Call for papersto the Luhmann Conference 2023on “Environments. Observed with social systems theory”

Venue:Inter-University Centre (IUC), Dubrovnik, Croatia

Address:Don Frana Bulicá 4, 20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dates:12-15 September 2023

Pre-conference dinner: 11 September 2023

Theme

Commonly associated with nature or ecology, the concept of environment is foundational to social systems theory. A “system is the difference between system and environment” (Luhmann, 2006), and we define as autopoietic those systems capable of maintaining the boundary between themselves and their environment. This definition applies not only to living, but also to psychic and social systems, with each of the manifold systems creating its ownenvironment. In social systems theory, there is hence no such thing astheenvironment, if by this generalised environment we understand an all-encompassing ecosystem of which all living (and perhaps other autopoietic) systems are elements. Rather, there is an ineluctable plurality of environments, for…