Social Systems Theory

Die Systemtheorie und die Kritische Theorie sind Schulen, die Theoretikerinnen seit langem ein Zuhause bieten. In der Zeit ihres Bestehens kam es immer wieder zu Treffpunkten und Theoriekollisionen dieser beiden Traditionen des Denkens der Gesellschaft. Durch die hier entwickelte Metareflexion wird es möglich, zu analysieren, wie diese
Theorietraditionen verbunden werden. Da sich die aktuelle Diskussion auf die Perspektive der Systemtheorie beschränkt, ist es notwendig, die Verbindung auch aus der Perspektive Kritischer Theorie zu debattieren. Denn erst die Unterscheidung der heute immer mehr ins Gespräch kommenden Kritischen Systemtheorie von der kaum diskutierten Kritischen Theorie sozialer Systeme macht es möglich, die volle Produktivität der Theoriekollisionen zu erkennen. Wir konzipieren unsere Metareflexion damit als eine Intervention im Sinne einer soziologischen Selbstkritik. Sie richtet sich gegen die Gefahr des theoretischen Dogmatismus und plädiert für die Öffnung der Kontingenz des eigenen Denkens der Gesellschaft.

Systems theory and critical theory are schools of thought that for a long time have been familiar for theorists. During the period of their emergence, there were several theoretical collisions between these two traditions of thinking of society. The meta-reflection that is developed here makes it possible to analyze how these theoretical traditions are connected. As the current discussion is limited to the perspective of systems theory, it is necessary to amplify the debate and to ask for a connection from the perspective of critical theory. Only through the distinction between critical systems theory, which is increasingly discussed today, and a critical theory of social systems, which is barely discussed, we may be able to recognize the full productivity of these theoretical collisions. Therefore, we understand our metareflection as an intervention that takes the form of sociological self-criticism, which is directed against the risk of theoretical dogmatism and advocates for opening up the contingency of sociology’s own thinking about society.

В статье уточнены свойства трансграничных территорий с позиции системного подхода. В качестве особенностей проявления общесистемных свойств, обусловленных двухзвенной структурой трансграничья, установлены такие черты, как относительная целостность, глобальность (включенность в мировое хозяйство) и наличие дублированных элементов. Именно эти свойства
превращают трансграничье в территорию особой стратегической значимости для двусторонних
отношений сопредельных государств и место, требующее выстраивания многоуровневого многоакторного механизма сотрудничества и решения проблем. В качестве примера полимасштабного анализа сопоставлены данные плотности населения российско-китайского трансграничного региона на микро-, мезо- и макроуровнях. Сделан вывод о том, что демографические диспропорции приграничных
административных единиц низового уровня России и Китая значительно (в восемь раз) меньше диспропорций административных единиц высшего уровня. Для китайской части трансграничного региона характерны более значительные внутрисистемные демографические диспропорции, чем для российской, проявляющиеся в снижении плотности населения при переходе от макро- к мезоуровню.

The article identifies key features of cross-border regions as territorial systems and points at those of them that are influenced by their binary structure. They are relative integrity of cross-border regions, their embeddedness into the world economy and the presence of duplicated elements. These features predetermine the (bi)national strategic importance and peculiar attention to cross-border territories as well as the need for multi-layer multi-actor problem-solving and collaboration. Contrasting
population density data of the Sino-Russian borderland at multiple scales allows to conclude that demographic disproportion of administrative entities of lower level is significantly smaller (by factor of eight) than the one of regional entities. Internal demographic disproportion is substantially higher on the Chinese side of the cross-border region and its key manifestation is the decrease of population density as we downscale the research unit from the macro- and the meso-level.

Messages conveyed by media act as a major drive in shaping attitudes and inducing opinion shift. On the other hand, individuals are strongly affected by peer pressure while forming their own judgment. We solve a general model of opinion dynamics where individuals either hold one of two alternative opinions or are undecided and interact pairwise while exposed to an external influence. As media pressure increases, the system moves from pluralism to global consensus; four distinct classes of collective behavior emerge, crucially depending on the outcome of direct interactions among individuals holding opposite opinions. Observed nontrivial behaviors include hysteretic phenomena and resilience of minority opinions. Notably, consensus could be unachievable even when media and microscopic interactions are biased in favor of the same opinion: The unfavored opinion might even gain the support of the majority.

The emergence of modern societies is an evolutionary puzzle.
Homo sapiens is the only animal species capable of cooperating in
large-scale societies consisting of genetically unrelated individuals.
From a biological point of view, this feature leads to enormous questions. Social scientists typically assume that human life is lived in large-scale societies as a result of cultural, social and institutional history. In this perspective, social institutions such as law, economy and religion, enhance cooperation to higher levels. Gene-culture coevolutionary theories have studied this issue in an integrated framework that accounts for social and biological theories of cooperation. These theoretical approaches have provided an account of the emergence of human institutions with reference to a coevolutionary background in which specific innate psychological features of the human mind enable the evolution of social institutions that impose social pressures requiring the evolution of a complex moral psychology that enables life in a social environment with institutions. However, although gene-culture coevolution theories can explain cooperation in pre-modern societies, they still cannot explain social life in complex societies such as contemporary democracies, in which cooperation occurs even when individuals do not agree about the main values of their society. Acknowledging this fact raises the question as to how it has been possible-from a biological perspective-that people cooperate in large-scale societies with
individuals with whom they are not genetically related and with whom they may not even share values and symbolic structures of mutual self-understanding. Following Edward 0. Wilson, in hoping to achieve consilience between the natural sciences and humanities, this paper argues that the cooperation level required to drive the evolution of complex societies is possible as a result of the emergence of one particular institutional sociocultural framework: constitutionalism. In this sense, this paper is an attempt to integrate sociology, biology and legal theory in its understanding of constitutionalism as an evolutionary adaptation
to specific historical and sociological circumstances that demanded the emergence of institutions to accommodate diversity, pluralism and complexity.

