Systems Theory

Category: Theoretical approaches

German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) is best known for his theoretical approach, which he called autopoietic systems theory. The first period of Luhmann's career was marked by his attempt to create his version of functionalism. He criticized Parsons' functionalism because, in his opinion, he focused too much on the preconditions for maintaining the system. Instead, Luhmann argued that the causal link between structure and function should be explored, to examine functional equivalents and different structural solutions adopted by social systems that can perform the same function.

His studies of law, as well as his personal experience of working in state administration, influenced Luhmann to dedicate his first works to the application of functionalism to the study of law, as well as to the study of formal organizations and administration, and some of his most significant works from this phase are Function and Formal Organization (in German 1964), System Theory: Purposefulness and Rationality (in German1968b); A Sociological Theory of Law (1985, in German 1972). During this period, Luhmann also dealt with the problems of trust in society in the book Trust (1968a), and political power in the book Power (1975) (these two books were both published combined in the English language in one book, under the title Trust and Power, 1979 ), and the functional role of religion in society in the book Function of Religion (1977).

Systems Theory

At the beginning of the 1980s, the second phase of Luhmann's theoretical development began. During this period, Luhmann combined the theoretical foundations of functionalism with an interdisciplinary field known as "general systems theory." In his book Social Systems (1995, in German 1984), Luhmann presents the most thorough account of his theory. He starts by explaining the relationship between a system and its environment. Each system is always less complex than the surrounding environment. A system, to deal effectively with its own environment, must reduce complexity. That is why the system must choose between different possibilities, and each such choice brings with it a risk.

To further increase its efficiency, the system creates its own subsystems (Luhmann calls them "social systems") and various relationships between them. The aspect of general system theory that most influenced Luhmann is the concept of "autopoiesis". He applies the concept of autopoiesis to the study of the economic, legal, political, scientific, and bureaucratic systems. Autopoietic systems are those that create their own basic elements. Autopoietic systems are self-organizing in two ways. On the one hand, they organize their own boundaries - the boundaries between the system and the environment. On the other hand, these systems organize their internal structure.

Autopoietic systems have the property of being self-referential, that is, they possess mechanisms that regulate the system. These mechanisms act according to the internal logic of a subsystem, to organize that subsystem – money is a mechanism in the economy, and laws are mechanisms in the sphere of jurisprudence and law. Autopoietic systems are closed systems because they do not have a direct connection with their environment. The environment affects such systems only when their action disrupts the system itself. Such occasional disturbances of the system, by the environment, enable the system itself to better adapt to its environment.

Luhmann introduces three different levels of analysis of autopoietic systems: general systems theory, the theory of social systems, and the level of concrete analysis of social systems. Society (social system) represents an autopoietic system because it produces all its basic elements, establishes its boundaries, and is self-referential and closed in relation to the environment. The basic element of society, but also its product, is communication. One of the most important features of Luhmann's theory is that he does not see individuals as a part of either the entire social system or its subsystems. Individuals as biological organisms and as "psychic systems" are not part of the social system. Only those aspects of the individual's behavior that affect the functioning of the system, that is, communicate with the system, form part of the system. By psychic systems, Luhmann means the conscious part of the individual personality. Psychic systems and society, as a system of communication, have one thing in common, and that is that they depend on "meaning". The meaning in Luhmann's terminology refers to the decisions that the system makes. The significance of an action performed by the system is contained in the difference that the action has in relation to other, alternative actions that the system could have performed.

Systems such as psychic and social systems, which depend on meaning, are closed systems because: 1) meanings always refer to other meanings, 2) only meanings can change meanings, and 3) meanings usually produce meanings. Meaning creates the boundary of each of these systems. In the psychic system, something that has no meaning is seen as something that is outside the system, as the "cause" of our activities, while what has meaning is seen as "motivation" for our actions. In a social system, meaning is contained in the difference between communication within a system and noise coming from outside the system. Psychic and social systems have evolved in parallel with each other because each of these two types of systems represents a necessary environment for the other type of system. Conceptual representations are the basic elements of the psychic system of meaning. The basic elements of the social system of meaning are different forms of communication. The meanings that make up the social system are not the product of the individual's intentions. The meanings of the social system are not the product of specific words that a person utters but arise from the very choice to say exactly those words, and not some other, alternative words.

Every system must solve the problem of "double contingency". This problem relates to the fact that every communication must take into account the way it will be received, while, at the same time, it depends on the way the person receiving the communication evaluates the one who is communicating. This creates a vicious circle - both sides in communication depend on each other. The solution to this problem is for both parties that are communicating to know, as much as possible, about the other person and their intentions and expectations from the communication itself. The social structure creates standardized norms and roles by which people can, with a great deal of certainty, correctly interpret communication. Social structure (norms and roles) shape communication, which, in turn, shapes structure. The choices we make in each individual interaction are limited to the choices made in previous communications. In this way, security in the validity of communication is achieved.

Social Evolution

Luhmann sees social evolution as a process of "trial and error", and that process is not related to the idea of progress. Evolution consists of several parallel processes, each of which has a separate function. "Variation" is a process through which the system selects different solutions to respond to the challenges of the environment, and these choices are sometimes successful and sometimes not (trial and error). "Selection" is a process through which a type of answer to the challenges of the environment is chosen. The answer that is selected is not the best, but the one which is most easily reproduced as a stable and permanent structure. "Stabilization" is the process by which the system is "differentiated" to adapt the newly adopted structure to other parts of the system. Modern societies are characterized by the accelerated differentiation of the social system into an increasing number of subsystems. Each new subsystem has an environment that is the same for all other subsystems, but also an environment that is specific only to that subsystem. The whole social system, or some part of it, such as a large organization, adapts to the environment by differentiating within the system itself. This differentiation makes it possible to accelerate the evolution of the system.

