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Speaking and Silence
... The theory of distinctions, further developed in Luhmann's later works, thus entails that one always observes by drawing a line between this and something else. (Luhmann & Behnke, 1994). A distinction, for example, education/environment, is selected, and one of the two sides is indicated as a marked space, for example, 'education'. ...
... The other side, in this case 'environment', is always present, but the distinction is hidden; it constitutes an 'unmarked space'. All observations are based on a distinction and an indication, which together are conceptualized as a form of meaning (Luhmann & Behnke, 1994). Form and distinction can be illustrated like in Figure 1. ...
... In a so-called first-order observation, the observer only sees the marked side of the distinction, unaware of the contingency and blind spot of the observation. A second-order observation is more advanced, however, and occurs when the same or different observer observes the distinctions used in the first observation, illuminating the doublesidedness and contingency of forms (Luhmann & Behnke, 1994). In this paper we will thus 'observe observations', uncovering the educational forms and distinctions that emerge in Norwegian curriculum in the timespan 1988-2000. ...
Some might fear that the local flavours of education will evaporate when encountering the hegemony of global, cognitive standards of the knowledge economy. This paper, however, shows that the evolution of curriculum can emerge in surprising directions, creating hybrid forms of education. We will investigate forms of meaning that emerge in Norwegian curriculum in the timespan 1988-2020, and show how systems theory can contribute to studying curriculum changes in a temporal perspective. The empirical case for investigation, is a diverse range of material, documenting curriculum changes in the mentioned period. Concepts from the late Luhmann’s 'theory of distinctions’ will thus be used to give meaning to the emergence of school reforms in Norway. The paper shows that Norwegian policy makers use increasingly complex deparadoxification strategies to deal with an uncertain future, conceptualized as externalization, oscillation, asymmetrisation, and internalization (re-entry). This is most pertinently demonstrated in the latest Norwegian reform LK20, in which a new, hybrid, 'temporal' construct of education, called “new-old-curriculum” or 'competence-Bildung’ emerges. We thus contribute to the field of curriculum studies by observing how changing observations of the past and future fuel and legitimize the evolution of new reforms.
... Scientific research is also seen as a communicative occurrence. This does not entail a methodological relativism; some elementary principles will have to be followed, such as the distinction between first-and second-order observations (Luhmann 1994(Luhmann , 2007(Luhmann , 1998. Second-order research distinguishes itself from first-order ideological posited theories (Luhmann 2006, 217). ...
... Majority language pupils are ranked above minority language pupils. However, from a system theoretical perspective, the reincluding efforts turn the outside into the inside, again a 'crossing' in form-analytical terms (Luhmann 1994). Minority language pupils are made relevant for re-including policy efforts, and the addressee is further specified as: Immigrant, non-Western, boy and newly arrived. ...
... Hence, the group is being excluded as included: particular exclusion roles are produced and made available on the side of inclusion. From a system theoretical perspective, we are witnessing duplication or 're-entry' of the form in the form (Luhmann 1994). Thus, we are able to separate inclusion roles: e.g. ...
This article offers an analysis of four Norwegian policy documents on inclusion of minority language pupils. The main concepts of this policy will be reconstructed and re-described, applying Niklas Luhmann's systems theory at different levels of the analysis. Luhmann's theory about society as a conglomerate of self-referential social systems investigates how these systems construct meaning and what consequences these constructions have for inclusion and exclusion processes. This article will focus on the Norwegian educational policy towards minority language pupils, defined by the policy as pupils who have a different mother tongue than Norwegian and Sami language. It is argued that this inclusion policy is excluding in its social form, and that it exhibits an increased emphasis on education when it comes to inclusion in society. Re-descriptions based on logic of forms will show how binary distinctions such as ‘inclusion/exclusion', ‘majority language pupil/minority language pupil' and ‘early intervention/wait and see' emerge in the timespan of 2004–2012. Based on this, it is claimed that descriptions of inclusion and exclusion are mutually constituted in the policy, thus giving rise to the question of whether the policy goal – ‘full' inclusion in society – is realisable. A paradox will be uncovered: minority language pupils are being included as excluded as well as excluded as included in the documents, displaying how inclusion and exclusion are two sides of the same coin. The strategy early intervention is introduced to remedy exclusions, thus converting the problem of inclusion into a problem of time.
... This is the silence which occurs before an acoustic event.17 As an example of the autopoiesis of communication, Luhmann mentions professions dealing with communication with elderly and sick people, to whom people working in such professions offer entertainment, education, comfort and so on(Luhmann 1994(Luhmann /1989. ...
