Rather, Luhmann's work tracks closer to complexity theory, broadly speaking, in that it aims to address any aspect of social life within a universal theoretical framework-as the diversity of subjects he wrote on indicates. Like his erstwhile mentor Talcott Parsons, Luhmann is an advocate of " grand theory", although neither in the sense of philosophical foundationalism nor in the sense of " meta-narrative" as often invoked in the critical works of post-modernist writers. Luhmann is probably best known to North Americans for his debate with the critical theorist Jürgen Habermas over the potential of social systems theory. Much of Luhmann's work directly deals with the operations of the legal system and his autopoietic theory of law is regarded as one of the more influential contributions to the sociology of law and socio-legal studies. His relatively low profile elsewhere is partly due to the fact that translating his work is a difficult task, since his writing presents a challenge even to readers of German, including many sociologists. While his theories have yet to make a major mark in American sociology, his theory is currently well known and popular in German sociology, and has also been rather intensively received in Japan, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, including in Russia. Luhmann wrote prolifically, with more than 70 books and nearly 400 scholarly articles published on a variety of subjects, including law, economy, politics, art, religion, ecology, mass media, and love. This work describes segmented societies where territory is a dividing line. He continued to publish after his retirement, when he finally found the time to complete his magnum opus, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft (literally, "The Society of Society"), which was published in 1997, and has been translated into English as Theory of Society (volume I in 2012 and volume II in 2013). In 1968/1969, he briefly served as a lecturer at Theodor Adorno's former chair at the University of Frankfurt and then was appointed full professor of sociology at the newly founded University of Bielefeld, Germany (until 1993). Two earlier books were retroactively accepted as a PhD thesis and habilitation at the University of Münster in 1966, qualifying him for a university professorship. In 1965, he was offered a position at the Sozialforschungsstelle an der Universität Münster (Social Research Centre of the University of Münster), led by Helmut Schelsky.įrom 1965/66 he studied one semester of sociology at the University of Münster. Leaving the civil service in 1962, he lectured at the national Deutsche Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften (University for Administrative Sciences) in Speyer, Germany. In later days, Luhmann dismissed Parsons' theory, developing a rival approach of his own. During a sabbatical in 1961, he went to Harvard, where he met and studied under Talcott Parsons, then the world's most influential social systems theorist. After the war Luhmann studied law at the University of Freiburg from 1946 to 1949, where he obtained a law degree, and then began a career in Lüneburg's public administration. In 1943, he was conscripted as a Luftwaffenhelfer in World War II and served for two years until, at the age of 17, he was taken prisoner of war by American troops in 1945. He entered the Gymnasium Johanneum at Luneburg in 1937. Luhmann was born in Lüneburg, Free State of Prussia, where his father's family had been running a brewery for several generations. Niklas Luhmann ( / ˈ l uː m ə n/ German: Decem– November 11, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and a prominent thinker in systems theory.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |