111
Artists protest at BP’s sponsorship
of London’s Tate Britain art gallery,
reflecting the protesters belief that the
system of corporate enterprise is not
compatible with that of the art world.See also: Max Weber 38–45 ■ Jürgen Habermas 286–87 ■ Talcott Parsons 300–01 ■ Herbert Spencer 334 ■
Alfred Schütz 335
MODERN LIVING
activities and interactions, verbal
and nonverbal, within a system.
Luhmann argues that just as
a plant reproduces its own cells
in a circular, biological process
of self-production, so a social
system is similarly self-sustaining
and develops out of an operation
that possesses connectivity—
emerging when “communication
develops from communication.”
He likens communication to the
structural equivalent of a chemical.
Structural couplings
Luhmann uses George Spencer-
Brown’s ideas on the mathematical
laws of form to help define a
system, arguing that something
arises out of difference: a system
is, according to this theory, a
“distinction” from its environment.
And, says Luhmann, a system’s
environment is constituted by
other systems. For example, the
environment of a family system
includes other families, the political
system, the medical system, and
so on. Crucially, each individual
system can only make sense of the
events—the activities and ways of
communicating—peculiar to itself;
it is relatively indifferent to what
takes place in the other systems
(and the wider society). So, for
example, the economic system is
functionally dedicated to its own
interests and is uninterested in
moral issues, except where these
might have an impact on the
profitability of economic activities
and transactions—whereas moral
concerns are of great consequence
in, say, the religious system.
Luhmann identifies this lack
of systems integration as one
of the major problems confronting
advanced capitalist societies. He
identifies what he calls “structural
couplings”—certain forms and
institutions that help to connect
separated systems by translating
the communications produced by
one system into terms that the
other can understand. Examples
include a constitution, which
couples the legal and political
systems, and a university, which
couples the educational and,
among others, economic systems.“Structural coupling” is a concept
that helps to account for the
relationship between people (as
conscious systems) and social
systems (as communications).
Despite its extreme complexity,
Luhmann’s theory is used
worldwide as an analytical tool
for social systems. His critics say
that the theory passes academic
scrutiny, but operationally it fails to
show how communication can take
place without human activity. ■Niklas Luhmann
Niklas Luhmann studied law
at the University of Freiburg,
Germany, from 1946 to 1949,
before becoming a civil servant
in 1956. He spent 1960 to
1961 on sabbatical at Harvard
University, studying sociology
and administrative science,
where he was taught
by Talcott Parsons.
In 1966 Luhmann received
his doctorate in sociology from
the University of Münster and
in 1968 he became professor of
sociology at the University ofBielefeld, where he remained.
Luhmann was the recipient of
several honorary degrees, and
in 1988 he was the winner of
the prestigious Hegel Prize,
awarded to prominent thinkers
by the city of Stuttgart. He
was a prolific writer, with some
377 publications to his name.Key works1972 A Sociological Theory
of Law
1984 Social Systems
1997 Theory of Society
(two volumes)Humans cannot
communicate; not
even their brains
can communicate;
not even their conscious
minds can communicate.
Niklas Luhmann