Niklas Luhmann (Bibliography)
From Mmswiki
Works by Niklas Luhmann himself:
Luhmann, Niklas: The Reality of the Mass Media. Polity Press 2000.
In The Reality of the Mass Media Luhmann extends his theory of social systems – applied in his earlier works to the economy, the political system, art, religion, the sciences and law – to an examination of the role of mass media in the constitution of social reality.
Luhmann argues that the system of mass media is a set of recursive, self–referential programmes of communication, whose functions are not determined by the external values of truthfulness, objectivity, or knowledge, nor by specific social interests or political directives. Rather, he contends that the system of mass media is regulated by the internal code information / non–information, which enables the system to select its information (news) from its own environment and to communicate this information in accordance with its own reflexive criteria.
Despite its self–referential quality, however, Luhmann describes the mass media as one of the key cognitive systems of modern society, by means of which society constructs the illusion of its own reality. The reality of mass media, he argues, allows societies to process information without destabilizing social roles or overburdening social actors. It forms a broad reservoir (memory) of options for the future co–ordination of action, and it provides parameters for the stabilization of political expectations. In these respects, it has a crucial function in the general self–reproduction of society, as it produces a continuous self–description of the world around which modern society can orientate itself. In his discussion of mass media, Luhmann elaborates a theory of communication in which communication is seen not as the act of a particular consciousness, nor the medium of integrative social norms, but merely the technical codes through which systemic operations arrange and perpetuate themselves. (book description provided by the book-publishing house, see http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745621319)
Luhmann, Niklas with Baecker, Dirk: Social Systems (Writing Science). Stanford University Press 1996.
A major challenge confronting contemporary theory is to overcome its fixation on written narratives and the culture of print. In this presentation of a general theory of systems, Niklas Luhmann, Germany's most prominent and controversial social thinker, sets out a contribution to sociology that reworks our understanding of meaning and communication. For Luhmann, the end of metanarratives does not mean the end of theory, but a challenge to theory, an invitation to open itself to theoretical developments in a number of disciplines that, for quite some time, have been successfully working with cybernetic models that no longer require the fiction of the external observer. He links social theory to recent theoretical developments in scientific disciplines as diverse as modern physics, information theory, general systems theory, neurophysiology, phenomenology, and cognitive science. One of the most important contributions to social theory of recent decades, it has implications for many disciplines beyond sociology. (book description offered by www.amazon.de, see http://www.amazon.de/Social-Systems-Writing-Science/dp/0804726256)
Luhmann, Niklas: Art as a Social System (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics). Stanford University Press 2000.
This is the definitive analysis of art as a social and perceptual system by Germany s leading social theorist of the late twentieth century. It not only represents an important intellectual step in discussions of art in its rigor and in its having refreshingly set itself the task of creating a set of distinctions for determining what counts as art that could be valid for those creating as well as those receiving art works but it also represents an important advance in systems theory. Returning to the eighteenth-century notion of aesthetics as pertaining to the knowledge of the senses, Luhmann begins with the idea that all art, including literature, is rooted in perception. He insists on the radical incommensurability between psychic systems (perception) and social systems (communication). Art is a special kind of communication that uses perceptions instead of language. It operates at the boundary between the social system and consciousness in ways that profoundly irritate communication while remaining strictly internal to the social. (this abstract has been taken from http://www.citeulike.org/user/boltmwj1/article/2238850)
Works by other authors dealing with Niklas Luhmann (life and studies):
Rasch, William: Niklas Luhmann's Modernity: The Paradoxes of Differentiation (Cultural Memory in the Present). Stanford University Press 2001.
