{"title":"Books by Niklas Luhmann","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780804739078","title":"Art As a Social System","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis 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 of distinctions for determining what counts as art that could be valid for those creating as well as those receiving art works—but it also represents an important advance in systems theory.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReturning to the eighteenth-century notion of aesthetics as pertaining to the \"knowledge of the senses,\" Luhmann begins with the idea that all art, including literature, is rooted in perception. He insists on the radical incommensurability between psychic systems (perception) and social systems (communication). Art is a special kind of communication that uses perceptions instead of language. It operates at the boundary between the social system and consciousness in ways that profoundly irritate communication while remaining strictly internal to the social.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn seven densely argued chapters, Luhmann develops this basic premise in great historical and empirical detail. Framed by the general problem of art's status as a social system, each chapter elaborates, in both its synchronic and diachronic dimensions, a particular aspect of this problem. The consideration of art within the context of a theory of second-order observation leads to a reconceptualization of aesthetic form. The remaining chapters explore the question of the system's code, its function, and its evolution, concluding with an analysis of \"self-description.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eArt as a Social System\u003c\/i\u003e draws on a vast body of scholarship, combining the results of three decades of research in the social sciences, phenomenology, evolutionary biology, cybernetics, and information theory with an intimate knowledge of art history, literature, aesthetics, and contemporary literary theory. The book also engages virtually every major theorist of art and aesthetics from Baumgarten to Derrida.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294809731445,"sku":"9780804739078","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780804739078_294722da-6cd6-4f5e-98a2-96c3679bcbb7.jpg?v=1786016354"},{"product_id":"9780745645728","title":"Introduction to Systems Theory","description":"Niklas Luhmann ranks as one of the most important sociologists and social theorists of the twentieth century. Through his many books he developed a highly original form of systems theory that has been hugely influential in a wide variety of disciplines.    In Introduction to Systems Theory, Luhmann explains the key ideas of general and sociological systems theory and supplies a wealth of examples to illustrate his approach. The book offers a wide range of concepts and theorems that can be applied to politics and the economy, religion and science, art and education, organization and the family. Moreover, Luhmann’s ideas address important contemporary issues in such diverse fields as cognitive science, ecology, and the study of social movements.    This book provides all the necessary resources for readers to work through the foundations of systems theory – no other work by Luhmann is as clear and accessible as this. There is also much here that will be of great interest to more advanced scholars and practitioners in sociology and the social sciences.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298008478069,"sku":"9780745645728","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780745645728_c6c55f48-ad76-4c38-97c1-4d82ef9e663d.jpg?v=1786014598"},{"product_id":"9781509519453","title":"Trust and Power","description":"In this important book, Niklas Luhmann uses his powers as an analyst of the social system to examine two of the most important concepts which hold that system together and allow it to evolve: trust and power. He criticises those theoretical accounts whose roots lie in what he refers to as ideologies – accounts which use implicit beliefs in particular conceptions of human nature to explain and predict social action in a one-dimensional way. Theories of rational choice and moralistic explanations are taken to task, as are the theories of both Marx and Habermas. Luhmann's unique scientific sociology underpins every page and enables him to highlight the potential shortcomings of these narrative approaches.  Underlying this approach is the idea that ideologically-based social theory, whether critical or conservative, is unable to do justice to the complexities existing within the parameters of social systems, individuals, and the interactions between them. He aims to show instead how only a painstaking systems analysis can capture these intricacies.                                                        Although written over 40 years ago, Luhmann's complex vision of the operations of trust and power provides a wealth of insights of considerable value to scholars and students grappling with contemporary social and economic problems. The editors' introduction to this new edition and the significant revisions they have made to the translation will help to reveal the richness and clarity of this vision and its relevance to the ways that trust and power operate in today's society.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302513521013,"sku":"9781509519453","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509519453_ed3d556e-b887-438b-86dc-e6d40feee833.jpg?v=1786034584"},{"product_id":"social-systems","title":"Social Systems","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 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, Germany's most prominent and controversial social thinker sets out a contribution to sociology that reworks our understanding of meaning and communication.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLuhmann concedes that there is no longer a binding representation of society within society, but refuses to describe this situation as a loss of legitimation or a crisis of representation. Instead, he proposes that we search for new ways of coping with the enforced selectivity that marks any self-description under the conditions of functionally differentiated modern society. For Luhmann, the end of metanarratives does not mean the end of theory, but a challenge to theory, an invitation to open itself to theoretical developments in a number of disciplines that, for quite some time, have been successfully working with cybernetic models that no longer require the fiction of the external observer.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSocial Systems\u003c\/i\u003e provides the foundation for a theory of modern society that would be congruent with this new understanding of the world. One of the most important contributions to social theory of recent decades, it has implications for many disciplines beyond sociology.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481675342197,"sku":"9780804726252","price":36.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780804726252.jpg?v=1786089962"},{"product_id":"schriften-zur-organisation-6","title":"Schriften zur Organisation 6","description":"Mit diesem sechsbändigen Werk erscheint erstmals eine vollständige Edition der Aufsätze und Vorträge Niklas Luhmanns zum Thema Organisation. Die Bände präsentieren schwer auffindbare Texte und bisher unveröffentlichte Materialien. \u003cp\u003eDieser abschließende Band enthält Annotationen, Bibliografie, Register und weitere Hilfsmittel zur Erschließung der Texte.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e„Ohne Organisation geht es nicht. Mit Organisation geht es auch nicht.“\u003c\/p\u003eNiklas Luhmann, 1975\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57510287049077,"sku":"9783658234355","price":74.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9783658234355.jpg?v=1787130643"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-niklas-luhmann.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}