Social Systems

by Niklas Luhmann, John Bednarz Jr. (Translator), Dirk Baecker (Translator)

A major challenge confronting contemporary theory is to overcome its fixation on written narratives and the culture of print. In this presentation of a general theory of systems, Germany's most prominent and controversial social thinker sets out a contribution to sociology that reworks our understanding of meaning and communication. Luhmann concedes that there is no longer a binding representation of society within society, but refuses to describe this situation as a loss of legitimation or a crisis of representation. Instead, he proposes that we search for new ways of coping with the enforced selectivity that marks any self-description under the conditions of functionally differentiated modern society. For Luhmann, the end of metanarratives does not mean the end of theory, but a challenge to theory, an invitation to open itself to theoretical developments in a number of disciplines that, for quite some time, have been successfully working with cybernetic models that no longer require the fiction of the external observer. Social Systems provides the foundation for a theory of modern society that would be congruent with this new understanding of the world. One of the most important contributions to social theory of recent decades, it has implications for many disciplines beyond sociology.

Genres: Sociology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, Society, Social Science, Reference

682 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

Niklas Luhmann was a German sociologist, and a prominent thinker in systems theory, who is increasingly recognized as one of the most important social theorists of the 20th century.

Luhmann wrote prolifically, with more than 70 books and nearly 400 scholarly articles published on a variety of subjects, including law, economy, politics, art, religion, ecology, mass media, and love. While his theories have yet to make a major mark in American sociology, his theory is currently well known and popular in German sociology and has also been rather intensively received in Japan and Eastern Europe, including Russia. His relatively low profile elsewhere is partly due to the fact that translating his work is a difficult task, since his writing presents a challenge even to readers of German, including many sociologists. (p. xxvii Social System 1995)

Much of Luhmann's work directly deals with the operations of the legal system and his autopoietic theory of law is regarded as one of the more influential contributions to the sociology of law and socio-legal studies.

Luhmann is probably best known to North Americans for his debate with the critical theorist Jürgen Habermas over the potential of social systems theory. Like his one-time mentor Talcott Parsons, Luhmann is an advocate of "grand theory," although neither in the sense of philosophical foundationalism nor in the sense of "meta-narrative" as often invoked in the critical works of post-modernist writers. Rather, Luhmann's work tracks closer to complexity theory broadly speaking, in that it aims to address any aspect of social life within a universal theoretical framework - of which the diversity of subjects he wrote about is an indication. Luhmann's theory is sometimes dismissed as highly abstract and complex, particularly within the Anglophone world, whereas his work has had a more lasting influence on scholars from German-speaking countries, Scandinavia and Italy.

Luhmann himself described his theory as "labyrinth-like" or "non-linear" and claimed he was deliberately keeping his prose enigmatic to prevent it from being understood "too quickly", which would only produce simplistic misunderstandings.

Reviews

[Anna Carina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keine Rezension - erste emotionale subjektive Reaktion

Das Buch zu lesen macht mich unglücklich.
Ich verstehe nun warum Luhmann als unlesbar gilt. Er stellt grundlegende linear, intuitive Denkmuster in Frage und arbeitet auf einer abstrakten Ebene, die es mir nahezu unmöglich macht das Gelesene einer anderen Person verständlich wiederzugeben und zu erklären.
Er richtet sich an Personen die bereits viel Vorwissen in soziologischen, erkenntnistheoretischen, kybernetischen Denkrichtungen haben. Die Latte an verweisender Literatur in den Fußnoten ist exorbitant.
Ich habe oft nur 10 Seiten in 3 Stunden geschafft. Im Grunde müsste ich zu jedem Gedanken direkt eins der angeführten Bücher nehmen, um den Gedanken nachvollziehen und durchdringen zu können und wäre für die nächsten 10 Jahre beschäftigt.
Ich erlebe auf über 600 Seiten eine inspirierende Denkwelt, die mich völlig überfordert.
Da ich zuvor die "Phänomenologie" von Hegel gelesen habe, konnte ich zumindest einige seiner Gedankengänge nachvollziehen und einordnen. Allerdings ist Hegel eine ähnliche Nummer. Ich bin begeistert und kann es nicht verständlich kommunizieren. Dh. ich verbringe Monate mit diesen Büchern, um einsam mit meinen Gedanken vor mich hinzuschmachten, da ich überall wo ich versuche diese Gedankenwelt zu kommunizieren auf Unverständnis und Widerstand stoße, auf den ich nicht reagieren kann, da die Durchdringung der Gedanken fehlt, ich selber nur fragmentarische Fetzen dazu reproduzieren kann.
Luhmanns Denken, ist wie das Hegels und Lacans ein geistiges zu Hause für mich geworden. Paradoxerweise eins, das mich hilflos und allein zurück lässt. So spezialisiert, so komplex - eine radikale, schmerzhafte Erfahrung der eigenen Begrenztheit. Hilflosigkeit.
Ohne entsprechende kognitive Kapazitäten fliegt einem das um die Ohren. Insofern kann ich es nur an komplexe Denker, mit einer außergewöhnlichen kognitiven Leistungsfähigkeit als Leseempfehlung aussprechen, die mit einem mächtig tollen Ego gesegnet sind. Über beides verfüge ich nicht, weshalb ich gerade schniefend am Boden liege und das Buch so gar nicht abfeiern kann.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's kind of difficult to know what to say about this book. It's a complete overhaul of sociological thought from the very basics up. This makes it a very dense and demanding read which took me about 6 months. As Luhmann says in the introduction, the book is intended as a "paradigm shift" for sociology based on a similar paradigm shift in general systems theory and second-order cybernetics. The level of theoretical complexity is uncompromising and unrelenting.