This research is based on 243 interviews conducted in various workplaces and with a wide variety of individuals in modern-day South Africa. The research analysis unearthed a number of themes within the diversity discipline, however, for the purposes of this chapter we had to pick one theme for discussion. This chapter therefore focuses on the negative psychological effects which foreign employees experience in post-Apartheid and democratic South Africa. The dominant diversity discourse has been concerned mainly from a political and policy standpoint (Liff, 1996; Dandeker and Mason, 2001). However, an evolving workplace discourse is emerging, informed by a critical post-structuralist tradition which challenges the static demographic characteristics of individuals and the positive, empowering view of individuals with different capacities – in fact, it has focused our attention on how diversity operates in organisations (Zanoni and Janssens, 2004), economic efficiency (Litvin, 2002), the nature of professions (ibid.) and broader institutional settings (de los Reyes, 2000). These discourses, it would appear, serve mainly to control less-powerful employees, such as immigrant and foreign workers, through focusing on fixed, essential group characteristics. Unfortunately, they overlook the material structure within which such discourse occurs, rendering the system static to ensuing changes in its environment.

In urban communities, infrastructures that support living are indispensable. There is increased interest in alternative ways of providing such support systems, including semi-autonomous infrastructures resulting from the self-organization of local actors. In this study, we analyze the emergence and management of such infrastructures in light of the theory of complex adaptive systems, within which they are called ‘inverse infrastructures’. Empirical evidence is drawn from the case of water cooperatives in the town of Ikaalinen, Finland. Our analysis shows that, with favorable preconditions in place, inverse infrastructures may contribute significantly to local infrastructure services and so also to the functioning of society.

Un apunte de clases. Cuatro páginas, tres resúmenes. Dos de una carilla, uno de dos carillas. Conceptos fundamentales, y la lógica interna de su teoría de la acción y los sistemas sociales. Los tres resumen el modelo trisistémico, y el llamado 'modelo AGIL' de las cuatro funciones, o modelo estructural-funcionalista.

O artigo em questão dispõe acerca da crescente onda de proliferação de redes sociais na sociedade da informação e do papel que os ditos influenciadores digitais têm exercido sobre os indivíduos em rede e suas vontades de consumo, sob o olhar da teoria dos sistemas sociais de Niklas Luhmann. O método adotado é o da revisão e discussão crítico-bibliográficas e o dialético, notadamente pelos discursos dos mais prestigiados pensadores da sociologia, da filosofia e do direito do Ocidente.

Umwelt, Technik & Risiko – damit verbinden wir eine Symptomatik, die für die Moderne von bestandskritischer Bedeutung ist. Soweit herrscht Einigkeit. Kontrovers sind hingegen Diagnose und Therapie. Ist die industriegesellschaftliche Risikoproblematik auf die In- und Extensivierung der Inanspruchnahme der Natur zurückzuführen? Oder herrschen kulturelle Veränderungen in der Wahrnehmung von Unsicherheiten vor? Diesen Fragen folgend werden Probleme der Forschung, der Gesellschaftstheorie und des Risikomanagements erörtert.

Climate change is a threat to society, including the global tourism industry. If hotels around the world do not take responsibility, in relation to the development of new climate-friendly solutions, the industry risks undermining itself in the long-term. Conversely, climate change can also be seen as a source of innovation and improved competitiveness. Therefore, there is good reason to be inspired by the hotels which consistently develop new procedures based on energy efficiency and recycling. On the basis of a combination of a practice-oriented circular economy on the one side and an abstract systems theory on the other, a minor study was executed of how leading hotels concerned about sustainable development through innovation adapt their business to a circular economy.

This study focuses upon the ruling court in medieval Bohemia, which is viewed as
a social system. The study also deals with the definition of a ruling court. Examples for
the conduct of court society are primarily drawn from the Court of the Bohemian and
Polish King Wenceslas II (1283–1305). The ruling court is shown as a place from which to
benefit and profit. These are based on the device of favours, with the ruler himself
determining the degree of them. Individuals’ quest for benefit and profit results in
permanent fluctuations in the ranks of the courtiers and increasingly destabilizes court
society. Consequently, these are the results of mutual interaction (communication)
between individuals and groups at court, which have to comply with mandatory norms of
court conduct. The structure of the court is the stabilizing factor of existence in this
changeable court society, perceived as a social system. To maintain the court functioning
as a social system, a certain degree of order is, therefore, necessary – namely internal
structures, i.e. individual offices or posts, including the fundamental sub-system of the
court, which is the ruler’s household. The structured system of the court with the ruler
and his family’s household is simultaneously the centre of administration for a governed
territory. The household represents the fundamental unit of the entire development of
court society. Despite the unsettled nature of terminology as far as the use of the words
curia minor and curia major are concerned, it has been shown, on the basis of local
written resources, that medieval scholars perceived the court circles around the ruler as
an everyday court, with the sub-system of the household, or as a minor court, when they
occasionally needed to define it against a wider court society. The latter met irregularly
on various occasions: administrative or legal affairs, for example when a diet was
convened, or a festive event, for example, a coronation and weddings. The ruler realized
governance through office bearers and those upon whom he bestowed his favours. Their
bearers, jointly with him, participated in the administration of his household and the
court itself. Simultaneously, the court supplied those who looked after administration
statewide and delegated it to lower constituent parts all over the country. This system
repeated itself in its structure and interaction, despite changeability in time and space, to
which every ruling court was exposed. In addition to the terminological analysis of the
concepts familia, curia minor and curia major, this study also applies system theory in
order to capture the ruling court as a social system, which is reflected in personalities,
structure, representation and space. The fundamental elements of the ruling court’s
social system, its structure and the interaction of individuals, have made it possible to
capture the paradigmatic manifestations of court society. At the same time they also
provided an opportunity to create a model of a ruling court, described in detail on these
levels and thus contribute to its definition.
Translated by Alena Linhartová

