scholarly journals Response to Nadia Stoyanova Kennedy & David Kennedy. Communicative Competencies and the Structuration of Expectations: the Creative Tension between Habermas’ Critical Theory and Luhmann’s Social Systems Theory

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loet Leydesdorff
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Social Systems Theory ◽  
Theory Of Communicative Action ◽  
Creative Tension ◽  
Special Case

  I elaborate on the tension between Luhmann’s social systems theory and Habermas’ theory of communicative action, and argue that this tension can be resolved by focusing on language as the interhuman medium of the communication which enables us to develop symbolically generalized media of communication such as truth, love, power, etc. Following Luhmann, the layers of self-organization among the differently codified subsystems of communication versus organization of meaning at contingent interfaces can analytically be distinguished as compatible, yet empirically researchable alternatives to Habermas’ distinction between “system” and “lifeworld.” Mediation by a facilitator can then be considered as a special case of organizing historically contingent translations among the evolutionarily developing fluxes of intentions and expectations. Accordingly, I suggest modifying Giddens’ terminology into “a theory of the structuration of expectations.”

Reframing Habermas’s colonization thesis: Neoliberalism as relinguistification

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843102097078
Author(s):  
Roderick Condon
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Social Systems Theory ◽  
The Way

While the critique of neoliberalism, as the form of contemporary capitalism, has been advanced from Marxian and Foucauldian perspectives, it has had limited attention from the perspective of Critical Theory. Largely unrecognized is the suitability of the theory of reification for this critique, specifically, Habermas’s version. This article reconsiders Habermas’s colonization thesis as the basis for a critical theory of neoliberalism, refining its theoretical framework to deepen its critical diagnosis. Against the dismissal of the system–lifeworld concept, a novel critique is advanced to suggest its original elaboration fell confusedly between two versions of social systems theory. Drawing from late developments, the scheme is reinterpreted as distinguishing two forms of communication in capitalist society: delinguistified and linguistic. This opens the way to reframe and communicatively transform colonization as relinguistification; that is, the translation of monetary coding into ordinary language such that communicative action is distorted from within by reifying concepts.

On gambling

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-96
Author(s):  
Mario Wenning
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Systems Theory ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Specific Mode ◽  
Proper Timing ◽  
Games Of Chance ◽  
Rational Calculation

The gambler’s probing of luck in games of chance cannot be reduced to rational calculation. The art of gambling flourishes at the margins of societies and undermines the correlation of effort and entitlement. This paper interprets the peculiar thrill of gambling in modern times by drawing on social systems theory and critical theory. It argues that gambling is a specific mode of agency that consists in a playful engagement with risk and contingency. The gambler reveals a highly aroused and yet passive consciousness. Success in gambling depends on the art of proper timing as well as a preconscious awareness of fortune.

Managing uncertainty in healthcare interpreter-mediated interaction

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-164
Author(s):  
Claudio Baraldi ◽  
Laura Gavioli
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Social Systems Theory ◽  
Intercultural Mediators ◽  
Or History

This paper analyses healthcare interactions involving doctors, migrant patients and ‘intercultural mediators’ who provide interpreting services. Our study is based on a collection of 300 interactions involving two language pairs, Arabic–Italian and English–Italian. The analytical framework includes conversation analysis combined with insights from social systems theory. We look at question-answer sequences, where (1) the doctors ask questions about patients’ problems or history, (2) the doctors’ questions are responded to and (3) the doctor closes the sequence, moving on to another question. We analyse the ways in which mediators help doctors design questions for patients and patients understand and eventually respond to the doctors’ design. While the doctor’s question design aims at obtaining details which are relevant for the patients’ care, it is argued that collecting such details involves complex interactional work. In particular, doctors need help in displaying their attention to their patients’ problems and in guiding patients’ responses into medically relevant directions. Likewise, patients need help in reacting appropriately. Mediators help manage communicative uncertainty both by showing the doctor’s interest in what the patient says, and by exploring and rendering the patient’s incomplete, extended and ambiguous answers to the doctor’s questions.

scholarly journals Pragmática transcendental y filosofía social: Karl Otto Apel, Jürgen Habermas y la nueva fundamentación de la Teoría Crítica

Daímon ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
César Ortega Esquembre
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Theory Of Communicative Action ◽  
Normative Foundation

El objetivo de este artículo es defender que la pragmática transcendental ofrece la fundamentación normativa de la teoría crítica como teoría de la acción comunicativa. Para ello se expondrá en primer lugar el problema de la normatividad en la Teoría Crítica de la sociedad. Tras describir la forma que adquiere esta teoría tras el giro lingüístico operado por Jürgen Habermas, se reconstruirán en tercer lugar los elementos fundamentales de la pragmática transcendental apeliana y habermasiana. En cuarto y último lugar se mostrará que este modelo constituye la fundamentación normativa de la nueva teoría crítica. The aim of this paper is to argue that transcendental pragmatics constitutes the normative foundation of critical theory, understood as theory of communicative action. To that end, the issue of normativity within Critical Theory discussions is first exposed. After describing the form this theory takes from the linguistic turn carried out by Jürgen Habermas, key elements of Karl Otto Apel´s and Jürgen Habermas´ transcendental pragmatics are thirdly reconstructed. Fourth paragraph shows that this model operates as the normative foundation of the new critical theory.

Determinants of family meetings in private family businesses

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akif Cicek ◽  
Rüveyda Kelleci ◽  
Pieter Vandekerkhof
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Governance Mechanisms ◽  
Social Systems Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Family Governance ◽  
Family Meetings ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family

PurposeFamily governance mechanisms serve to govern and strengthen relations between the family and the business, as well as the relationships between the members of the business family itself. However, despite agreement on the importance of adopting family governance structures, explicit research on the determinants of family governance mechanisms is currently missing. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to uncover the determinants of family meetings. In order to do so, the social systems theory is used to unravel several determining factors of this crucial form of family governance mechanisms in private family firms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors perform a qualitative study by conducting semi-structured interviews in eight Belgian private family firms in order to discover the antecedents of the implementation of family meetings. The authors use a pattern-matching technique as an analytical strategy.FindingsThe findings of the study highlight the importance of “soft,” relational, qualitative issues as antecedents of family meetings as opposed to previous research on family governance, which predominantly focused on “hard,” quantitative measures (e.g. family ownership). The findings of the study also provide novel insights into the origins of the family component (i.e. family meetings) of family business governance.Originality/valueWhile the current literature has only focused on describing the different types of family governance and their positive consequences for the family firm, the authors take a step back to explain why family meetings, as a form of family governance, are adopted in the first place. Second, the authors demonstrate the instrumentality of the social systems theory in understanding the family's needs that necessitate the implementation of family governance mechanisms.

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