... This is the silence which occurs before an acoustic event.17 As an example of the autopoiesis of communication, Luhmann mentions professions dealing with communication with elderly and sick people, to whom people working in such professions offer entertainment, education, comfort and so on(Luhmann 1994(Luhmann /1989. ...
Although the aim of this paper is primarily to provide a theoretical contribution to our understanding of silence, it is also based on an ethnographic study conducted in Lika, a region of Croatia marked by a history of conflict and violence. Silence, in addition to having diverse functions and effects, is also characterised by different durations (it can be measured in seconds as well as in decades). It can be, and often is, filled with other potentially communicable non-verbal aspects (emotions and affects, gestures, sounds, etc.). It can also be more or less dependent on – and even steered by – the opinions, experiences and viewpoints of other individuals and communities. In short, this paper deals with the silences found in the course of the research within the framework of numerous typologies of silence, focusing on contextually dependent and ambivalent effects of silence, its “emptiness”, duration and actors (both individuals and communities). This paper deals with silences and silencing at the macrolevel (which includes their affective and social functions), as well as their effect at the microlevel of interpersonal interaction, everyday life and fieldwork encounters. The effects of the network of silences on the public presentation of the findings resulting from studying silence will also be discussed.
... argued that Newell and Simon's computational models rest on a blind spot (Luhmann, 1994) of static, non-interactive Newtonian space underlying their supposedly "primitive functions" (Newell, 1990) for cognitive science. Kinsella's (2008) response explores three main avenues in defence of cognitive science. ...
... criticises the shift from construction of meaning to mere information processing in cognitive psychology. Kinsella's (2008) response to my critique of Newell and Simon's work (Downes, 2006) supplies much information but is short on understanding the meaning of the information furnished for the context of my argument that Newell and Simon's computational models rest on a blind spot (Luhmann, 1994) of static, non-interactive Newtonian space underlying their supposedly "primitive functions" (Newell, 1990, p. 161). 2 Kinsella asserts (in his point 2.3, pp. 71-72) that Newell's (1990) conception of connectivity in his knowledge search space is reducible to Simon's account of complexity from 1962. ...
Downes (2006) argued that Newell and Simon's computational models rest on a blind spot (Luhmann, 1994) of static, non-interactive Newtonian space underlying their supposedly primitive functions (Newell, 1990) for cognitive science. Kinsella's (2008) response explores three main avenues in defence of cognitive science. Firstly, Kinsella (2008) purports to rely on the earlier work of Simon (1962) to supersede the subsequent work of Simon and Newell, while ignoring the problematic logical and empirical implications of doing so. Secondly, Kinsella (2008) offers a rhetorical strategy that both conflates key differences between conceptions of space in Newtonian and Einsteinian paradigms, and reiterates commonalities between Newton and Einstein, while overlooking that these commonalities were already explicitly recognised in Downes (2006). Kinsella (2008) claims to critique Downes (2006) through a third pathway, regarding the constructive pictorial explanation proffered by Simon's ant metaphor discussed in Downes (2006), yet Kinsella (2008) misunderstands this Simonian type of explanation, analysed in relation to the framework of Einsteinian space in General Relativity. A further confusion in Kinsella's (2008) text, which is addressed, pertains to the need to distinguish the different roles of computational models in psychological explanations, as opposed to those in economics.
... Content and environment are treated with equal weighing in the process of comparative and/or dynamic analysis. This type of meta-level analysis is particularly suitable for detection of paradigms and their comparison since blind spots of paradigms become visible (Luhmann, 1994) 5 . Figure 1 shows a paradigm map that reflects the relationships among scientific paradigms. ...
... Sybille Krämer (2015) refere-se à edição de 1927, lançada pela editora berlinense Weltkreis e reeditada pela Kadmos, em 2005. Já Luhmann, em artigo em parceria com Behnke (1994) Krämer (2015, p. 19). Aquilo que é perceptível nos atos de mídia constitui um sistema externo aos media. ...
