Niklas Luhmann's Systems Research Articles

LEGITIMAÇÃO, PROCEDIMENTO E FUNDAMENTAÇÃO DAS DECISÕES JUDICIAIS

This academic article intends to analyze the relation between Niklas Luhmann's theory of Legitimation by procedure and the need to substantiate judicial decisions, in order to answer whether judicial substantiation is a requirement for legitimation in Niklas Luhmann's systems theory and in accordance with the Brazilian legal system (also from a procedural perspective). To facilitate reading and understanding, some definitions regarding the concepts used by the German author in his work will be briefly provided throughout the text, which will certainly help the reader to understand the proposal and conclusions of this article.

Prolegomena to a genealogy of “society”

The article reconstructs the evolution of the semantics of one of the social sciences’ most important concepts, that of society. It follows two main systematizations, those of the societas and the societas civilis, respectively, through a millennia-long history rooted in Graeco-Roman civilization. This history exhibits remarkable continuity across time. Its modern adaptations survive to the present day. But the social sciences appear to know only the latter which, in the form of the nation-state, they adopted as their default model under the intellectual leadership of Parsons. Recent developments in the social world have rendered that model obsolete. This leaves the social sciences in dire straits, as they have failed, with one exception, to develop a persuasive alternative. The exception is Niklas Luhmann's systems theory of world society, a theory barely known outside small niche circles. The article ends on a brief speculative note about what might account for the odd tenacity of a theoretically untenable concept.

Resonance of Climate Crisis News Discourse in Indonesian Online Media: Reflections on Niklas Luhmann's Ecological Communication Theory Perspective

Indonesia, an archipelago significantly vulnerable to the climate crisis, faces numerous natural disasters impacting various sectors. Despite the critical need for public awareness and proactive measures, media coverage of climate crisis issues in Indonesia remains limited. This study investigates the level of resonance in online media reporting on the climate crisis from January to December 2023, focusing on keywords related to climate change, forest fires, and air pollution. The research uses topic modeling and Niklas Luhmann's systems theory to examine how four major Indonesian online media outlets address climate crisis issues. The findings reveal that while kompas.com and detik.com show consistent coverage, ANTARA and CNBC Indonesia place less emphasis on these topics. The study highlights the need for enhanced and more impactful media coverage to raise public awareness and drive meaningful action against the climate crisis. The results underscore the importance of media collaboration with governments, NGOs, and communities to increase the resonance of climate crisis issues in public discourse. Future research should explore the reasons behind the variation in media coverage and its impact on public perception and policy decisions, including the role of social media platforms.

More Education of Juvenile Offenders In Sentences Of Imprisonment: A Reform And Justification Approach As A Consequence Of Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory

Background: In order to meet the demands of contemporary society, German juvenile criminal law needs a necessary reform. Consequently, this article proposes the reintroduction of indeterminate sentencing as an instrument for an overall social benefit to this need for reform and to counter the existing determinate sentencing system in place today. This specific sentencing system is understood to be the current guideline and norm currently implemented. According to Luhmann's systems theory, this contradicts the diversity of societies and the unique individuality of each member within them. In this perspective, individuals have the right to assert their rights and define their norms as long as they do not break the law or commit a criminal offence. Methods: The discussion surrounding indeterminate sentencing reached its conclusion in the late 1990s, so a lack of scientific research exists. However, considering the societal transformation and development of the younger generation, the reintroduction of indeterminate sentencing seems opportune. Niklas Luhmann’s flexible systems theory from the 1980 s is well suited to support this reintroduction. Based on a relevant literature review and the development of tightening in German juvenile law, this article adopts an analytical approach supported by social, legal and political research. It provides a framework elucidating the reasons and the appropriate form for reintroduc ing indeterminate sentencing as a useful method to increase resocialis ation among the youth . This framework includes practical approaches such as combining education, professional training and social education, all aimed at implementing a rehabilitative approach within the juvenile justice system, similar to the original law that was abandoned. Results and Conclusions: If this occurs, the indeterminate sentence allows for a more individualised approach, establishing an individual-oriented minimum sentence while maintaining a maximum duration. Thus, it aligns with Luhmann's flexible systems theory approach and proves relevant to the current circumstances of the youth generation. Such an approach offers greater benefits by emphasising the integration of education within the prison sentence for resocialisation, surpassing the capabilities of the current determinate sentencing in juvenile criminal law. The actual recidivism rates average between 25% and 30% depending on the sentence. With an education-focused approach adjusted to the juvenile offender , coupled with a realistic future- oriented education system in and after the sentence, the process of resocialis ation stands a better chance of success . Although the research on this topic is in its early stages, this approach serves as an initial step towards instigating the necessary reform within juvenile law.

