Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804771597
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This second volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was first published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative media, including language, writing, the printing press, and electronic media, as well as "success media," such as money, power, truth, and love, all of which structure this fluidity and make communication possible. The book asks what gives rise to functionally differentiated social systems, how they evolve, and how social movements, organizations, and patterns of interaction emerge. The advent of the computer and its networks, which triggered potentially far-reaching processes of restructuring, receives particular attention. A concluding chapter on the semantics of modern society's self-description bids farewell to the outdated theoretical approaches of "old Europe"—that is, to ontological, holistic, ethical, and critical interpretations of society—and argues that concepts such as "the nation," "the subject," and "postmodernity" are vastly overrated. In their stead, "society"—long considered a suspicious term by sociologists, one open to all kinds of reification—is defined in purely operational terms. It is the always uncertain answer to the question of what comes next in all areas of communication.
Theory of Society, Volume 2
Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804771597
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This second volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was first published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative media, including language, writing, the printing press, and electronic media, as well as "success media," such as money, power, truth, and love, all of which structure this fluidity and make communication possible. The book asks what gives rise to functionally differentiated social systems, how they evolve, and how social movements, organizations, and patterns of interaction emerge. The advent of the computer and its networks, which triggered potentially far-reaching processes of restructuring, receives particular attention. A concluding chapter on the semantics of modern society's self-description bids farewell to the outdated theoretical approaches of "old Europe"—that is, to ontological, holistic, ethical, and critical interpretations of society—and argues that concepts such as "the nation," "the subject," and "postmodernity" are vastly overrated. In their stead, "society"—long considered a suspicious term by sociologists, one open to all kinds of reification—is defined in purely operational terms. It is the always uncertain answer to the question of what comes next in all areas of communication.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804771597
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This second volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was first published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative media, including language, writing, the printing press, and electronic media, as well as "success media," such as money, power, truth, and love, all of which structure this fluidity and make communication possible. The book asks what gives rise to functionally differentiated social systems, how they evolve, and how social movements, organizations, and patterns of interaction emerge. The advent of the computer and its networks, which triggered potentially far-reaching processes of restructuring, receives particular attention. A concluding chapter on the semantics of modern society's self-description bids farewell to the outdated theoretical approaches of "old Europe"—that is, to ontological, holistic, ethical, and critical interpretations of society—and argues that concepts such as "the nation," "the subject," and "postmodernity" are vastly overrated. In their stead, "society"—long considered a suspicious term by sociologists, one open to all kinds of reification—is defined in purely operational terms. It is the always uncertain answer to the question of what comes next in all areas of communication.
Theory of Society, Volume 2
Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804787271
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 471
Book Description
This second volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was first published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative media, including language, writing, the printing press, and electronic media, as well as "success media," such as money, power, truth, and love, all of which structure this fluidity and make communication possible. The book asks what gives rise to functionally differentiated social systems, how they evolve, and how social movements, organizations, and patterns of interaction emerge. The advent of the computer and its networks, which triggered potentially far-reaching processes of restructuring, receives particular attention. A concluding chapter on the semantics of modern society's self-description bids farewell to the outdated theoretical approaches of "old Europe"—that is, to ontological, holistic, ethical, and critical interpretations of society—and argues that concepts such as "the nation," "the subject," and "postmodernity" are vastly overrated. In their stead, "society"—long considered a suspicious term by sociologists, one open to all kinds of reification—is defined in purely operational terms. It is the always uncertain answer to the question of what comes next in all areas of communication.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804787271
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 471
Book Description
This second volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was first published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative media, including language, writing, the printing press, and electronic media, as well as "success media," such as money, power, truth, and love, all of which structure this fluidity and make communication possible. The book asks what gives rise to functionally differentiated social systems, how they evolve, and how social movements, organizations, and patterns of interaction emerge. The advent of the computer and its networks, which triggered potentially far-reaching processes of restructuring, receives particular attention. A concluding chapter on the semantics of modern society's self-description bids farewell to the outdated theoretical approaches of "old Europe"—that is, to ontological, holistic, ethical, and critical interpretations of society—and argues that concepts such as "the nation," "the subject," and "postmodernity" are vastly overrated. In their stead, "society"—long considered a suspicious term by sociologists, one open to all kinds of reification—is defined in purely operational terms. It is the always uncertain answer to the question of what comes next in all areas of communication.
