scholarly journals NIKLAS LUHMANN’S SOCIAL SYSTEMS THEORY: THE ISSUE OF SUBSYSTEM AUTONOMY

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (4/2020) ◽  
pp. 151-170
Author(s):  
Milorad Djuric ◽  
Djordje Stojanovic
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
Dynamic Complexity ◽  
Theoretical Position ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Classical Sociology

Niklas Luhmann articulates the basic elements of his authentic theoretical position as criticism of, as he calls them, classical sociology or classical organisation theory. While within these orientations, (social) systems are mainly interpreted as centralised entities whose structures are stabilised by purpose determined at the top, Luhmann, in his general theory of social systems privileges internal differentiation in which subsystems autonomously define their purposes, making society more flexible and capable of responding to environmental challenges. In that sense, the main intention of this paper is the creation of cognitive interest for the notions of complexity and flexibility, i.e. for the issue of subsystem autonomy, as the important elements of Luhmann’s general theory of social systems. Our premise is that the establishment of subsystem autonomy is not a matter of mere, a priori, theoretical and/or practical arbitrariness, nor does it mean an introduction into deconstruction of the system, but it represents a necessary step in the creation of successful responses of the social system to problems arising from the immense and dynamic complexity of its own environment. In other words, through the process of internal differentiation, by establishing subsystem autonomy, the social system increases its own complexity, i.e. ability to adjust to the environment. Thus, challenges arising from the environment are not transferred to the whole, but localised and processed in the appropriate, autonomous parts of the system. By so increasing its internal complexity, the system undeniably acquires the necessary flexibility, or capability for a faster and more efficient creation of alternative.

Space, Modernity, and Emptiness: Some American Examples

2014 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-174
Author(s):  
John Corrigan
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Church History ◽  
Georg Simmel ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social

One of the ways in which Christian groups responded to the challenges of modernity was by positioning themselves differently in space. In the interest of better understanding that process, let us think for a moment about the social system, the social space to be precise, within which groups exist. As one starting point for that, it is useful to acknowledge that social groups define themselves in relation to others. Specifically, groups define themselves by saying what they are not as much as by saying what they are. If we are to believe the German social systems theorist Niklas Luhmann, a leading advocate of the notion of social system, difference is prior to identity. That is to say—and this is the core of Luhmann's “difference” theory—one distinguishes a table from other objects before one indicates what it is (Luhmann adds, paradoxically, that distinction presupposes itself). His grand theory has shortcomings, but his point is that social groups create and maintain collective identity by defining themselves in relation to other groups, and especially by saying what they are not. They push off from other groups in defining themselves. We could extend that approach by stating that groups sometimes behave as if they lack a clear collective self-understanding; that is, they lack a fully formed core identity that they can marshall in a positive fashion against a field of other groups. They accordingly define themselves in relation to other groups, define themselves via negativa, by differentiating—in some cases to a great degree—from other groups. Identity is built through such negative definition. The twentieth-century American theorist of social conflict Lewis Coser described that mode of thinking in The Functions of Social Conflict, an extended mediation on the social conflict theories of Georg Simmel, and sociologist of religion Martin Reisebrodt has observed more recently how Christianity invents itself principally by distinguishing itself from other religious practices and beliefs. The process is evident among Christian groups in modernity as it was in early modern Europe. When we focus on how it has manifested spatially, we see the modern in American church history as a broad spectrum of occurrences demonstrating complexity, multivalence, competition, and differentiation.

Dialectics of the Development of the Integrated Social Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-168
Author(s):  
Alexander A. Somkin
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Dialectical Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Successful Resolution ◽  
Determining Factor

Introduction. The paper analyzes the specificity of the dialectical development of the integrated social systems of such a personality and society. The presence of positive (natural) contradictions is recognized as a necessary and creative factor in social practice. Under the influence of this type of contradiction, the old, outdated forms of social structure (individual components of the social system) are denied and transformed to new, more perfect ones occurs as a result of their successful resolution. Methods. In the analysis, the author relied on a system-holistic approach, traditional general philosophical methods: induction and deduction, theoretical analysis and synthesis, extrapolation, etc. Discussion. The social system as an integrated unity goes through a number of stages from inception, formation and maturity to the transition to a qualitatively new state. Accordingly, the process of the emergence and development of dialectical contradictions also has several stages: from insignificant differences between opposite sides at the beginning of the emergence of the system to their strengthening and exacerbation. The nature of the contradictions depends on the specifics of the opposing sides, as well as on the conditions in which their interaction unfolds. The determining factor here, in the opinion of the author, is the positive (natural) direction of social opposition, under the influence of which the essence of the contradictions themselves is formed. Conclusion. According to the dialectical approach, the source of social development is the unity and struggle of opposites within the social system. However, the presence of opposite sides is a necessary but insufficient condition for development. They create the preconditions for it, but do not act as its driving force. Only a change in one opposition relative to another creates alternative tension, giving rise to a dialectical contradiction. Therefore, the antagonistic or non-antagonistic character of the latter is due to the positive (natural) or negative character of the social opposition itself.