Desde Talcott Parsons, a teoria sobre os meios simbolicamente generelizados ocupa um lugar especial na análise sociológica. Suas derivações em Niklas Luhmann e Jügen Habermas têm conseguido manter, por mais de quarenta anos, as reflexões em relação à diferenciação da sociedade e sua evolução (CHERNILO, 2002). Luhmann, diferentemente de Parsons e Habermas, modifica a teoria dos meios e os considera como “meios de comunicação” que, diante da autopossibilidade de uma negação da comunicação, possibilitam sua aceitação. Desta maneira, a abordagem de Luhmann não pretende responder a pergunta sobre “como é possível a ordem social”, que habitualmente era respondida a partir de condições normativas (LUHMANN, 2011). Ao contrário, o autor opta por considerar a pergunta a partir de uma abordagem que levasse em consideração meios de comunicação simbolicamente generalizados . Assim, Luhmann converte tal questionamento em uma pergunta de caráter teórico, considerando os MCSG como equivalentes funcionais da moral que, dada a evolução, tem conseguido estabilizar-se e condicionar as possibilidades de aceitação/rejeição da comunicação (LUHMANN, 2007, p. 246).
A teoria dos meios propicia, portanto, avanços para o estudo tanto da diferenciação, quanto da função do dinheiro, por exemplo, do amor, do poder e do direito, dentre os outros. A sociologia, ao longo de sua história, tem reiterado a importância fundamental das mudanças que a modernidade tem produzido (BOTTOMORE; NISBET, 1988; GIDDENS, 1994), sendo possível associar os avanços da teoria dos sistemas e sua observação sobre os meios aos problemas de inclusão e de exclusão social contemporâneos (CADENAS, 2012). A hipótese aqui defendida consiste na ideia de que o princípio da não conversibilidade dos meios permite estudar a desigualdade social, entendida como estruturas de distribuição que geram conversibilidade secundária dos meios.  Desta forma, fenômenos tão massificados na sociedade latino-americana como a corrupção e a coerção (MASCAREÑO, 2011), podem ser observados à luz dos desenvolvimentos teóricos mencionados, com resultados frutíferos para a análise da desigualdade social.
A partir do exposto, o presente capítulo propõe-se a: a) apresentar a teoria da comunicação, a partir de um enfoque sistêmico e de sua relação com o problema da dupla contingência; b) discutir a função dos meios de comunicação simbolicamente genereralizados para a resolução do problema da dupla contingência; c) refletir sobre a relação do problema da dupla contingência com a questão codificação/programação dos sistemas funcionais; d) refletir sobre a possibilidade de novas linhas de investigação sobre a questão da desigualdade social a partir da teoria exposta.

This paper is a systems theoretic examination of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy's "cross of reality," a structure that fuses a vertical spatial dyad of inner-outer and a horizontal temporal dyad of past-future into a space-time tetrad. This tetrad is compatible not only with the human-centered phenomenological point of view that Rosenstock-Huessy favors, but also with a world-centered scientific point of view. It is applied by him explicitly or implicitly to a wide variety of individual and collective human experiences. In this paper I mention a few examples of these applications from the realm of language, religion, and social critique. I also show that Rosenstock-Huessy's tetradic structure accords with and diagrams some basic concepts in systems theory.

La organización política de la Unión Europea y su proceso de estructuración en curso no encuentra un modelo de referencia en el pasado de la historia de los sistemas políticos. El estudio analiza la situación inicial de cambio tras la introducción del euro que unificó el intercambio económico, los principales problemas de la formación de la identidad colectiva europea y la integración política de la Unión Europea. De este modo, se presenta una forma de responder ante el déficit democrático. En principio, el problema radica en que el modelo de nación‐estado en el que se basa la democracia no puede transferirse a la organización del sistema político de la Unión Europea porque Europa no es una nación y cada vez en menor medida está constituida por naciones europeas concebidas desde la soberanía única. Desde el punto de vista de la globalización se demanda un mayor nivel de democracia que reconozca la subsidariedad de la estructura de las decisiones políticas. No cabe esperar la desaparición de las identidades colectivas regionales y nacionales ni el vaciamiento de cada perspectiva de " Nosotros‐los europeos ". La globalización de las sociedades europeas con un impacto interno y externo no da lugar a una identidad social cerrada. Pero estos procesos no excluyen inercias y tendencias defensivas, la absorción así como el rechazo de lo institucional en la reconstrucción continuada de la sociedad europea.