Social Systems
Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804726252
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 692
Book Description
Germany's most prominent social thinker here sets out a contribution to sociology that aims to rework our understanding of meaning and communication. He links social theory to recent theoretical developments in scientific disciplines.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804726252
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 692
Book Description
Germany's most prominent social thinker here sets out a contribution to sociology that aims to rework our understanding of meaning and communication. He links social theory to recent theoretical developments in scientific disciplines.
A Systems Theory of Religion
Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 080478793X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
A Systems Theory of Religion, still unfinished at Niklas Luhmann's death in 1998, was first published in German two years later thanks to the editorial work of André Kieserling. One of Luhmann's most important projects, it exemplifies his later work while redefining the subject matter of the sociology of religion. Religion, for Luhmann, is one of the many functionally differentiated social systems that make up modern society. All such subsystems consist entirely of communications and all are "autopoietic," which is to say, self-organizing and self-generating. Here, Luhmann explains how religion provides a code for coping with the complexity, opacity, and uncontrollability of our world. Religion functions to make definite the indefinite, to reconcile the immanent and the transcendent. Synthesizing approaches as disparate as the philosophy of language, historical linguistics, deconstruction, and formal systems theory/cybernetics, A Systems Theory of Religion takes on important topics that range from religion's meaning and evolution to secularization, turning decades of sociological assumptions on their head. It provides us with a fresh vocabulary and a fresh philosophical and sociological approach to one of society's most fundamental phenomena.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 080478793X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
A Systems Theory of Religion, still unfinished at Niklas Luhmann's death in 1998, was first published in German two years later thanks to the editorial work of André Kieserling. One of Luhmann's most important projects, it exemplifies his later work while redefining the subject matter of the sociology of religion. Religion, for Luhmann, is one of the many functionally differentiated social systems that make up modern society. All such subsystems consist entirely of communications and all are "autopoietic," which is to say, self-organizing and self-generating. Here, Luhmann explains how religion provides a code for coping with the complexity, opacity, and uncontrollability of our world. Religion functions to make definite the indefinite, to reconcile the immanent and the transcendent. Synthesizing approaches as disparate as the philosophy of language, historical linguistics, deconstruction, and formal systems theory/cybernetics, A Systems Theory of Religion takes on important topics that range from religion's meaning and evolution to secularization, turning decades of sociological assumptions on their head. It provides us with a fresh vocabulary and a fresh philosophical and sociological approach to one of society's most fundamental phenomena.
Information Systems Theory
Author: Yogesh K. Dwivedi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441997075
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 461
Book Description
The overall mission of this book is to provide a comprehensive understanding and coverage of the various theories and models used in IS research. Specifically, it aims to focus on the following key objectives: To describe the various theories and models applicable to studying IS/IT management issues. To outline and describe, for each of the various theories and models, independent and dependent constructs, reference discipline/originating area, originating author(s), seminal articles, level of analysis (i.e. firm, individual, industry) and links with other theories. To provide a critical review/meta-analysis of IS/IT management articles that have used a particular theory/model. To discuss how a theory can be used to better understand how information systems can be effectively deployed in today’s digital world. This book contributes to our understanding of a number of theories and models. The theoretical contribution of this book is that it analyzes and synthesizes the relevant literature in order to enhance knowledge of IS theories and models from various perspectives. To cater to the information needs of a diverse spectrum of readers, this book is structured into two volumes, with each volume further broken down into two sections. The first section of Volume 1 presents detailed descriptions of a set of theories centered around the IS lifecycle, including the Success Model, Technology Acceptance Model, User Resistance Theories, and four others. The second section of Volume 1 contains strategic and economic theories, including a Resource-Based View, Theory of Slack Resources, Portfolio Theory, Discrepancy Theory Models, and eleven others. The first section of Volume 2 concerns socio-psychological theories. These include Personal Construct Theory, Psychological Ownership, Transactive Memory, Language-Action Approach, and nine others. The second section of Volume 2 deals with methodological theories, including Critical Realism, Grounded Theory, Narrative Inquiry, Work System Method, and four others. Together, these theories provide a rich tapestry of knowledge around the use of theory in IS research. Since most of these theories are from contributing disciplines, they provide a window into the world of external thought leadership.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441997075
