What is it about?
Legal system, Economy, Politics are examples of functional systems. According to Luhmann's theory, inclusion or exclusion from the system takes place through a communication code that establishes whether an act is inside or outside. This article demonstrates that there is an intermediate range of possibilities, and this blurring boundary between functional systems is strategic for development of single systems and society as a whole.
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Why is it important?
The article challenges a pillar of Luhmann's theory: the operative closure of the system thanks to binary communication code. The confutation takes place in an original way. In fact, the demonstration is articulated on three levels, which express the same hypothesis with different language: the discussion of practical examples (Legal system, Mass Media, Art), the demonstration with mathematical tools, the argumentation through the interpretation of artworks by Escher .
Perspectives
I met Luhmann directly translating Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. Translating means to enter deeply into the concepts, into the complicated and obscure fibers of his reasoning to untangle the plot and rewrite it in another language. In this way it was possible to counteract the source of the concept, but adding to Luhmann's tedious and long-winded argument, the brilliant synthesis of mathematics and the emotional language of art.
laura appignanesi
Universita Politecnica delle Marche
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Blurred Binary Code for the Sustainable Development of Functional Systems, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, July 2018, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/sres.2537.
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