Luhmann singles out five basic types of system differentiation: segmentation, hierarchical differentiation, center, and periphery differentiation, and functional differentiation, the differentiation of conforming/deviant. Segmentation refers to the creation of multiple segments that have an identical function, but better solve that function when they operate separately. For example, each family has the same functions but performs them better by solving them separately. hierarchical differentiation refers to the formation of vertical hierarchical levels, where each level performs a specific function in the system. Higher hierarchical levels have greater access to resources and a greater ability to manage communication. Inequality is a key feature of this differentiation because the system itself takes more account of the needs of higher levels.

The division into the center and periphery includes simultaneous segmentation and hierarchical differentiation - the center has a higher status and primacy in relation to the periphery. In modern societies, functional differentiation is paramount. Each part of the system has its own separate function. For the whole system to function, each part of the system must successfully perform its function. The independence of each part of the system from other parts of the system is greatest when each part successfully performs its function because if one part does not successfully perform its function, there are negative effects on other parts of the system. Increasing the functional complexity of the system leads to greater vulnerability because the functional failure of one part can have a negative impact on the entire system. On the other hand, increasing functional complexity leads to a greater ability to recombine parts of the system to respond to environmental challenges.

Communication in a System

Each social subsystem has its own rules of communication. Codes are a basic element of such communication and represent the product of the evolution of each individual subsystem. The different paths of evolution of each subsystem lead to the fact that each subsystem has separate codes, the most important of which are the binary pair of oppositions that determine the existence or absence of quality. Thus, science is characterized by a binary pair of opposition true/false; the pair in the economy is to have / not to have; in art, it is beautiful/ugly; in the sphere of law, the pair is fair/unfair, etc. Codes serve to set the limits of allowed communication within a subsystem. Subsystems are not able to directly understand the language and codes of other subsystems but must translate them into their own language. Thus, for example, science affects the economy only if scientific knowledge can have some application in economics, that is if the code for true is translated into the code to have.

Luhmann's theory does not provide a fixed number of functionally differentiated societal subsystems. The functional differentiation of modern societies requires that problem-solving has to descend from the level of the entire social system, down to the level of individual social subsystems. If a social system does not have a subsystem that is in charge of solving a specific problem, then the whole system is in danger. Luhmann believes that the environmental problems faced by modern societies are a consequence of the lack of a subsystem that would be in charge of solving those problems. Functionally differentiated systems are insufficiently resilient to environmental challenges because they can solve only those problems that can be represented in the form of codes of certain subsystems. On the other hand, once a change occurs in a subsystem, due to the functional connection of all subsystems, that change causes changes in other subsystems.

Codes do not directly affect the behavior of individuals, because they require the existence of programs that can translate these codes into behavioral instructions. The structure is defined as the limit on the possible number of combinations of elements within a system. The function of the structure is not to translate the requirements of the environment into the system but to ensure the autonomy of self-reproduction of the system, which is conceived as an operationally closed process.

Structures

The structures of the system arise from the self-reproduction of the elements and through the choice of the relationship between the elements. The system directs the self-reproduction of the elements for the needs of its self-reproduction, in relation to which the self-reproduction of the element becomes dependent. The structure of the system evolves both as a product of the self-reproduction of the elements and as a product of the system itself. Every communication consists of three elements: information, speech (utterance), and understanding. Each component contains a selection, so communication represents the coordination of selections at these three levels. Every communication is a self-referential process.

Structures reduce uncertainty and create relationships of trust. Autopoietic systems are closed systems that reproduce themselves, not by varying their own structure, but by constantly recombining elements. A social system can have three types of relationships with the environment and with itself: the relationship of the system with society is a social “function”, the relationship with another society or social subsystem is “performance”, and the relationship with itself is a “reflection”. Luhmann calls the relationship between the social system and the psychic system "interpretation". Societal subsystems can be connected by structural coupling. For example, the constitution pairs the political and legal subsystems, and contract and property pair the economic and legal subsystems. Paired systems increase the probability of structural variations in the system.

In his later works, Luhmann developed the idea of world society. Functional differentiation that takes place at the level of a national society leads to the autonomy of the subsystems. The subsystems that have the greatest autonomy, such as economy, technology, and science, have the greatest ability to transcend national borders. In that sense, such subsystems are global, and it is impossible to separate them from the processes that take place on a global level. Global communication produces new structures around the world.

Authors: Luhmann, Niklas. Bailey, Kenneth; Buckley, Walter.

Books:

Luhmann. Essays on Self-Reference (1990);

- Trust and Power (2017, in German 1968a, 1975a)

- The Differentiation of Society 1982, in German 1970, 1975b);

- A Sociological Theory of Law (1985, in German 1972)

- Political Theory in the Welfare State (1990, in German 1981);

- Love as Passion: The Codification of Intimacy (1986, in German 1982);

- Social Systems (1995, in German 1984);

- Ecological Communication (1989, in German 1986);

- Observation on Modernity (1998, in German 1992);

- Risk: A Sociological Theory (2017, in German 1991a);