Abstract The political organization of the European Union and its ongoing restructuring do not have a model in the history of political systems in the past. The study sketches the changed initial situation after the introduction of the Euro unifying the economic exchange, the main problems of forming European collective identity and the political integration of the European Union. It is shown a way out of the lack of democracy. The problem is in principle that the model of nation state based democracy is not to transfer to the organization of the political system of the European Union because Europe is not a nation and it is less and less formed by single sovereign European nations. Under the condition of globalization is required a more level democracy which realized the principle of subsidiarity of the structure of political decisions. It can not be expected that the regional and national collective identities will disappear and each address of " we‐Europeans " is empty. Globalization of the European societies with an impact inside and outside does not initiate a closed social identity. But these processes do not exclude inertia and defensive tendencies, absorption as well as repulsion of institutional in progress of rebuilding European society by multiple modernization which has not an unified structure.

In unserer technisierten und weitgehend durchorganisierten Welt gehen wir im Allgemeinen davon aus, dass die Dinge, die unseren Alltag betreffen, planbar und steuerbar sind. Zwar akzeptieren wir, dass es immer mal wieder zu Überraschungen kommt, die dann unsere Gewissheiten für kurze Zeit erschüttern, aber im Grunde glauben wir, dass diese Brüche in der Planbarkeit nur die berühmten Ausnahmen sind, die die Regel bestätigen. Geht es um das Verhältnis und die Beziehungen zwischen dem Menschen und seiner Umwelt, wird es schon etwas schwieriger. Aber auch hier gilt die grundsätzliche Annahme der Steuerbarkeit, die in Begriffen wie der "Regulation der gesellschaftlichen Naturverhältnisse" (z. B. bei Becker & Jahn 2006, Görg 2003) oder aber dem Management von komplexen Systemen beispielsweise bei naturgefahreninduzierten Risiken (z. B. bei Alexander 2002 oder Merz & Emmermann 2006) ihren Ausdruck finden. Zwar scheint der Begriff der "Regulation" sehr viel weicher zu sein als der Begriff der "Steuerung", dennoch impliziert er die Annahme eines grundsätzlich möglichen zielgerichteten Eingriffs in komplexe Verhältnisse. Aus einer differenztheoretischen Sicht, die ihren Ausgang in der modernen soziologischen Systemtheorie nach Niklas Luhmann nimmt, ist der Gedanke einer Steuerbarkeit von Systemen allerdings grundsätzlich in Frage zu stellen. Denn mit diesem theoretischen Ansatz entsteht ein Denkgebäude, "in dem die Bedingungen und Möglichkeiten erfolgreicher Steuerung gar nicht mehr formuliert werden können" , S. 19, siehe hierzu auch Lippuner 2007.

This article illustrates how to create an interview protocol and process that leverages Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model. In addition to providing the template, the authors also discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with the Ecological Systems Interview Tool.

This chapter focuses on out-of-school suspension examining the relationship between behaviour, antecedent school and family factors. In this analysis, the biological, biopsychological and biopsychosocial-cultural needs of a secondary school student are viewed within the UN framework of Children's Rights. I argue that when basic human needs are not met, this can result in disruptive student behaviour. In order to provide and maintain a safe and inclusive educational environment conducive to social and emotional wellbeing, social workers and teachers are required to address the relationship between basic human needs and children’s rights. This includes the development of school policies and disciplinary protocols, which promote and foster a culture of dignity for all students. This has not always been the case with suspension policies and practices in Austria. Currently, the use of out-of-school suspension is losing ground as a provision to protect students and teachers from serious harm; especially when students are suspended for minor infractions associated with a low risk of harming self or others.

Circuits of information in 1960s Argentina were entwined with Europe and the United States for goodor ill. Following the ouster of President Juan Perén bythe militaryin 1955 for his populist policies and full-throated support of the union movement, Argentina contended with a series of fragile social-liberal presidential administrations. The most consequential, that of President Arturo Frondizi (1958-62), established strongties to the United States. Cultivating foreign investment, Frondizihosted a state visit by President Dwight Eisenhower, who presented his economic objectives in starkly anti-Soviet, Cold Warterms: "Whenfreedom, democracy and nationalsovereignty are in jeopardy in any country, they are to some degree in jeopardyin all free countries of the world. This is one strong reason why the UnitedStatesis vitally interested in the developmentofthe general well-beingofall free nations." "General well-being" for Eisenhower meant economic andindustrial development,with whichthe United States was happytoassist. The cultural sphere in Argentina hada similarly internationalist agenda. Foundational funding for the prestigious Torcuato diTellaInstitute, a leading centerfor avant-garde art founded in 1958, was raised using the US modelof corporate financing, along with grants from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.' Butrelations between Latin America and the United States beganto falterat the onset of the Cuban Revolution. Therise of the military dictatorship of Juan Carlos i t h Europ e and Presid ent Juan throat ed supmies of fragil e Muentia l, that 0 the Unite d liby Presid ent Istarkl y anti-esoVer eignty W y in all free ales is Vitall y Nation s."! Bitial develtural spher e Al fundi ng ant-sa rde iinanc ing, Mela tion s ONs et of 0 Carl os Onganiai n 1966, coupled with mistrust of imperiali st US policies culminating in the assassin ation of Fidel Castro's comanda nte-Ern esto "Che" Guevara, from Rosario, Argenti na-by the cra, cameto define Argentine political radicalis m. The assassina tion of Che, along with the Vietnam War, and

In this paper I will first reconstruct the central role of the problems of interpretation in Eco’s theory since the famous definition of the open work, which is actually much more a research on the conditions and the forms of closure. Much of Eco’s theoretical work can be seen as an attempt to deal with the problem of the drift of interpretations, up to the recent proposal of a “Negative Realism”. Luhmann’s concept of communication, which will be discussed later, is an indirect response to these difficulties, which dissolve when one takes as a reference the position of the recipient and the autopoiesis of communication. Communication constrains itself eliminating any arbitrariness, but maintaining the whole freedom of interpretation. We will show that the fundamental difference between Eco and Luhmann is the reference to society, which allows sociology to define communication and to study its forms, while for semiotics it is an additional complication.