Landon's Clichés

Letitia Landon faced two seemingly contradictory complaints from contemporary critics: that her writing was mechanical and repetitive, and that it was overly personal, suggesting vanity and egotism. Each is a familiar criticism of lyric poetry, yet Landon's willingness to court them both in her work suggests a paradoxical dependency of intimacy on cliché. This essay explores the implications of Landon's intimate clichés for broader understandings of lyric, sociability, and the highly gendered publishing environment of the period. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, it reframes a typically representational debate about lyric in communicative terms. Finally, it suggests that Landon's repetition can be understood as an ethical project to defend common experience from the advocates of rural solitude.

Feeding relations: applying Luhmann's operational theory to the food system.

Current, prevalent models of the food system, including complex-adaptive systems theories and commodity-as-relation thinking, have usefully analyzed the food system in terms of its elements and relationships, confronting persistent questions about a system’s identity and leverage points for change. Here, inspired by Heldke’s (Monist 101:247–260, 2018) analysis, we argue for another approach to the “system-ness” of food that carries those key questions forward. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, we propose a model of the food system defined by the relational process of feeding itself; that is, the food system is made of feeding and only feeding, and system structures are produced by the coupling of that process to its various contexts. We argue that this approach moves us away from understandings of the food system that take structures and relations as given, and sees them instead as contingent, thereby helping to identify leverage points for food system change. The new approach we describe also prompts us as critical agrifood scholars to be constantly reflexive about how our analyses are shaped by our own assumptions and subjectivities.

Paradoxes of Rationalisation: Openness and Control in Critical Theory and Luhmann's Systems Theory

For the Critical Theory tradition of the Frankfurt School, rationalisation is a central concept that refers to the socio-cultural closure of capitalist modernity due to the proliferation of technical, ‘instrumental’ rationality at the expense of some form of political reason. This picture of rationalisation, however, hinges on a separation of technology and politics that is both empirically and philosophically problematic. This article aims to re-conceptualise the rationalisation thesis through a survey of research from science and technology studies and the conceptual framework of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. It argues that rationalisation indeed exhibits a logic of closure, namely the ‘operational closure’ of sociotechnical systems of measurement, but that this closure in fact produces the historical logics of technical reason and, paradoxically, also generates spaces of critical-political openness. This opens up the theoretical and practical opportunity of connecting the politically just to the technically efficient.

Boundaries of Marital and Family Intimacy: From Theory to Empirical Approaches

Research Framework : This article discusses the symbolic, discursive and practical boundaries of intimate relationships. Our approach is inspired by Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. The "boundary" is conceived as an operation of a relationship in relation to itself: the relationship defines itself through its communicative operations and thus defines the legitimate expectations of its members. The relation thus exists as a boundary through its communicative operations, which directly or indirectly determine what it is and what it is not. Symbols, rules of meaning and semantic references are tools used in boundary work. However, the symbols do not define the ways in which these tools may be employed in this work. Objectives : The article has two main objectives. First, by utilizing and defining the concepts of "boundaries" and "boundary work," the paper offers innovative theoretical tools for intimacy research. Second, it demonstrates the empirical utility of these concepts by discussing examples of their application to the study of forms and processes of intimacy in the social sciences. Methodology : Primarily theoretical in focus, the paper begins by conceptually clarifying and defining the concepts of "boundaries" and "boundary work" in the social sciences, and then discusses their applications to intimate, marital and family relationships. Results : The boundaries of relationships emerge from the operationalization of symbols, semantic references or rules of meaning in communication between partners or members of relationships. The symbols used do not determine the methods of their operationalization, which makes it necessary to observe the operations of the boundary work directly in order to describe and understand them. Conclusions : Having explored the theoretical and empirical foundations of the concept of boundaries in the sociology of intimate relations, this paper documents the centrality of semantics and discourse in the boundary work that defines intimate relations. It also shows how the concept captures the operations of self-definition that the relationships themselves need in order to continue to exist. Contribution: This article summarizes what is known about the concept of boundaries and shows its heuristic potential for addressing intimate, marital or family relationships. The articles collected in this issue also contribute by demonstrating its relevance in analyzing a diversity of intimate relationships, regardless of their composition, duration, or degrees of stability or institutionalization.

