Sexuality and systems theory: from symbiotic mechanism to functional differentiation

2020 ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
Jean-Sebastian Guy
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Functional Differentiation

Moral communication and legal uncertainty in small and medium enterprises

Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Winczorek
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Theoretical Issue ◽  
Sociology Of Law ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Moral Communication ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Legal Uncertainty

PurposeThe links between moral communication and legal communication have long been studied in sociology of law. Little has yet been said about moral communication invoking when communication in the legal system is impossible, ineffective or uncertain. The paper fills this gap to demonstrate that systems theory-based sociology of law can effectively recognise the role of moral communication in such situations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an empirical study of moral communication in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It focused on situations when SMEs' interactions with function systems, particularly the legal system, result in irremovable legal uncertainty. The data depict strategies of managing such uncertainty and were obtained in a paths-to-justice survey of 7,292 owners and managers of SMEs and 101 in-depth interviews. The findings are interpreted using the author's concept of “uncertainty translation”, rooted in Luhmann's systems theory. It suggests that business organisations such as SMEs deal with the ubiquitous uncertainty in their operations by translating it into a convenient type.FindingsThe study distinguishes between formative and absorbing moral communication and finds that both types play a role in steering the uncertainty translation mechanism in SMEs. Six scenarios of invoking moral communication are identified in SMEs dealing with legal uncertainty. In such scenarios, moral communication facilitates the translation of business uncertainty “away from law”. Under some circumstances, this, in turn, leads to latent systematic results, reflexively affecting the legal system, the economic system and the SMEs.Research limitations/implicationsIn its core argument, the study is based on qualitative material. While it identifies empirical scenarios of invoking moral communication, it does not report the prevalence of these scenarios due to methodological limitations.Originality/valueThe study results pose questions related to the staple theoretical issue in post-Luhmannian social systems theory: functional differentiation. If moral communication–a type of communication not linked to any social system–can produce far-reaching, systematic results that affect function systems, then the functional differentiation thesis should be less pronounced than Luhmann typically stressed. This said, the paper argues that the contradiction between the findings and Luhmannian theory of morality is only apparent and may be reconciled.

Systems Theory and Journalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin Scholl ◽  
Maja Malik
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
External Observer

Observing, describing, and analyzing journalism as part of society requires theories on a macro level. Unlike normative theories, which criticize journalism with respect to its achievements and failures within society, systems theory operates with the concept of function in a non-normative sense. Based on the groundwork of Talcott Parsons’ theory of social systems, Niklas Luhmann developed systems theory further and radicalized it by strictly avoiding any kind of structural conservatism. His approach is built on the assumption that social systems operate autonomously on the basis of the functional differentiation to their environment. Macro-level systems, i.e., societal systems, fulfill unique functions for and within society. Functional autonomy and singularity make a modern society highly efficient but force each system to rely on the functional performances of all other societal systems. Hence, societal systems are structurally coupled and interdependent. Epistemologically, systems do not exist as ontological units but are strictly observer-related, be the observer the system itself or an external observer, such as the scientific community is. In journalism research, Luhmann’s systems theory has been applied to journalism as a societal system. Several competing approaches with different perspectives on the system observed (journalism, the mass media, or the public sphere) have been developed with respect to identifying the basic characteristics on which the system operates. Despite their differences they have this in common: journalism is not considered the sum of individual journalists and their (individual) way of working, instead, the systems-theoretical perspective is holistic. However, compared to theories of professionalism, which is also a holistic concept, systems theory neither identifies journalism with the profession of journalism, nor commits it to professional journalism. Instead, the structure of journalism is flexible, i.e., functionally equivalent, as long as its function is fulfilled. This function can be specified: journalism provides society periodically with current, independent, factual, and relevant information. Empirically, systems theory helps defining the population of journalists by deducing it from its function. Unlike mere empirical approaches, which arbitrarily draw samples from an unknown population, it is possible to clearly draw distinctions between journalism and other forms of public communication, such as public relations, advertising, propaganda, or lay communication. Still, it is challenging to operationalize such an abstract theory, as it is not specially made for hypothesis-driven research.

scholarly journals The Theory of Functional Differentiation and the History of Modern Society. Reflections on the Reception of Systems Theory in Recent Historiography

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ziemann
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Katholische Kirche ◽  
History Of

