Observing Communication : Niklas Luhmann and the Problem of Ethnography
نویسندگان
چکیده
Zusammenfassung: Ethnographische Studien präsentieren typischerweise beeindruckende Datenmengen, jedoch oft ohne dabei einen Beitrag zu disziplinären, theoretischen oder substanziellen Problemen zu leisten. Niklas Luhmann wird nicht als qualitativer Sozialforscher angesehen, seine Gesellschaftstheorie kann aber helfen, die soziologische Relevanz der Ethnographie zu steigern. Mit Blick auf dieses Problem diskutiert der vorliegende Artikel die Vorteile, die aus Luhmanns theoretischer Entscheidung resultieren, Sinn und Kommunikation statt Akteure und Handlungen zu beobachten. Darüber hinaus versucht der Artikel die Rolle zu bestimmen, die das menschliche Bewusstsein in der Gesellschaft spielt. Es gibt viele Möglichkeiten für die Ethnographen, die systemtheoretische Konstrukte zum Vorteil der qualitativen Sozialforschung zu nutzen. Hier wird vorgeschlagen, dass die Feldforscher sich auf die Beschreibung der Benutzung von strukturellen Kopplungen in Echtzeit und die Untersuchung von symbolisch generalisierten Differenzen konzentrieren.
منابع مشابه
Space Is the Place: the Laws of Form and Social Systems
It is well known that Niklas Luhmann‟s theory of social systems is grounded in Spencer-Brown‟s seminal Laws of Form (LoF ) or „calculus of indications‟. It is also known that the reception of the latter has been rather problematic. This article attempts to describe the construction of LoF, and confront it with Niklas Luhmann‟s ontological and epistemological premises. I show how LoF must be con...
متن کاملManagement as a Symbolizing Construction? Re-Arranging the Understanding of Management
In this article, we outline the concept of management as a symbolizing construction. According to Niklas LUHMANN, organizations process by referring to decisions. But decisions are not simply "given" and in principle invisible. This is the reason why organizations institute formalities like protocols, signatures or other insignia of the official that symbolize the decision—without actually bein...
متن کاملCommunication and Language in Niklas Luhmann’s Systems-Theory
This article investigates the function and reality of language in Niklas Luhmann‘s systems theory. How can one interpret the systems-theoretical assumption that language is based on communication? Luhmann describes language as a dynamic media/form relationship, which is able to couple the social and psychological system. This structural coupling, which constructs consciousness and language as t...
متن کاملNiklas Luhmann and the Body: Irritating Social Systems
For Niklas Luhmann the body seems to almost disappear in modernity. Modern society, he argues, is a system comprised of a number of operatively closed and functionally distinct sub-systems such as economics, science, law, the mass media and so on. Each system is autonomous and observes the world in its own terms via its internal communications. Thus, Luhmann’s sociology is generally characteriz...
متن کاملSystem as Difference
This is an edited and translated transcript of a lecture by Niklas Luhmann in which he outlined the foundation of his systems theory based on the notion of difference and distinction. After a brief introduction to early theories of distinction, the central ideas of SpencerBrown’s Laws of Form as the most radical form of differential thinking are presented. For Luhmann’s systems theory, this has...
متن کامل