This book is an introduction to the nature of modernity as envisioned by Germany s leading social theorist of the late twentieth century, Niklas Luhmann. For Luhmann, modernity is neither an Enlightenment project nor a ludic rejection of that project, but rather the pre-condition of all our deliberations, the structure within which our semantics makes sense, even as we think we celebrate (or mourn) its passing. Rather than viewing modernity as a disease for which we seek a cure, Luhmann poses it as a question to which we continually devise incomplete and partial answers. When we grow impatient with the contingency and indeterminacy that is thus forced upon us and seek solace in community, religion (orthodox or civic), consensus, and a universal vision of the good life, we grow impatient with modernity itself. The book injects concepts derived from Luhmann s influential systems theory (complexity, contingency, and enforced selectivity; system differentiation, self-referential closure, and autopoiesis) into debates about modernity and postmodernity, constructivist and foundationalist epistemologies, the relationship between politics and ethics, and the possibilities of interdisciplinary work that spans the great divide between science and the humanities. Delighting in Luhmann s provocatively cool and dispassionate bursting of cherished balloons, the book stages challenging engagements with such thinkers as Jürgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, Drucilla Cornell, Judith Butler, Michel Serres, N. Katherine Hayles, and such political theorists as Chantal Mouffe and Carl Schmitt. The irrepressibility of paradox emerges as a stubborn feature of all of these confrontations. (this text is the publisher's comment, see http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780804739924)
Thornhil, Chris: Niklas Luhmann's Theory of Politics and Law. Palgrave Macmillan 2005.
Niklas Luhmann's social theory stands in direct opposition to the dominant 'anthropocentric' traditions of legal and political analysis. King and Thornhill now offer the first comprehensive, critical examination of Luhmann's highly original theory of the operations of the legal and political systems. They describe how from the perspective of his 'sociological enlightenment' Luhmann continually calls to account the certainties, the ambitions and rational foundations of The Enlightenment and the idealized versions of law and politics which they have produced. (this text is the book's blurb, see https://www.lesen.ch/taschenbuch/taschenbuch.cfm?BID=3925758)
Moeller, Hans-Georg: Luhmann Explained (Ideas Explained). Open Court Publishing Co 2006.
What are systems? What is society? What happens to human beings in a hypermodern world? This book is an introduction to Niklas Luhmann's social system theory which explains specific functions like economy and mass media from a cybernetic perspective. Integrating various schools of thought including sociology, philosophy and biology Luhmann Explained results in an overall analysis of "world society". Special attention is given to the present-day relevance of Luhmann's theory with respect to globalization, electronic mass media, ethics, and new forms of protest. (this is the product description provided by www.amazon.com, see http://www.amazon.com/Luhmann-Explained-Souls-Systems-Ideas/dp/0812695984)
Special topic Distribution Media and Communication Media
Reichard, Andreas: Zu Niklas Luhmanns Konzept symbolisch generalisierter Kommunikationsmedien. GRIN Verlag 2007.
Term Paper written by Andreas Rechard that deals with Nikas Luhmann's theory of symbolically generalised communication media.
Krohn, Thomas: Luhmann modelliert. Vs Verlag 2002.
In this collected volume, sociologists and computer scientists first meet in an interdisciplinary project in order to create a computer-based model of Niklas Luhmann's theories dealing with social systems.
Koschorke, Albrecht/Vismann, Cornelia: Widerstände der Systemtheorie: Kulturtheoretische Analyse zum Werk von Niklas Luhmann. Akademie-Verlag 1999.
On page 87, the authors of this book deal with the interaction of communication media refering to Niklas Luhmann.
Schmidt, Siegfried J.: Lernen, Wissen, Kompetenz, Kultur: Vorschläge zur Bestimmung von vier Unbekannten. Carl-Auer-Systeme 2005.
This book seems to be of high relevance when it comes to discussing the link between learning, knowledge, skills and culture - as well as the following:
Schmidt, Siegfried J.: Kommunikationswissenschaft : Systematik und Ziele. Reinbek bei Hamburg : Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verl. 2007.
In this book, the authors deal with the question: How are the contents of communiciation sciences linked to each other?
Created by Hilmar
Sources for this paragraph: www.amazon.com and Campus-Katalog Universität Hamburg