PhD Thesis [in Portuguese-BR]
Resumo: Este trabalho investiga o fazer mapa sonoro a partir do pensamento da filósofa Sybille Krämer acerca do que é um medium. Para ela, medium é aquilo que, em uma transmissão, recua e autoneutraliza-se, aparentando desaparecer enquanto torna perceptível outra coisa em seu lugar. A partir da obra da filósofa, foi desenvolvida a ferramenta teórica do dial mediológico, para auscultar processos midiáticos envolvidos nas práticas constitutivas dessa nova cartografia. O objetivo foi identificar o que se torna transparente e qual opacidade lhe corresponde, no curso de uma cadeia de transmissões. Partindo da proposta de uma epistemologia crítica da mídia lançada por Krämer, entendemos que o mensageiro e o rastro, a representação e as condições de sua produção, são duas dimensões indissociáveis da mídia, além de duas posições epistemológicas complementares e interdependentes. A pesquisa de campo também foi orientada pela abordagem pós-representacional de Rob Kitchin e Martin Dodge, que sugerem o acompanhamento de como emerge um determinado fazer mapa. Reconstituindo o desenvolvimento do mapa sonoro da plataforma Radio Aporee, desde suas raízes na net art dos anos 1990, encontramos uma situação em que o som é elemento fundamental em uma estratégia de revelar os espaços da mídia. Mapa sonoro é aqui considerado como uma audiovisualidade híbrida tornada possível pela digitalização e que opera entre duas fortes tradições: o mapa e a gravação sonora
Abstract: This work investigates soundmapping within Sybille Krämer's theoretical framework on what a medium is. According to the philosopher, in a transmission, medium is what seems to disappear behind the sensible surface of what comes to appearance. Based on her ideias, we developed a theoretical tool called mediological dial, in order to auscultate media processes involved in the constitutive practices of this new cartography. Our aim was to identify what becomes transparent and which opacity corresponds to it, in the course of a chain of transmissions. We assumed Krämer's proposal of a media-critical epistemology, understanding that the messenger and the trace, the representation and the conditions of its production are two inseparable dimensions of media, as well as two complementary and interdependent epistemological positions. Field research was also guided by Rob Kitchin and Martin Dodge's post-representational approach to cartography. They suggest tracking how a particular process of map-making emerges. We reconstituted the development of the Radio Aporee platform's sound map, since its origins in the net art of the 1990s, and found a situation in which sound is a fundamental element in a strategy to reveal media spaces. In the context of this research, sound map is considered as a hybrid audiovisuality made possible by the digitalization and which operates between two strong traditions: the map and the sound recording
Author: Aragão, Thaís Amorim
Author Lattes (CV): http://lattes.cnpq.br/1886894389930947
Advisor: Silveira, Fabricio Lopes da;
Advisor Lattes (CV): http://lattes.cnpq.br/8096511043948981;
Publisher: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos
Publisher initials: Unisinos
Publisher country: Brasil
Publisher department: Escola da Indústria Criativa
Language: pt_BR
Subject: Filosofia da mídia; Espaço; Som; Materialidades; Cartografia; Media philosophy; Space; Sound; Materialities; Cartography
Subject CNPq: ACCNPQ :: Ciências Sociais Aplicadas :: Comunicação
Type: Tese
Date.issued: 2018-04-27
Description.sponsorship: CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
Rights: openAccess
Publisher program: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Comunicação
URI: http://www.repositorio.jesuita.org.br/handle/UNISINOS/7112
... As a result, Suzan's vocalisations or her silence are not talked over, but rather she is spoken with and is oriented to as actively contributing. Her vocalisations and her silence are therefore not treated as 'non-communication', but as meaningful contributions in this part of this interaction (Luhman, 1994). Again, turning to the video data, we note the sensitivity with which FAC1 coordinates this, as illustrated in Figure 3. ...
The aims of this exploratory study were: to investigate the process of visual art appreciation in a person with dementia, in real time; and to test the feasibility of using videoanalysis as a method to explore this process by and with a person who has minimal verbal expression. Gallery personnel guided a woman with severe dementia around an exhibition. Audiovisual recordings of the interactions were analysed. Patterns were identified, and interpreted in the light of Conversation Analysis theory and research. Evidence was found of turn-taking vocalisations on the part of the research participant. Her participation in a dialogical process was facilitated by the skilled and empathic gallery personnel in ways that the analysis makes clear. We argue that this supports the inference that successful communicative acts took place, contrary to expectations in the light of the participant’s level of disability. We demonstrate in this paper how a woman with minimal speech due to dementia was enabled to engage with visual art through the facilitation of an expert guide, attuned to her needs. This is a novel example of a person-centred approach, because it takes place outside the context of caring, which is the typical setting for examining person-centred centred ways of relating to individuals with dementia.
