Topic
Social system
About: Social system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2974 publications have been published within this topic receiving 92395 citations.
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TL;DR: In this paper, a systematic overview of Luhmann's theory of distinction generating and processing systems is provided, and the authors especially highlight the following aspects: (i) organizations are processes that come into being by permanently constructing and reconstructing themselves by means of using distinctions, which mark what is part of their realm and what not.
Abstract: Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems has been widely influential in the German-speaking countries in the past few decades. However, despite its significance, particularly for organization studies, it is only very recently that Luhmann’s work has attracted attention on the international stage as well. This Special Issue is in response to that. In this introductory paper, we provide a systematic overview of Luhmann’s theory. Reading his work as a theory about distinction generating and processing systems, we especially highlight the following aspects: (i) Organizations are processes that come into being by permanently constructing and reconstructing themselves by means of using distinctions, which mark what is part of their realm and what not. (ii) Such an organizational process belongs to a social sphere sui generis possessing its own logic, which cannot be traced back to human actors or subjects. (iii) Organizations are a specific kind of social process characterized by a specific kind of distinction...
233 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the linkages between appropriation of resources patterns of social control risk-sharing devolution and demographic checks in a pretransitional setting and then proceed to examine these variables in the context of demographic transition.
Abstract: Most societies control fertility and population growth to some degree through basic institutional arrangements that support the functioning of the social system as a whole. This article tries to specify these arrangements to establish their raison detre and to document the ways in which the nature of the fertility transition is contingent upon changes in the normative code and the system of social control. Drawing on the record for historical Western Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa it considers first the linkages between appropriation of resources patterns of social control risk-sharing devolution and demographic checks in pretransitional setting and then proceeds to examine these variables in the context of demographic transition. (Authors) (Summaries in ENG FRE SPA)
232 citations
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TL;DR: Level theory is meta-theoretical, for it is presuppositional to substantive or "sectors" theory, while substantive theory looks for causal connections within and among the levels as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This paper will locate and examine the micro-macro problem in the context of the larger problem of levels, the latter tending to include solutions to the former. Levels theory is meta-theoretical, for it is presuppositional to substantive or "sectors" theory. Levels theory constitutes the levels and therefore the "kinds" of social reality, while substantive theory looks for causal connections within and among the levels. The priority of levels over sectors theory, however, is only analytic. Historically the influence can be reversed, as levels shift in power relative to each other. The rise of Durkheim's sacred self in the Nineteenth century or Luhmann's social system in the Twentieth are dramatic examples of these shifts. But despite the intimate connection between levels and sectors-the vertical and the horizontal, so to speak-I will simplify the discussion and attempt to treat the former with a minimum of reference to the latter.
222 citations