‘Niklas Luhmann before Relational Sociology: The Cybernetics Roots of Systems Theory’

This article is meant as an intervention in a special context currently taking shape: in recent years, we have observed the rise of relational sociology and within this paradigm, we can witness the re‐emergence of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. This is worth mentioning since the latter has been largely neglected by other sociologists until now. This article supports this re‐emergence and, in an effort to make it easier, it explains how Luhmann developed his systems theory by borrowing key elements from the cybernetics movement. These elements revolve around the concept of self‐reference. The article discusses the meaning of self‐reference in light of four figures: self‐regulation, self‐organization, self‐observation and self‐production. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods ed. by Franz-Josef Arlinghaus

Reviewed by: Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods ed. by Franz-Josef Arlinghaus Melissa Raine Arlinghaus, Franz-Josef, ed., Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 31), Turnhout, Brepols, 2015; hardback; pp. viii, 317; 2 b/w, 13 colour illustrations; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503552200. This collection began as a conference on the utility of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory for understanding premodern individuality, but the essays provide stimulating interdisciplinary discussions about individuality and premodern (mainly German-speaking) Europe independently of this framework. Three essays together offer a useful introduction to Luhmann's principles. Franz-Josef Arlinghaus applies the distinction he made between socially inclusive individuality—distinctive to medieval and early modern societies—and 'modern' individuality—grounded in its distance from society—to autobiography. Accordingly, premodern autobiography is characterized by a drive to be 'better' within the parameters of one's social affiliation (exemplified by the works of [End Page 142] Thietmar of Merseburg and Augsburg merchant Lucas Rem), as opposed to an emphasis on 'difference' in modern autobiography. David Gary Shaw rejects Luhmann's separation of 'the social and the psychic', arguing that, for a historian, the integration of these spheres through the concept of self is preferable (p. 125). Shaw is more positive about Luhmann's thinking around the individual and social structure, and pushes Luhmann's transition to the modern period back to the fifteenth century through considering 'self-expression' in sumptuary law, Thomas Hoccleve, and the almost unyieldingly 'impersonal' prose of William Worcester, all of which demonstrate 'the pressure coming from individual people to place themselves into the social world in ways that seem unpredictable sometimes, but always personal' (p. 147). When Gregor Rohmann argues that medieval inclusion identity was staged largely at the level of semantics, as shifting social structures did not offer a stable basis for identity, he inverts one of Luhmann's key oppositions. Changing medieval kinship structures and the transcendental focus of Christianity are central to this reconfiguration, which Rohrmann explores through the recollections of Hieronymus Koehler and the relationship of the 'I' to authority over a household in the writing-self of sixteenth-century house books: 'there is no "autobiographical pact" in house books, but the reciprocity of collective remembrance' (p. 227). In the 'ego documents' produced by Princess Elisabeth Charlotte, sister-in-law to Louis XIV, Marieke Böth finds that gender, nationality, and status are interwoven with health, virtue, and physical location in the maintenance of her self-identity. Brigitte Bedos-Rezak engages with the relationship of theory to historical context before turning to 'long twelfth-century' expressions of individuality, culminating in a consideration of the 'non-human' expression of individuality in the form of seals. Eva Kormann examines women's self-representation (with reference to lower-class masculine textual self-representation) c. 1800, when 'the genre of "autobiography" demands an autonomous self conception, but the contemporary gender order knows of no autonomous model for women' (p. 118), generically reflected in the frequent choice of letter format to write about their lives (a communicative medium, rather than the solipsistic genres used by men). Through the autobiography of Konrad Pellikan, Gabrielle Jancke critiques the spatial conceptualization of autobiography as 'interior' (private) for relegating other social, 'public' aspects of the individual self to a secondary exteriority. The more neutral 'person' is preferred to 'individuality' for opening up 'a complex field of entangled relations, actions, and flows of resources, i.e. considering them people busily involved in performative processes of "doing person" in relational and participative ways' (p. 174). Matthias Meyer deals explicitly with narratology's treatment of the individual (in which he finds little use for Luhmann's work). Of the three fifteenth-century texts he considers, the most truly 'autobiographical' is the non-narrative, predominantly account-keeping marginal notes of physician Johannes Tichtel— [End Page 143] 'an inventory of the self of a real-life individual' (p. 195)—,whereas the narrative characteristics of the others produce individuality as an organizing principle of the text itself. Christof Rolker examines names as practices of representation that contribute to individual and social identity. He considers...