scholarly journals Crossing boundaries: Social-scientific reading of the faith of a Canaanite woman (Mt 15:21–28)

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mookgo S Kgatle
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
South African ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
African Women ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
South African Women ◽  
Canaanite Woman

Social-scientific criticism refers to an interpretation of the biblical text that takes into cognizance the social system that produced that text. This article presents a social scientific reading of the faith of a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21–28. The article outlines models of social systems in Matthew 15:21–28 like landscape and spatiality, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, purity, and social status in order to achieve a social scientific reading. The purpose of this article is to firstly demonstrate that the models of social system in Matthew 15:21–28 served as boundaries to the faith of a Canaanite woman. Secondly, it is to demonstrate that the Canaanite woman crossed such boundaries in Matthew 15:21–28 for her daughter to receive healing. Lastly, the Canaanite woman serves as a model for South African women today who have to cross boundaries like landscape and spatiality, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, purity, and social status.

scholarly journals Reflection of documents in the digital twin of the company and calculation of their impact on human behavior in the simulation model

E-Management ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
M. V. Samosudov
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Control Effect ◽  
Economic Space ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
System Operating

The formation and formation of the Industry 4.0 concept stimulated the discussion of the use of computer technology in various areas of economic activity and, in particular, in the automation of social systems management. The basis of the concept is the inclusion of a virtual image of the social system in the form of a mathematical model or a digital twin of the enterprise in the production and management system. At the same time, it should be noted that today digital twin are created mainly only for technical objects used in the activities of enterprises. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the possibility of fixing organizational documents as one of the system-forming factors in the digital twin of an enterprise. This circumstance makes it possible, firstly, to more accurately calculate the managerial effects of managers by taking into account the impact of organizational documents on the activities of employees of the enterprise; secondly, to identify conflicts of documents developed by various departments of the company; thirdly, to calculate the content of documents during their development (design), based on the requirements of the situation or a given control effect. This possibility arises due to the use of a comprehensive mathematical model of the social system operating in an active environment. The model is a simulation agent-based model and allows you to calculate the dynamics of the social system in the socio-economic space, which allows its use in decision support systems by managers of any scale and activities to calculate the expected effect of management decisions – the specifics of a particular social system are taken into account by combining the values of the phase variables describing the state of the enterprise. The novelty of the research paper lies in the fact that it shows: the possibility to calculate the influence of organizational documents on the behavior of participants and, consequently, on the result of the social system, as well as the mechanism for converting messages, which are invariants of socio-economic space into information that affects the behavior of participants of relations.

scholarly journals Globalization as a socio-environmental equilibrium: applying Luhmann`s theory to Integrated Reporting

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 01028
Author(s):  
Evgnii Razumov
Keyword(s):  
Social Systems ◽  
World System ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
International Accounting Standards ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
The Social

International accounting standards systems are able to define borders by producing reference codes for institutional, informational and cultural codes. Such ways of influence are similar to globalization in other societal spaces: for example internalization of trade systems has been produced by creating institutes and organizations as well as miscellaneous standards. These tendencies have been highlighted by Niklas Luhmann through differentiation of borders determinants of a system. And this operational determination of globalization as continual creation of the world system is to be highly appreciated for comprehensive analysis of the last developments in accounting and reporting field influenced by environmental issues. In this paper three-tier classification of globalization in terms of system definition proposed as development of Niklas Luhmann ideas. Through analysis of the mean shifts in reporting as social memory phenomenon and communication process accounting problems reformulated as world system`s issues and demonstrated existence of globalization as operational phenomenon for accountancy and social responsibility systems. Concepts of the social systems theory have been visualized and interpreted to determine possible ways of equilibrium states for human systems and environment. As a result main ways for integrated reporting application and its future development formulated.

scholarly journals Societal Aspects of Vulnerability to Natural Hazards

2012 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swen Zehetmair
Keyword(s):  
System Theory ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
Social Phenomena

Abstract To date, social vulnerability research has focused primarily on the individual and household levels, and on social institutions relevant to these two benchmarks. In this paper, a widening of the perspective of social vulnerability to natural hazards is proposed to include socio-structural aspects. For a number of reasons, the sociological system theory, which is inextricably linked with the name of Niklas Luhmann, is an obvious choice for this undertaking. Firstly, Luhmann developed a consistent social theoretical definition of risk, which has significantly influenced risk and hazard research in social science. Furthermore, the system theory provides a theory of society that claims to be able to cover all social levels and to describe all social phenomena. The system theory assumes that in modern society social systems are formed of communications. Therefore, in this paper the view is taken that a system-theoretical inspired concept of social vulnerability must also assess communication. First, this paper describes empirical observations about the vulnerability of social systems. This is achieved on the one hand through a categorisation of four forms of social vulnerability. On the other hand, it is based on examples of vulnerability to flood risks in selected social systems. Finally, consideration is given to a system-theoretical concept of social vulnerability that sees the sensitivity of a social system in each of the respective system structures. Vulnerabilities can only be observed for a particular social system, because the configuration of system structures differs from system to system. These fundamental considerations have to be further explored infuture work on a consistent social theoretical concept of vulnerability.

