Systemic shifts in sociology

The most recent and relevant paradigm shifts in systemic sociology surround pivotal topics for the social sciences because these shifts played three crucial functions: a) these shifts anticipated a new alliance between hard and soft sciences in the framework of complexity, b) these shifts allowed the autopoietic conception of a system to emerge beyond the rigidities of the oversimplified, old fashioned whole/parts paradigm, c) these shifts, through an increasing abstraction and dematerialization levels clearly explained that “reality”, “future”, and “trends”, are more inventions than descriptions. At the crossroads of these three crucial functions, Niklas Luhmann’s (1927-1998) writings are fundamental. Nevertheless this is not a book about Luhmann. Pre-Luhmannian systemic theory is obsolete, but the challenge now is not to shape a monument of the “real” Luhmann, disputing about what “real” means. Luhmann died before the September 11 attacks, the economical crisis, the North African rebellion of the masses, before China entered the WTO and before “Vix” entered everyday semantics. Nevertheless, Die Geselschaft der Gesellschaft (1997) anticipated the increasing width of the global systemic horizons and the resonant noise from the environment against them. Luhmann’s works changed the systemic vision forever, and now it is time to allow systemic sociology to invent our next scenarios before the disorganized, meaningless environmental noise overwhelms the systemic trends which will evolve autopoietically anyway. However, their speed would decrease or increase depending on the noise level. Luhmann’s autoreferential heritage is cross-fertilizing several streams and think tanks. This book is an exemplary case of this cross– fertilization, and hopefully, several more will follow on the global scale to design the future in the present.