From transconstitutionalism to transdemocracy

AbstractThis article relates to the author's project “transdemocracy”. It starts with a discussion of “transconstitutionalism” and its limits. Transconstitutionalism concerns the fact that multiple legal orders of the same or different kind are simultaneously involved with the same constitutional issue or case, i.e. issue or case concerning basic rights or legal limitation and control of political power. Constitutional problems, thus go beyond the state and entangle several legal orders, although no new constitution arises in this context. The article points out the limits of transconstitutionalism in an asymmetric world society so as to seek new alternatives beyond it. Two alternatives are considered: post‐constitutionalism, which demands transcendence of today's world society and thus negate constitutionalism in general, and transdemocracy, which is rather immanent to our social formation and claims to be complementary to transconstitutionalism. Because the author prefers the second alternative, the article begins to outline an approach to transdemocracy that goes across state boundaries and beyond “We the People”, that is popular sovereignty, in order to emphasize the sustainable responsiveness for other peoples in the same world society. It is a question of sustainability of democracy. In this context, the author intends to develop an ecological approach to democracy with the background of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, but from a heterodox, critical perspective.

On the fruitfulness of the concept of partial organization: A rejoinder to Apelt et al.

This short paper responds to Apelt et al.’s (2017) comments on Ahrne et al.'s (2016) proposal of extending the concept of organization to any decided social orders and thereby putting organization studies at the centre of the social sciences. We highlight some misunderstandings about the aims of this proposal and discuss Apelt et al.’s own proposal of re-focusing organization studies on formal organizations based on Niklas Luhmann's systems theory.

A multi-perspective view on global economic and ecological system

Interdisciplinary thinking is essential in order to find solutions to many challenges of our time and avoid a lack of foresight. This article points out the importance of thinking in multiple perspectives and shows one example of how different fields and theories can be combined. This leads to conclusions, which cannot be neglected for understanding our world and should be considered for further developments. The example brings together the global economic system and the ecological system by using basic principles of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. Although being considered as differentiated systems they influence each other. Contrasting developments and differing fundamental characteristics lead to discrepancies, which endanger many organisms and can only be resolved if they are approached on a broad and interdisciplinary basis.

Included as excluded and excluded as included: minority language pupils in Norwegian inclusion policy

