have legal, political, and economic consequences and are therefore the subject of much debate. Using Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory, we analyse the debates concerning delineation and the potential for planning to reduce tensions and balance interests. It is argued that the irreducible differences between the economic, political, and legal perspectives, in combination with the Dutch path of a legalistic interpretation of EU directives, have produced a situation in which the role of planning is reduced and new forms of planning are hard to implement.

Why (not) Luhmann? On the applicability of social systems theory to translation studies

This article discusses Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory as applied to translation against the background of other systemically informed paradigms in translation studies. There have been three ways of studying translation from the systemic point of view. (1) Translation was considered as a unique system comprised of phenomena distinct from any other type of social phenomena. (2) Translation was studied as a subsystem within a larger system of related phenomena (polysystem theory). (3) Lastly, translation was put in a larger social context: it was viewed in its connection to social discourse. I argue that the sociocritical paradigm may take a further step and use Luhmann's social systems theory for studying the social role of translation. Social systems theory provides helpful tools for a sociocritical student of translation in theorizing translation as a system's boundary phenomenon.

The Sociology of Childhood as Scientific Communication

This article begins by identifying a close relationship between the image of children generated by several sociologists working within the new sociology of childhood perspective and the claims and ambitions of the proponents of children's autonomy rights. The image of the child as a competent, self-controlled human agent are then subjected to observation from the perspective of Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory. The new sociology of childhood's constructivist approach is compared and contrasted with Niklas Luhmann's theory of `operational constructivism'. The article applies tenets of Luhmann's theory, to the emergence of the new childhood sociologist's image of the child as a competent, self-controlled social agent, to the epistemological status of this image and, in particular, to claims that it derives from scientific endeavour. The article proceeds to identify two theoretical developments within sociology — sociology of identity and social agency — which have brought about fundamental changes in what may be considered `sociological' and so `scientific' and paved the way for sociological communications about what children `really are'. In conclusion, it argues that the merging of sociology with polemics, ideology, opinion and personal beliefs and, at the level of social systems, between science and politics represents in Luhmann's terms `dedifferentiation' — a tendency he claims may have serious adverse consequences for modern society. This warning is applied to the scientific status of sociology — its claim to be able to produce `facts' for society, upon which social systems, such as politics and law, may rely. Like the mass media, sociology may now be capable of producing only information, and not facts, about children.

The Structure and Significance of Strategic Episodes: Social Systems Theory and the Routine Practices of Strategic Change

In this paper we draw on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory, and in particular his concept of an 'episode', to guide research into strategic practice and its relationship to the operating routines of an organization. Episodes, in Luhmann's theory, provide a mechanism by which a system can suspend its routine structures and so initiate a reflection on and change of these structures. Applying this theory to the organizational process of strategic change, we draw attention to the routine nature of strategic episodes and to their organizational role as the effective locus of strategic practice and the interaction between strategic and operating routines. We continue to develop a framework for the systematic analysis of different kinds of episode in terms of key aspects of their initiation, conduct and termination.