scholarly journals Actual Problems of Modeling Social Systems in the Digital Economy

2020 ◽  
pp. 16-24
Author(s):  
Maya Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
New Production ◽  
Additional Energy ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Social ◽  
Development Institutions ◽  
Technology Parks

In the scientific and production sphere, components of robotics and sensors, wireless communication technologies, virtual and augmented reality technologies, quantum technologies, neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence, distributed registry systems, new production technologies, industrial Internet are being introduced. Russia has created an infrastructure of science and innovation represented by various development institutions, business incubators, technology parks, which is planned to be used for the development of the digital economy. In the context of globalization, digital technologies are able to perform an important function of the social integration of mankind into a single metasystem, which is possible only with a certain degree of openness of social systems in relation to each other. Being artificially isolated from the external environment, the social system behaves according to the laws of physical systems in thermodynamics: the dissipation (dispersion) of energy is accompanied by an increase in entropy (disorder) in the system. The absence of feedbacks within the system and in relation to the external environment deprives the source of additional energy, leads to the wear, simplification, disorganization of the system. The article analyzes the factors affecting functioning of social systems, features and prospects of their development in the conditions of the digital economy. The author considers some parameters characterizing society as a social system.

scholarly journals Distributed artificial intelligence, diversity and information literacy

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kåhre
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Strong Artificial Intelligence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Symbolic Ai

My proposal is based on my doctoral dissertation On the Shoulders of AI-technology : Sociology of Knowledge and Strong Artificial Intelligence which I succesfully defended on May 29th 2009. E-published http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=12588&postid=1389611 The dissertation is concerned with Sociology’s stance in the debate on Strong Artificial Intelligence,.i.e. AI-systems that is able to shape knowledge on their own. There is a need for sociologists to realize the difference between two approaches to constructing AI systems: Symbolic AI (or Classic AI) and Connectionistic AI in a distributed model – DAI. Sociological literature shows a largely critical attitude towards Symbolic AI, an attitude that is justified. The main theme of the dissertation is that DAI is not only compatible with Sociology’s approach to what is social, but also constitutes an apt model of how a social system functions. This is consolidated with help from german sociologist Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. A lot of sociologists criticize AI because they think that diversity is important and can only be comprehended in informal circumstances that only humans interacting together can handle. They mean that social intelligence is needed to make something out of diversity and informalism. Luhmann´s systems theory gives the opposite perspective. It tells us that it is social systems that communicate and produce new knowledge structures out of contincency. Psychological systems, i.e. humans, can only think within the circumstances the social system offer. In that way human thoughts are bound by formalism. Diversity is constructed when the social systems interact with complexity in their environments. They reduce the complexity and try to present it as meaningful diversity. Today when most of academic literature is electronically stored and is accessible through the Internet from al over the world, DAI can help social systems to observe and reduce complexity in this global dimension. It is pointed out that human consciousness is limited in handling this global dimension. Therefore is it reasonable to argue that DAI in at least this dimension has a stronger intelligence than humans have. I will argue that Luhmann´s social theory and DAI give a god model to analyze the conditions for diversity in the Internet society. Further, the discussion about strong AI gives a lot of opportunities to discuss what sort of information literacy is needed and it also gives some perspective to discuss the concept of IL I have observed that the concept has evolved from something that coined some formal capacities, to something that has to do with a capacity to observe informal relations. That discussion can easily be compared to a parallel discussion within the debate about strong AI.

scholarly journals Representation of Social Systems as Nonlinear, Complex, Self-Organizing and Closely Related to Biosystems and Mathematical Model of Their Evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 248 ◽  
pp. 03008
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Romanova ◽  
Ludmila Uvarova
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Social System ◽  
High Probability ◽  
General Structure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Graphic Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spiral Structures ◽  
The Mathematical Model ◽  
Self Organizing

On the basis of the systemic and synergistic approaches, the features and regularity of the selforganizing systems, it is concluded that the social systems are nonlinear, open, complex, self-organizing systems. The scheme-model of the general structure of the social system is considered. Much attentions is given to the interactions of the social systems elements with the biosystems. The graphic model-tree, reflecting the association between the social systems and the biosystems. In connection with that the most significant technologies and the scientific trends, connecting with the biosystems: the gens, the genetic engineering, the artificial intellect, the bio- and nanotechnologies, the biomedicine, microbes, viruses are considered. The futures of the dynamics of the social systems are noted. It is shown, that, with a high probability, the spiral evolutionary processes can occur in the social systems. The mathematical model is presented, that describes the spiral structures, based on the Swift-Hohenberg equation.

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