ZusammenfassungAnders als andere Elemente von Luhmanns soziologischer Systemtheorie ist seine Theorie funktionaler Differenzierung unter Historikern der modernen Gesellschaft kaum rezipiert worden. Der Aufsatz diskutiert einige Ursachen für diese Situation. Ein wichtiger Grund ist die Persistenz eines älteren, Parson’schen Differenzierungskonzepts mit der Annahme einer stabilen, drei- oder viergliederigen Differenzierungsform. Ein anderer Grund ist die von vielen Sozialhistorikern - insbesondere als Reaktion auf die Welle der Kulturgeschichte seit den 1980er Jahren - vertretene Ansicht, dass die Ökonomie der Kern der modernen Gesellschaft sei, und dass diese deshalb immer noch am besten als eine durch ökonomische Ungleichheit bestimmte Klassengesellschaft zu verstehen ist. Der Aufsatz diskutiert ferner die Anwendung der Differenzierungstheorie von Luhmann in der Sozialgeschichte der Religion. Dort ist sie am Beispiel der katholischen Kirche benutzt worden, um Säkularisierung als einen reversiblen Prozess zu konzeptualisieren, in dem die katholische Kirche mit ihren pastoralen Strategien auf Folgeprobleme funktionaler Differenzierung reagiert.

Theoretical Conversation and Conceptual Transplants Between Economics and Systems Theory: Towards an Interpretative Passe-partout of Functional Systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Appignanesi
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Social System ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
General Systems Theory ◽  
Optimal Point ◽  
Change Factors ◽  
Social System Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
General Systems

General systems theory is based on functional differentiation and operational closure, which make autopoiesis possible. However, in the current complex framework, the model proposed by Luhmann seems to need some supplements in order to explain the evolutionary dynamics of world society. While adopting a systemic approach and using its related theoretical tools, the focus is shifted from the inside of a system to its boundaries. The thesis proposed is the integration between the principle of functional differentiation and that of functional connectivity. To prove such an assumption and overcome the limitations of operational closure, the Luhmannian concept of ‘structural coupling’ is used, but theoretical tools borrowed from economics (trade-off, optimal point) are also employed. This interdisciplinary integration makes it possible to argue the shift of the sociological paradigm from ‘functionalism of differences’ towards ‘functionalism of links’. Constitutive and evolutionary dynamics seem to be connected with the optimum combination of the system’s openness and closure and the ability to establish intersystemic communication channels, where the latter determines resilience to the change factors of the environment. And it is this constant disposition to change that enables the reproduction of the social system. JEL: Z Other special topics: (Social System Theory)

Expert vs. influencer: Philosophy presented under conditions of second-order observation

Human Affairs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-478
Author(s):  
Hans-Georg Moeller ◽  
Rory O’neill ◽  
Chiang Hio Fai
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Critical Philosophy ◽  
Social Contingency ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract Philosophy is presented in a wide range of forms, none of which can be convincingly claimed to be the “genuine” one. Historically speaking, there is not one “proper” way of doing philosophy, evidencing what may be called the social contingency of philosophy. This paper aims to provide a “critical” philosophy of today, in the Kantian sense of a philosophy that reflects on the conditions of its possibility, and thereby acknowledges the limitations they impose. Conceptually, our approach is grounded in Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, in which “functional differentiation” and “second-order observation” are two crucial characteristics of modern society. The paper discusses how presentations of philosophy align themselves with the second-order observation mechanisms of the specific social systems in which they are “hosted.” This paper deals in particular with two such systems: academics and social (or mass) media. These forms of presenting philosophy produce two different kinds of philosophy presenters: the expert and the influencer.

scholarly journals Understanding the multiple voices of Islamic modernities: The case of Jihad

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-86
Author(s):  
Dietrich Jung
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Multiple Modernities ◽  
Islamic Reform ◽  
Multiple Voices ◽  
Global Modernity

In making a contribution to the debate on multiple modernities, this article addresses the growing fragmentation of contemporary interpretations of Islamic religious traditions. It argues that the polysemic nature of these interpretations mirrors to a certain extent the increasing functional differentiation of modern society. To substantiate this argument, the paper will first present a theoretical framework of global modernity that selectively draws on theories of multiple modernities, Modern Systems Theory, and of (post-)structuralist thinking. The empirical part of the paper takes the case of the Islamic institution of Jihad as its illustrative example. From a genealogical perspective, it analyses a number of steps of the (re-)interpretation of Islamic religious traditions from the classical period of pre-modern Islamic empires, via the Islamic reform movement of the nineteenth century, to the multiple voices of Islamic modernities in contemporary times.

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