Name: Theory Of Society, Volume 2 (cultural Memory In The Present)
Price: 1240.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Niklas Luhmann
ISBN: 9780804771603

portada Theory Of Society, Volume 2 (cultural Memory In The Present)

Theory Of Society, Volume 2 (cultural Memory In The Present)

Type

Physical Book

Author

Niklas Luhmann

Translated by

Rhodes Barrett

Publisher

Stanford University Press

Year

2013

Language

English

Pages

453

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm

Weight

0.64 kg.

ISBN13

9780804771603

Synopsis "Theory Of Society, Volume 2 (cultural Memory In The Present)"

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 accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative media, including language, writing, the printing press, and electronic media, as well as "success media," such as money, power, truth, and love, all of which structure this fluidity and make communication possible. The book asks what gives rise to functionally differentiated social systems, how they evolve, and how social movements, organizations, and patterns of interaction emerge. The advent of the computer and its networks, which triggered potentially far-reaching processes of restructuring, receives particular attention. A concluding chapter on the semantics of modern society's self-description bids farewell to the outdated theoretical approaches of "old Europe"--that is, to ontological, holistic, ethical, and critical interpretations of society--and argues that concepts such as "the nation," "the subject," and "postmodernity" are vastly overrated. In their stead, "society"--long considered a suspicious term by sociologists, one open to all kinds of reification--is defined in purely operational terms. It is the always uncertain answer to the question of what comes next in all areas of communication.

Niklas Luhmann

(Author)

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Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998), studied law at the University of Freiburg and earned a doctoral degree. He is considered one of the most prominent pioneers of Sociological Systems Theory, whose innovative approach contrasted with that of Talcott Parsons, the most renowned theorist in the field during the 1960s, under whom he studied at Harvard University. He held various positions at the Universities of Münster, Frankfurt, and finally at the University of Bielefeld, where he remained until his retirement in 1993. His prolific work as a writer on diverse topics such as law, economics, politics, art, ecology, or mass media continued even after this date, culminating with his most important work: The Society of Society, published in 1997.

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