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 461
Book Description
The overall mission of this book is to provide a comprehensive understanding and coverage of the various theories and models used in IS research. Specifically, it aims to focus on the following key objectives: To describe the various theories and models applicable to studying IS/IT management issues. To outline and describe, for each of the various theories and models, independent and dependent constructs, reference discipline/originating area, originating author(s), seminal articles, level of analysis (i.e. firm, individual, industry) and links with other theories. To provide a critical review/meta-analysis of IS/IT management articles that have used a particular theory/model. To discuss how a theory can be used to better understand how information systems can be effectively deployed in today’s digital world. This book contributes to our understanding of a number of theories and models. The theoretical contribution of this book is that it analyzes and synthesizes the relevant literature in order to enhance knowledge of IS theories and models from various perspectives. To cater to the information needs of a diverse spectrum of readers, this book is structured into two volumes, with each volume further broken down into two sections. The first section of Volume 1 presents detailed descriptions of a set of theories centered around the IS lifecycle, including the Success Model, Technology Acceptance Model, User Resistance Theories, and four others. The second section of Volume 1 contains strategic and economic theories, including a Resource-Based View, Theory of Slack Resources, Portfolio Theory, Discrepancy Theory Models, and eleven others. The first section of Volume 2 concerns socio-psychological theories. These include Personal Construct Theory, Psychological Ownership, Transactive Memory, Language-Action Approach, and nine others. The second section of Volume 2 deals with methodological theories, including Critical Realism, Grounded Theory, Narrative Inquiry, Work System Method, and four others. Together, these theories provide a rich tapestry of knowledge around the use of theory in IS research. Since most of these theories are from contributing disciplines, they provide a window into the world of external thought leadership.
Towards a Critical Theory of Society
Author: Herbert Marcuse
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136859977
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
This second volume of Marcuse's collected papers includes unpublished manuscripts from the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as Beyond One-Dimensional Man, Cultural Revolution and The Historical Fate of Bourgeois Democracy, as well as a rich collection of letters. It shows Marcuse at his most radical, focusing on his critical theory of contemporary society, his analyses of technology, capitalism, the fate of the individual, and prospects for social change in contemporary society.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136859977
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
This second volume of Marcuse's collected papers includes unpublished manuscripts from the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as Beyond One-Dimensional Man, Cultural Revolution and The Historical Fate of Bourgeois Democracy, as well as a rich collection of letters. It shows Marcuse at his most radical, focusing on his critical theory of contemporary society, his analyses of technology, capitalism, the fate of the individual, and prospects for social change in contemporary society.
Theories of Distinction
Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804741231
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Book Description
The essays in this volume formulate what is considered to be the preconditions for an adequate theory of modern society. The volume starts with an examination of the modern European philosophical and scientific tradition notably the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804741231
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Book Description
The essays in this volume formulate what is considered to be the preconditions for an adequate theory of modern society. The volume starts with an examination of the modern European philosophical and scientific tradition notably the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl.
Sociology in Question
Author: Professor Pierre Bourdieu
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9781446236840
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
The works of Pierre Bourdieu occupy a central place in the current development of world sociology. This volume offers an accessible but challenging introduction to Bourdieu's ideas. In a series of discussions, lectures and interviews, the range of Bourdieu's ideas is laid out and its relation to other disciplines and other sociological schools is explored. The issues developed include the sociology of culture, leisure and taste; the intrinsic reflexivity of social science; and the role of language in society and social sciences.
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9781446236840
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
The works of Pierre Bourdieu occupy a central place in the current development of world sociology. This volume offers an accessible but challenging introduction to Bourdieu's ideas. In a series of discussions, lectures and interviews, the range of Bourdieu's ideas is laid out and its relation to other disciplines and other sociological schools is explored. The issues developed include the sociology of culture, leisure and taste; the intrinsic reflexivity of social science; and the role of language in society and social sciences.
Historical Developments and Theoretical Approaches in Sociology - Volume II
Author: Charles Crothers
Publisher: EOLSS Publications
ISBN: 1848263325
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 458
Book Description
Historical Developments and Theoretical Approaches in Sociology in two volumes is a component of Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Humanities in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty Encyclopedias. Sociology is one of several social science disciplines and smaller bodies of knowledge which seeks to understand the patterns in social life. There is a broad congruence between the objective configurations of social life and the components of the disciplines studying them, the body of sociological knowledge is socially constructed and the pathways to its gaining of knowledge influenced by a variety of factors. Moreover, since social life is ever-changing, sociology often has to scramble to catch-up with the changing social world. This work is built up around four broad topics, the first providing important shared contextual material and then followed by three broad levels of social analysis: with each of these four parts containing a number of chapters with more specific and in-depth information. The theme essay provides a general introduction and overview of the theme as a whole. In total, the work holds 40 contributions written by a selection of many international renowned specialists from 12 countries. It was important to obtain a wide range of viewpoints giving the ways in which social issues arise quite differently in a range of countries. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers, NGOs and GOs.
Publisher: EOLSS Publications
ISBN: 1848263325
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 458
Book Description
Historical Developments and Theoretical Approaches in Sociology in two volumes is a component of Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Humanities in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty Encyclopedias. Sociology is one of several social science disciplines and smaller bodies of knowledge which seeks to understand the patterns in social life. There is a broad congruence between the objective configurations of social life and the components of the disciplines studying them, the body of sociological knowledge is socially constructed and the pathways to its gaining of knowledge influenced by a variety of factors. Moreover, since social life is ever-changing, sociology often has to scramble to catch-up with the changing social world. This work is built up around four broad topics, the first providing important shared contextual material and then followed by three broad levels of social analysis: with each of these four parts containing a number of chapters with more specific and in-depth information. The theme essay provides a general introduction and overview of the theme as a whole. In total, the work holds 40 contributions written by a selection of many international renowned specialists from 12 countries. It was important to obtain a wide range of viewpoints giving the ways in which social issues arise quite differently in a range of countries. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers, NGOs and GOs.
Introduction to Systems Theory
Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 9780745645728
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Niklas Luhmann ranks as one of the most important sociologists and social theorists of the twentieth century. Through his many books he developed a highly original form of systems theory that has been hugely influential in a wide variety of disciplines. In Introduction to Systems Theory, Luhmann explains the key ideas of general and sociological systems theory and supplies a wealth of examples to illustrate his approach. The book offers a wide range of concepts and theorems that can be applied to politics and the economy, religion and science, art and education, organization and the family. Moreover, Luhmann’s ideas address important contemporary issues in such diverse fields as cognitive science, ecology, and the study of social movements. This book provides all the necessary resources for readers to work through the foundations of systems theory – no other work by Luhmann is as clear and accessible as this. There is also much here that will be of great interest to more advanced scholars and practitioners in sociology and the social sciences.
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 9780745645728
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Niklas Luhmann ranks as one of the most important sociologists and social theorists of the twentieth century. Through his many books he developed a highly original form of systems theory that has been hugely influential in a wide variety of disciplines. In Introduction to Systems Theory, Luhmann explains the key ideas of general and sociological systems theory and supplies a wealth of examples to illustrate his approach. The book offers a wide range of concepts and theorems that can be applied to politics and the economy, religion and science, art and education, organization and the family. Moreover, Luhmann’s ideas address important contemporary issues in such diverse fields as cognitive science, ecology, and the study of social movements. This book provides all the necessary resources for readers to work through the foundations of systems theory – no other work by Luhmann is as clear and accessible as this. There is also much here that will be of great interest to more advanced scholars and practitioners in sociology and the social sciences.