An edited version of the study is available in;

Das 'Prinzip Störung' in den Geistes und Sozialwissenschaftebn
Hrsg. von Carsten Gansel und Norman Ächtler
Studien und Texte zur Sozialgeschichte der Literatur
Hrsg. von Norbert Bachleitner, Christian Begemann, Walter Erhart und Gangolf
Hübner, Band 122
De Griyter. Berlin 2013, S. 15-29

The properties of the firm are crucial starting points for developing theories on economy and management. The aim of this study is to propose a general theory of the social organization of production, mapping the essential conditions for its creation, development, and growth. In order to do so, we propose an evolutionary theory in which the relations of the organization's sociotechnical system manifest themselves through a self-perpetuating dynamic where leaders take on the role of social attractors and their viable outline is defined by their capacity for regeneration and by the flows of resources and information that pass through them. This goes against the finalist conceptions of the firm, in which the scope is to meet external demands. In this type of dynamics, the objective of the structure is to ensure its own organization and the realization of its identity and autonomy.

本文主要探討科技（technology）與隱私（privacy）之間的關係。其中較為主要的觀點是，科學與技術發展在人們對於隱私概念的認知與實作上，構成不同程度之變化。本研究將從技術哲學觀點出發，輔以俗民方法學對於社會成員在日常生活中之實作的探討，並以行動數位設備或所謂「穿戴式科技（wearable technologies）」為例，提出對科技與隱私之關係在理論上不同的觀察。本研究在過去已建立之隱私研究的基礎上，發展「隱私實作（doing privacy）」概念，並期待可以適切地理解隱私概念內涵在電子媒介與網際網路時代的變化。本研究嘗試探究使用者的「隱私實作」是如何透過新技術的使用來完成，以及該實作對使用者成員而言具有的意涵。本研究的結論有二：第一，從理論觀點來看「隱私不再」的現象時指出，人們的隱私實作並不一定在嘗試維護或保有傳統上的隱私觀點，而是透過實作來建構、形塑新的隱私觀，此一新的隱私觀也透過新技術的開發與使用，反過來與使用者共同建構這個新的隱私概念。第二，從實作的觀點，隱私或許不再具有價值中立性，而是「訊息／身體」這組區別運作出來的突現物（emergent）。相較於過去將隱私視為一種「權利」，新型態的科技所形塑出來的隱私概念毋寧是一種反身性運作的暫時性成就（ongoing accomplishment），也更具有與科技共構、共生的特性。本研究也主張，此一特性在嘗試理解現代科技與隱私概念之構成的關聯性上，將扮演重要角色。

The study mainly concerns the relationship between technology and privacy. It focuses on the idea that the development of science and technology to a great extent comes from people’s changing recognition of and practices of privacy. Inspired by the philosophy of technology and then through the observation of layperson’s daily practices from ethnomethodological perspective, the study examines how wearable devices with self-tracking technology “re-shape” people’s understanding of privacy with an emphasis on a transformation from “information as body’s environment” to “information as body’s environment”. The discussion of the transformation leads to at least two concluding remarks. On one hand, “privacy no more” indicates that people’s privacy practices with self-tracking technology are not necessarily maintaining or solidifying the traditional viewpoint of privacy; instead, they are used to construct a different one. On the other hand, privacy may not be value-free; rather, it emerges from the distinction of information and body. The concept of privacy re-shaped by self-tracking technology becomes reflexively an ongoing accomplishment. The aim of the study is to investigate how people’s “doing privacy” is accomplished with the intervention of self-tracking technology, whether voluntarily or not, and to contribute to a further understanding of the relationship between privacy and technology.

A semântica do constitucionalismo está historicamente conectada à problemática da organização (“controle”) do poder e a garantia de direitos fundamentais no Estado nacional. Porém, diante das modificações sociais impostas pela globalização, nomeadamente a participação de atores nacionais e internacionais, públicos e privados, nos processos jurídicos e políticos, surge a necessidade de se repensar as questões constitucionais. Neste contexto, a sociologia do constitucionalismo, na qual se insere a proposta do constitucionalismo social de Teubner, apresenta-se como uma forte alternativa às teorias políticas e jurídicas tradicionais, pois – dentre outras diferenças metodológicas – seus fundamentos estão na sociedade, antes do que no próprio Estado. Nessa continuidade, o problema que orienta este artigo é a possibilidade de se pensar o constitucionalismo no âmbito digital e, mais especificamente, uma constituição para a internet. Soma-se, dessa forma, ao problema da intensificação da globalização, as dinâmicas e novas formas de organização da comunicação mediada pelo computador. Nesse sentido, a ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) e a governança global da rede de nomes de domínios é o exemplo central. A metodologia utilizada é a pragmático-sistêmica de Leonel Severo Rocha, aliada a técnica de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental. Busca-se navegar nas diversas observações da Teoria dos Sistemas de Niklas Luhmann, Gunther Teubner e Thomas Vesting. Dessa forma, o tópico inicial destina-se a compreensão do pensamento luhmanniano sobre a Constituição. Nesse momento, a distinção centro/periferia, o conceito de acoplamentos estruturais e os paradoxos fundantes dos sistemas jurídico e político apresentam-se como questões centrais. Após, desenvolve-se as observações de Teubner sobre a constituição na globalização. O instrumental teórico desenvolvido é, então, aplicado à observação da constitucionalização da ICANN e à governança da rede de nomes de domínios, caso central para o constitucionalismo digital. Por fim, amplia-se a observação desse exemplo central para a indagação sobre a possibilidade de uma constituição para a internet. A proposta de Teubner é então reavaliada e complementada por meio do conceito luhmanniano de acoplamentos frouxos, referentes aos meios de comunicação, e das recentes lições de Thomas Vesting sobre a cultura das redes.

