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Crisis of the Eco-System from the Perspective of Luhmann’s System Theory
Ivan Markešić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5067-1676
; Institut društvenih znanosti "Ivo Pilar", Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Luhmann starts from the assumption that modern societies are functionally differentiated into individual systems, such as politics, economy, law, science, education, religion, etc. None of these functional sub-systems, which are equal, can represent the society as a whole or act in the name of that society (not even politics, which is supposed to lead the development of society). Based on these theoretical premises, we argue that society, as a communication system, is put (or puts itself) into danger because it does not respond to disasters in its environment as a whole but rather allows any one of these functional differentiated sub-systems to act on its behalf. This means that each individual sub-system react in their own specific way (economy from the cost/benefit perspective, politics from the perspective of the chances of winning or losing the elections, science from the perspective of new research, religion from the perspective of the world as God’s creation, etc.).
Therefore, if these differentiated sub-systems are unable to resolve accumulating ecological problems, we pose a very obvious question: Can modern societies truly overcome current ecological crisis caused by technological development? In other words, is ecology, as individual, functionally differentiated, social sub-system in itself, able to “communicate” the environmental crisis of modern society?
Ključne riječi
Niklas Luhmann; systems theory; differentiation between system and environment; environmental crisis; functional social sub-systems; ecology
Hrčak ID:
118822
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.3.2014.
Posjeta: 2.079 *