This article offers an analysis of four Norwegian policy documents on inclusion of minority language pupils. The main concepts of this policy will be reconstructed and re-described, applying Niklas Luhmann's systems theory at different levels of the analysis. Luhmann's theory about society as a conglomerate of self-referential social systems investigates how these systems construct meaning and what consequences these constructions have for inclusion and exclusion processes. This article will focus on the Norwegian educational policy towards minority language pupils, defined by the policy as pupils who have a different mother tongue than Norwegian and Sami language. It is argued that this inclusion policy is excluding in its social form, and that it exhibits an increased emphasis on education when it comes to inclusion in society. Re-descriptions based on logic of forms will show how binary distinctions such as ‘inclusion/exclusion', ‘majority language pupil/minority language pupil' and ‘early intervention/wait and see' emerge in the timespan of 2004–2012. Based on this, it is claimed that descriptions of inclusion and exclusion are mutually constituted in the policy, thus giving rise to the question of whether the policy goal – ‘full' inclusion in society – is realisable. A paradox will be uncovered: minority language pupils are being included as excluded as well as excluded as included in the documents, displaying how inclusion and exclusion are two sides of the same coin. The strategy early intervention is introduced to remedy exclusions, thus converting the problem of inclusion into a problem of time.

The Cultural Memory of Society: A Systems Theoretical Approach

The concept of originated historically in Niklas Luhmann's systems theoretical analysis in the 18th century. With the exception of symbols or values, distinctions and comparisons play a vital role in the core of the modern concept of culture. From this perspective, the interest of comparison arises, therefore everything is perceived as culture with compared observation. Knowledge and education are offensive described, they are visualized as culture. Thus, the concept of culture in Luhmann's sense is an invention of communication that he calls semantics. Luhmann defines culture or semantics as a stock of subjects, whose social systems can help them. To Luhmann, society means communication and communication produces culture. In the context of culture, Luhmann refers to the memory of society. Culture is perceived as the memory of modern society and social systems, which acts as a filter of obsolescence or memory. Memory distinguishes the function in the present, past or future and does not act as an archive or knowledge store. The aim of this paper is to analyze Luhmann's cultural theory in depth and to outline how the concept of system memory, individual memory and political memory differ.

‘Disorderly conduct’: on the unruly rules of public communication in social network sites

AbstractIn this article, we examine typical styles and practices of public communication on social network sites (SNSs) in order to confront the traditional concept of publics as machines for creating order. Through an ethnographic case study of the SNS Facebook, we show how indeterminacy, ambiguity and constant irritation, rather than arguments or reason, produce the communicative order. A decidedly disorderly style of communication and connectivity emerges. Indeterminacy, from our point of view, is a solution to the problem of speaking privately in public and to an indefinite audience. We use these findings to problematize the insights of network theory and Niklas Luhmann's systems theory that only out of noise can we generate order – we can also generate it through noise. Since order undermines itself through the creation of ambiguous communicative possibilities, a new kind of public sphere is created.

THE MEDIATIZED CO‐MEDIATIZER: ANTHROPOLOGY IN NIKLAS LUHMANN'S WORLD

Abstract This essay explores what it means to be human in an age of infomedia. Appropriating Niklas Luhmann's systems theory/media theory in dialogue with other resources, I propose a post‐Luhmannian paradigm of (1) extended media/meaning that conceives the world as world multimedia systems processing variegated meanings, and (2) an embodied, contextualized soft posthumanist anthropology that conceives the human as emergent collective phenomena of distinct meaning making by body‐mind‐society‐technology media couplings. I argue: (1) Homo sapiens is Homo medialis distinct with mediatic communication that emerged to cope with contingencies. (2) Evolution is the mediatization/codification of the world that culminated with the outcome of Homo medialis uniquely equipped to process transcendent meanings and to mediatize the world via diverse media—Mediatized Co‐Mediatizer or Codified Co‐Codifier. (3) This anthropic universe is possibly the most “meaningful” (full of meaning possibilities) of all possible worlds. (4) Social fragmentation could be an optimization; science‐and‐religion is an infomedium optimizing religion's manifest and science’ latent observation of divine manifestations.

The Hegemony of Meaning: Is There an Exit to Meaning in Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory?

The Hegemony of Meaning: Is There an Exit to Meaning in Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory?

Using the Documentary Method to Analyze Organizational Systems (Der Einsatz Der Dokumentarischen Methode Zur Analyse Professionell-Organisierter Systeme)

The Documentary Method as method for analyzing qualitative data is similar to Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory in its epistemological foundations. This paper discusses the use of a systems theory approach as meta theory for qualitative research and gives examples of how this affects the research process including data interpretation.

“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.