본 연구는 일상의 금융화에 따른 투기적 삶의 양식이 신자유주의적인 소유주의 문화와 계산적 합리성에 인도되거나, 비합리적인 열정과 무분별한 탐욕에 이끌린다기보다 투기적 선취와 안전에 대한 기대라는 역설적인 논리를 따른다는 점을 분석한다. 신자유주의에 대한 이단경제학 진영의 비판은 근본가치와 허구적 가치라는 이분법 속에서 금융과 투기를 단지 허구적이고 비합리적인 것으로 치부하곤 한다. 그러나 가치의 결정이 미래의 불확실성과 집단적인 가치평가에 의존하는 금융시장에서 투기는 필연적이며, 안정적인 가치 준거의 부재 속에서 경제적 기호로서 화폐에 대한 맹목적 믿음과 가치와 가격의 괴리를 일치시키려는 투기적 욕망은 더욱 강화된다. 이에 본 연구는 신자유주의에 대한 규범적이고 도덕적인 비판을 넘어, 그것이 가치증식 행위와 통치 합리성을 성공적으로 결합함으로써 금융적 합리성과 주체성을 사회화한 논리와 과정을 진지하게 검토한다. 이를 통해 금융이 사회경제적 재생산의 점증하는 위기와 교란을 수반하면서도 여전히 사회적 질서를 조직하고, 개인들의 행위 패턴을 지도하며, 식지 않는 투기의 열정을 동원하는 방식과 동학에 주목한다.

This study analyzes that the speculative lifestyle in the era of financialization follows the paradoxical logic of inescapable speculation and anticipation of safety rather than being guided by the neoliberal ownership culture and computational rationality, or by irrational passion and indiscriminate greed. The criticism of the heterodox economy on neoliberalism tends to dismiss finance and speculation as merely fictional and irrational in the dichotomous premise of fundamental value and fictional value. However, speculation is inevitable in financial markets where value decisions rely on future uncertainty and collective valuation. The absence of stable value standards strengthen the speculative desire to match the gap between value and price and the blind belief in money as an economic symbol. Therefore, this study seriously examines the logic and process that neoliberal reason successfully settles financial rationality and subjectivity in society by combining individual value-appreciation behavior and rationality of government, instead of staying in a normative and moral critique of neoliberalism. Through this, we pay attention to the way and dynamics in which finance, despite triggering the recursive crisis and turmoil of socio-economic reproduction process, still organizes social order, guides individual behavior patterns, and mobilizes unrelenting speculative passion.

A interpretação jurídica não escapou às recentes transformações ocorridas no Estado e no direito. Ao longo das últimas décadas, esta importante operação comunicativa do sistema jurídico sofreu metamorfoses que justificaram a realização da pesquisa que resultou no presente trabalho. Com o objetivo de compreender as profundas mudanças sofridas pela interpretação jurídica, foram investigadas as peculiaridades dos novos modelos de Estado Regulador e de direito ( pragmático , flexível , brando , responsivo , dúctil , heterárquico ) que se desenvolvem na contemporaneidade, contrastando-as com as características marcantes dos modelos estatais e jurídicos anteriores. O resultado da pesquisa, que tomou como principal referência a teoria dos sistemas sociais de Niklas Luhmann, foi uma descrição acerca da realidade social investigada, que pode ser entendida como uma autorreflexão do sistema jurídico, convencionalmente chamada de teoria do direito . A opção por este modo teórico-jurídico de observar a realidade investigada permitiu situar a pesquisa em uma posição diferente daquelas da prática do direito e da dogmática jurídica, ligadas diretamente à necessidade de decisão, e da sociologia do direito, desvinculada desta preocupação. Esta posição ambivalente entre os pontos de vista interno e externo ao sistema jurídico contribuiu para uma investigação heterodoxa acerca de um recurso retórico útil e tradicional da dogmática jurídica: a hipótese do legislador racional. Por fim, após abordar os contornos deste ideal tradicional da hermenêutica jurídica, o trabalho refletiu acerca dos riscos, limites e possibilidade de uma nova figura retórica, que pode estar se desenvolvendo no interior do sistema jurídico: a hipótese do administrador/julgador eficiente.