It's impossible to summarize it's main "argument" here without without bastardizing it. But in a nutshell, Luhmann suggests that society should be studied as a plurality of operationally closed systems, each with their own specific functions, codes and system rationality. The book is therefore an explanation of how social systems autopoietically reproduce themselves; how they generate their own structures, how they differentiate themselves from their environment, how the non-triviality of social systems means they will always feedback into themselves in unpredictable and uncontrollable ways, and the consequences of this. It offers rigorous reformulations of important concepts like "meaning", "action", "communication", "interaction", "causality", "time" and more. It culminates in a general statement about epistemology which both relativizes the whole book, while at the same time calling for ambitious social theoretical investigations into specific social systems, as well as the system of society in general.

Is it successful? The sophistication of this book makes it very difficult for me to judge. I've never read anyone else in sociology who is anywhere near as penetrating a thinker as Niklas Luhmann. He tries to leave no stone unturned, even while incorporating the impossibility of doing that into the theory itself.
Thinking alongside Luhmann has been enlightening. I've been forced to completely re-examine very basic sociological concepts or ideas which I had thought I understood very well, but I now realize I was using in vague or tendentious ways, ways which really only served to disguise the uncertainties or inconsistencies of much sociological thought.
The effect of Luhmann's work on my thinking has made me both more critical and skeptical of many sociological claims, while at the same time making me more open and accommodating to the multifarious work that sociologists do.
I haven't fully made up my mind whether his theory of social systems is the "way forward" for sociology. I partially agree with Jurgen Habermas that Luhmann's work objectifies society in ways which tend to obscure or diminish the participant's perspective. But I also appreciate the rigor and depth of analysis that doing this allows.

For anyone interesting in starting out with Luhmann, I would not recommend beginning with this book. I would recommend the volume titled "Introduction to Systems Theory", which is a series of lectures he gave in the early 1990s. That's a book which covers similar ground, but is much more simplified and accessible by comparison. It should give the reader a good sense of whether it is worth the significant commitment of intellectual energy and time it takes to tackle "Social Systems".

[Sherwin]

It is really great. not only in the field of systemic sociology, but also in the domain of complex systems theory as a whole. dont miss it. although reading it is a bit difficult becasude of uncle Niklas' habot of overabstraction.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estructuralmente, la obra te va explicando -ordenadamente- los conceptos más relevantes de la teoría de sistemas aplicados específicamente a los sistemas sociales.
Es una teoría sociológica un tanto complicada, con paradojas y palabras pomposas, y considero que la redacción de Luhmann, no la hace más sencilla.

[Bria]

I don't remember why or how this ended up on my to-read list, but I always try to honor past Bria's recommendations so I gave it a go, but life is too precious and there are too many books to read for me to waste time on this kind of obscure mess.

[Expboid Colleagues]

"... based on Luhmann’s ideas, social systems are ‘autopoietic’ entities. Autopoietic systems have concrete structure and can learn, change and evolve by time within the boundary of the system in relation to the other systems. According to Luhmann, an autopoietic system which is more than to be an ‘autonomous system’, is ‘differentiated and closed’ from other systems and operates with communication through its own specific code and program. In short, ‘autopoiesis’ is the idea of self-producing and maintaining internal logic and boundaries through communication and information processing..."*

There are many books about systems, but a few about using systems concepts and methods in social systems realm. Some books are pure and technical and some other are ‘long storytelling’ with systems thinking skills ‘buried’ in the amazing puzzles! While systems science implies ‘polyphony’ in its nature, but in practice, there is ‘monophony’ in using it with titles dedicated to specific fields such as business. Texts written by the systems theory pioneers, emphasize on some ‘key points’ which are not present in the texts in social systems realm. Social systems texts are complex and suffer from ambiguities in reaching to a rational, concrete and comprehensive concept of a formal social system. Systems concepts and methods are useful in almost all the knowledge fields and transdisciplinary general text books for different audiences, especially in social systems and sciences realm, can help the readers in their daily dealings and scientific studies.

See the book:
* Systems Science and Social Systems: (Towards a Formal Theory of Social Systems)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F14YXJL7
https://www.amazon.com/dp/9198187546
This book, tries to establish a ‘common terminology and platform’ to present the ‘generic concepts and methods of systems’ and extend it to the social systems realm.

[Arys Aditya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebagai pemikir yang terobsesi dengan unifikasi ilmu pengetahuan, buku teoritik murni sistem sosial Luhmann agak di luar ekspektasi. Berbagai comotan yang dilakukan Luhmann agak mengganggu saya sebagai pembaca. Tapi Luhmann memang layak dihormati, usahanya telah menggemparkan banyak komunitas ilmuwan di berbagai negara.
Kabar baiknya, usaha Luhmann belum berhenti. Jadi mari kita nantikan bersama.