Modern systems theory provides a new paradigm for the analysis of society. In this volume, Niklas Luhmann, its leading exponent, explores its implications for our understanding of law. Luhmann argues that current thinking about how law operates within a modern society is seriously deficient. In this[...]

A great deal of attention has been devoted to risk research. Theoretical sociology, however, has shown little interest in it. Sociologists in general have limited themselves to varying recognitions of a society at risk and have traced out the paths to disaster. The detailed research has yet to be un[...]

Niklas Luhmann offers an accessible introduction to one of the most important sociologists of our time. It presents the key concepts within Luhmann's multifaceted theory of modern society, and compares them with the work of other key social theorists such as Jurgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, and Zyg[...]

Niklas Luhmann is recognised as a major social theorist, and his treatise on the sociology of law is a classic text. For Luhmann, law provides the framework of the state, lawyers are the main human resource for the state, and legal theory provides the most suitable base from which to theorize on the[...]

In The Reality of the Mass Media Luhmann extends his theory of social systems - applied in his earlier works to the economy, the political system, art, religion, the sciences and law - to an examination of the role of mass media in the constitution of social reality. Luhmann argues that the system o[...]

Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) ranks as one of the most important sociologists and social theorists of the 20th century. This title offers conceptual analyses and examples to clarify the theoretical foundations of general and sociological systems theory.[...]

A major challenge confronting contemporary theory is to overcome its fixation on written narratives and the culture of print. In this presentation of a general theory of systems, Niklas Luhmann, Germany's most prominent and controversial social thinker, sets out a contribution to sociology that rewo[...]

This is the definitive analysis of art as a social and perceptual system by Germany s leading social theorist of the late twentieth century. It not only represents an important intellectual step in discussions of art in its rigor and in its having refreshingly set itself the task of creating a set o[...]

The essays in this volume formulate what is considered to be the preconditions for an adequate theory of modern society. The first two essays deal with the modern European philosophical and scientific tradition. The next four essays concern the notion of observation as defined by Luhmann. They exami[...]

This second volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was first published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the[...]