This report intends to analyze the two companies dealing in the arena of “combat sports”, with the additional constraint being that the company’s operations should be primarily located in North America. Over the past decade, “professional wrestling” and “mixed martial arts” (MMA) have emerged as the two prominent sub-divisions of the aforementioned arena. Furthermore, the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has emerged as the dominant force in the former while the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) holds the coveted position in the latter category. Also, one must take cognition of the fact that although the products/styles professed by the two companies might appear to be quite similar on the substrate, the two are in technical terms as distinct as one can imagine. For starters, while professional wrestling is “fixed”, MMA is as real as it gets. Quite intuitively, with the demands of the two forms being in stark contrast to each other, the ideal traits needed to succeed in each field differ significantly as well. Also, the two organizations differ from each other with regard to the provision of autopoiesis pertaining to the set of interactions & transformations performers go through after having joined each firm. Thus, the differences between the UFC and the WWE arise due to not only the differences in the innate operational characteristics of each firm, but also due to the fundamental differences in the nuances of the products which the firms profess to its respective fuzzy set of consumers. By virtue of the analysis professed in this article, it emerges that:
(A) While the WWE may be characterized as a Cheetah in the creative domain, it fits the billing of an Elephant in the operational domain.
(B) Although the UFC may be characterized as an Elephant in the creative domain, it can be likened to a Cheetah in the operational domain.

The idea of the new shows a basic bivalence, which makes the concept fascinating and mysterious: In order to be recognized and appreciated, a novelty must have some familiar (old) aspects. The new supersedes the old, but at the same time preserves it. Therefore novelty is always ambiguous and flexible, and its evaluation as positive or negative changes with time and with the observer. Today’s tendency is clearly to prefer the new over the old, but this has not always been the case. In ancient times and
in all pre-modern societies, the new was feared and despised. In modern society, on the contrary, the feature of novelty becomes almost a prerequisite to the appreciation of other aspects.
This attitude has proved to be much more open to the complexity and variety of today's world, but it has a paradoxical foundation: If novelty is required and one is always expected to change, this attitude is no longer new and the pursuit of novelty annihilates itself.
The key issue is the relationship with the future: The future, if
it is really the future (like the new, if it is really new) cannot be controlled or predicted. But this very impossibility can become a resource: One can use time to create possibilities. The article show how plans can be understood not as predictions of the future, but as interventions on the uncontrollable future. This requires learning to expect surprises and to exploit them to produce opportunities.

Von Bertalanffy's General System Theory represents in a streamlined way most of his career, the key ideas he developed, the most important applications, and developments in a variety of fields. We as editors believe that the book, the man, and their influence deserve attention and renewed praise. Not only because of their historical value, past contributions to the formation of systems theory, complexity theory, and other fields but also because von Bertalanffy's theory of open systems can still contribute to a myriad of disciplines and, importantly, to discussions crossing disciplinary lines, from climate change to mental health. Indeed, the twisted and often obscured genealogies of systems theories and the disciplines borrowing from them suggest all too easily that the theory of open systems is passé, without much relevance. The contributors to this special issue wholeheartedly disagree and believe General System Theory has been systematically underrated and misunderstood.

RESUMEN
A través de una teoría de los medios de comunicación simbólicamente generalizados, la teoría de sistemas sociales desplaza el concepto de cultura a un nivel secundario en la arquitectura de la teoría sociológica. Este artículo pretende rescatar ese concepto y situarlo en un nivel preponderante en el marco de la propia teoría de sistemas. Para ello se vale de la teoría de la evolución de Luhmann y aplica sus mecanismos a las transformaciones semánticas que quedan definidas como sedimentaciones en una matriz cultural de alta abstracción y generalidad.

Palabras clave: Cultura - matriz cultural - semántica - evolución teoría de sistemas

ABSTRACT
Within its theoretical architecture, the sociological theory of social systems has given a subsidiary status to the concept of culture. Instead, it has formulated it as the theory of generalized symbolic media of communication. This article aims to rescue the concept of culture and give it a greater role within the scope of the theory of social systems. For this purpose, the paper applies Luhmann’s theory of evolution to semantic transformations which can thus be understood as sedimentations of communications in a cultural matrix of a high level of generality and abstraction.

Keywords: Culture - cultural matrix - semantics evolution - theory of social systems

When considered in terms of the broader notions of second and third order systems theory-especially in terms defined by Hutchins' notions of distributed systems-we have always been posthuman, as Katherine Hayles famously points out in How We Became Posthuman. Demonstrations of this can be seen in literature predating the age of cybernetics, and even of industry. Because Aristotle, in his Politics, likens servants to both organs in the master's body and to tools (he uses the same word for both-organon-thus blending the notions), and because his views on slaves were formative of Renaissance views, we can see, by extrapolation, a Renaissance precedent for thinking of collections of intelligent entities in either human or non-human form as a sort of servant-engine to humans. Aristotle's narrative on the form and function of servants was integral to Renaissance notions of servitude. Thus we have a precedent for discussing in Aristotelian terms the supra-mundane system of servants that Prospero creates in The Tempest. In that play, Aristotle's ideas of gaining advantage over nature by using slaves as instrumental, prosthetic enhancements of the body's powers is carried a step further: the natural forces on Prospero's isle are themselves incorporated into the master, in the symbolic form of spirits, as extensions of his body and will-forming a master-centered, supernatural system. This system is a supraorganism whose functions and intelligence is distributed, among Prospero, servant spirits like Ariel, mortals like Caliban, and even the very

O trabalho a seguir versa sobre o Transconstitucionalismo de Marcelo Neves e seus desafios de relações transconstitucionais diante de ordens jurídicas transnacionais que se utilizam do terrorismo como prática habitual para atingir seus próprios objetivos. Para o desenvolvimento do estudo, adotou-se como referencial teórico a tese do Marcelo Neves, cujos pressupostos também remetem à Teoria dos Sistemas de Niklas Luhmann.
Tem-se como finalidade perceber a intricada relação de ordens jurídicas estatais e ordens jurídicas assimétricas, assim como os desafios para a realização da atividade transconstitucional em uma era de maior incidência de atividades terroristas.

