Review Essay: Controlled Openness

Authors

  • Andreas Wenninger Universität Bielefeld

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-9.3.1010

Keywords:

sociology, systems theory, theory of society, methodology, qualitative social research

Abstract

The book reviewed here contains a written form of Niklas LUHMANN’s last lecture, delivered in winter term 1992/1993 at Bielefeld University, where he was professor for sociology from 1968 to 1993. A more comprehensive and systematic publication titled "Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft" was not published until 1997. In comparison to this and to other publications the present one provides an insight into the modality of the theoretical practice of LUHMANN. My review-essay follows up that point and reminds us that LUHMANN worked out his theory of society in view of a sociological problem he had conceived. He accused sociology of accumulating knowledge in a confusing way by empirical social research. His endeavour, in contrast, was to enable research within a consistent theoretical frame that was nevertheless open to expansive explorations. LUHMANN tries to achieve consistency through the reciprocal adjustment of his terms and his theoretical components, which should enable the construction of problems for comparison within global society. This means that his approach stays open for an empirical reality that remains to be explored because the theory of society does not deliver terms to categorize empirical reality. Instead, terms are conceptualized as distinctions with the function to construct problems that instruct observations and make them amenable to theorization. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803237

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Author Biography

Andreas Wenninger, Universität Bielefeld

Andreas WENNINGER; Dipl. Soz.; Studium der Soziologie an der LMU München von 2000-2005, von 2006-2007 wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im DFG-Forschungsprojekt "Massenmediale Inklusionsprozesse. Zur Ausdifferenzierung soziologischer Medien- und Rezeptionsanalysen" an der Universität Bielefeld, geleitet von Prof. Dr. Tilmann SUTTER und Prof. Dr. Alfons BORA; seit Oktober 2007 Koordinator im Graduiertenkolleg "Weltgesellschaft – Die Herstellung und Repräsentation von Globalität" des Instituts für Weltgesellschaft an der Universität Bielefeld.

Published

2008-08-25

How to Cite

Wenninger, A. (2008). Review Essay: Controlled Openness. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-9.3.1010

Issue

Section

FQS Reviews