‘Law and economics’ studies are considered to have given to legal doctrine and argumentation a powerful analytical apparatus, which helped to detail the empirical consequences of legislative and judicial decisions. The main body of thinking of an economic analysis of law has been the new institutional economics, and by its side a rising approach in economic thought. This chapter tests the hypothesis that social systems theory can provide an alternative approach to the interface between law and the economy. This approach is aimed at providing social systems theory with a conceptual framework able to detail the variety of institutions in the interface between the legal and economic systems, and to map and investigate the distinct legal modes of social ordering (within and beyond national law) and some of the flaws in the functioning of contemporary economy, such as problems of hyper-reflexivity (financialisation).

Wir Menschen sind soziale Wesen: unser alltägliches Leben steht in vielfacher Wechselwirkung/Über-schneidung (imbricación) mit dem Leben anderer. Und im allgemeinen lassen wir dies auch ohne Vorbehalte zu. Gleichzeitig sind wir jedoch auch einzelne Individuen: unser alltägliches Leben ist ein Prozeß nicht übertragbarer'individueller Erlebnisse. Und auch dies akzeptieren wir als etwas ganz Unumgängliches. So erscheinen das soziale und das individuelle Leben als widersprüchliche Bedingungen unserer Existenz. Und in der Tat hängt ein Großteil der politischen, wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Geschichte der Menschheit, insbesondere die Geschichte der westlichen Welt der letzten 200 Jahre, mit diesem Dilemma zusammen. So betonen die verschiedenen politischen und ökonomischen Theorien, die auf unterschiedliche Ideologien des Menschlichen gründen, mal den einen und mal den anderen Aspekt dieser Dualität, sei es, daß sie die Unterordnung individueller unter soziale Interessen fordern, oder sei es, daß sie dem Menschen die Einheitlichkeit seines alltäglichen Erlebens bestreiten. Darüberhinaus konstituiert jede dieser Ideologien, auf denen die verschiedenen politischen und ökonomischen Theorien aufbauen, eine Vorstellung von der Natur der sozialen und individuellen Phänomene, die für sich beansprucht, eine wahre Beschreibung der biologischen, psychologischen und seelischen Verfassung des Menschen zu sein. Gründen diese Ideologien aber tatsächlich auf einem angemessenen Verständnis des Menschlichen? Gibt es tatsächlich einen grundlegenden Widerspruch zwischen dem Sozialen und dem Individuellen? Oder sind all diese Widersprüche Illusionen, die sich unserer Art der Beschreibung verdanken? Die ethnische Differenzierung der Menschheit liefert uns viele Beispiele dafür, daß es soziale Systeme gibt gegeben hat, deren Mitglieder scheinbar wider-' sprachliche gesellschaftliche und individuelle Interessen miteinander harmonisiert haben. Aber welche Theorie könnte dies erklären? In diesem kleinen Artikel beabsichtige ich, die sozialen Phänomene einmal auf eine nicht traditionelle Art und Weise zu analysieren, um zu zeigen, daß tatsächlich das individuelle Wesen des Menschen notwendigerweise sozial und das soziale Wesep des Menschen notwendigerweise individuell ist. Dies werde ich jedoch nicht durch philosophische, soziolo-gische oder psychologische Argumente, sondern durch biologische Überlegungen zu zeigen versuchen, d.h. durch eine Betrachtung der Grundlagen unseres eigenen Lebens. Dazu muß der Leser allerdings fünf Ausgangsbedingungen akzeptieren, die und deren Folgerungen ich hier aus Platzgründen ohne ihre vollständigen biologischen Begründungen anführen werde. I. Was ist eine akzeptable Antwort? Wann immer man eine Frage beantworten will, besteht die Hauptschwierigkeit darin, herauszufinden, wann man die Antwort gefunden hat. Woran erkennt man eine angemessene Antwort, wenn man nicht von vornherein weiß, wie sie zu lauten hat ? Die Wissenschaftler haben dafür eine Methode: wissenschaftliche Antworten, d.h. für Wissenschaftler akzeptable Antworten, stellen Vorschläge für Mechanismen (konkrete oder konzeptuelle Systeme) dar, die in ihrem Operieren (Funktionieren) alle in der

Questa tesi presenta un’introduzione allo shift di paradigma in psicologia veicolato dalla scoperta delle origini primariamente intersoggettive del Sé. Sulla base di una riconsiderazione dell’essenza della natura umana e della mente come proprietà emergente dell’ambiente intersoggettivo, si propone come ciò che è emerso dalla ricerca e dalla teorizzazione clinica nel corso dell’ultimo secolo possa offrire un’euristica alternativa e straordinariamente efficace per un’analisi non solo della vita interiore umana, ma anche dei fenomeni collettivi della contemporaneità.
La crisi in atto nella società occidentale è quindi reinterpretata alla luce di dinamiche di trasmissione transgenerazionale e enactment di relazioni sistematicamente basate sull’annientamento, la disumanizzazione e la decapacitazione del più debole, suscettibile di rievocare le parti negate del Sé del perpetratore. Si discute inoltre dei sintomi di un malessere generalizzato che possono essere significati come degradazioni del principio di interdipendenza e di risonanza e come strategie compensative originanti in modelli di attachment insicuro. Orizzonti filosofici e terapeutici mirati a favorire un’interruzione del ciclo della coazione a ripetere vengono infine discussi.