... Content and environment are treated with equal weighing in the process of comparative and/or dynamic analysis. This type of meta-level analysis is particularly suitable for detection of paradigms and their comparison since blind spots of paradigms become visible (Luhmann, 1994) 5 . Figure 1 shows a paradigm map that reflects the relationships among scientific paradigms. ...
... The side effect of this invisibility is that it is threatening; it remains uncontainable and expansive, it feels colonising and noisy; thus, the system ends up marginalizing it. (Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulous, 2004, p. 3-4) According to Luhmann (1994), "silence is the mirror in which society comes to see that what is not said is not said" (p. 33). ...
In December 2014, despite the Supreme Court of Canada finding Canada's prostitution laws unconstitutional, the Conservative government passed a bill criminalizing the buying of sex and the advertisement of sex for sale. Sex work has a long history as a hot-button topic, and it continues to remain newsworthy throughout the country. This public discussion in some contexts has privileged certain lobbyists and so-called advocates, disregarding or distorting the voices of sex workers themselves. This territory is starkly heteronormative, reinforcing gendered stereotypes and naturalizing certain types of heterosexual behaviour while ignoring a spectrum of other realities. By analysizing depictions of sex work published for 2013 in the London Free Press, a politically centre-right newspaper printed in a midsized Canadian city, this paper provides analysis of articles about sex work in the local-regional context of London, Ontario (Canada). Exposing a Foucauldian rarefaction of discourse, the analysis works to unveil ideological underpinnings, fleshing out a distorted gendered discourse.
... In addition, when the participants in the literary event select to make sense and establish a relationship, what has not been selected remains as turbulence, drawing attention towards itself. This is why Luhmann (1994: 32) affirms that 'the difference between speaking and silence, between communication and non-communication cannot be dissolved. Every instance of speech reactualises silence'. ...
For over 20 years studies in literary theory, linguistics, and semiotics have been contributing with models which describe the role of readers and how they construct the meaning of a literary text. Most of these studies, however, assume an ideal figure who may not necessarily correspond to classroom reality. In this paper I propose a framework which offers a more democratic setting. Cognitively, the model is in line with studies which regard learning as a process of development and adjustment. Linguistically, it accommodates different levels of language proficiency. Culturally, it stresses that the concept of sharedness depends on social praxis. Based on the theoretical assumptions brought about by developments in Language Awareness, I discuss the teacher's role in this setting and propose Literary Awareness as an initial programme by means of which students become sensitised to the construction of verbal art. My final point is that through the perception and manipulation of linguistic patterns in different texts, students are in a better position to produce justifiable interpretations.
... Second-order observation of Newell and Simon's observations regarding their computational approaches to understanding mind reveals that space itself is a more primitive invisible concept underlying their models than Newell's (1990) supposedly "genuinely primitive" functions. This article has sought to examine Newell (1990) and Simon (1996) with regard to the blind spot (Luhmann, 1994) of their Newtonian Euclidean assumptions in their treatment of space. A specific operationalisation of a Newtonian physics hypothetical construct, namely space as flat Euclidean and noninteractive, was examined concerning Newell's (1990) and Simon's (1996) work. ...
Neglected assumptions regarding space glue together the whole information processing framework of Newell and Simon. This article argues that space in Newell and Simon is a Newtonian construct. This Newtonian construct is operationalised as flat, non-interactive, static Euclidean space in contrast to the space-time of Einstein's general relativity in physical causal events which is operationalised as curved, interactive, dynamic, non-Euclidean space. Despite dynamic interactive sounding language in Newell and Simon's computer models of mind, they are argued to rely on static non-interactive Newtonian spatial assumptions. It is unsurprising that Newell and Simon's work would contain pre-Einsteinian spatial assumptions given the large-scale reliance in cognitive science on a schema concept purportedly deriving from Kant. Highlighting the contrasts between Newtonian and Einsteinian space does not deny the continuities between both paradigms in other respects, nor is it an argument for the importation of physics into psychology. An interpretative method of reasoning is developed regarding Newtonian space that distances the argument from simple analogy. The Newtonian framework embedded in Newell and Simon means that cognitive science cannot in principle provide a fundamental explanation of mind
... I suggest that this is the same as Beer's model, and that both are system projections that can lead to these new conceptual blends: " A system is always an observer that gives birth to itself " (Schuhmann, 2004). This process, as do all processes, depends on information, and " In order for information to be understood, the creation of an additional space for possibilities of selection is required " (Luhmann, 1994). Everything is circular, and we have been discussing this very point from the beginning. ...
This paper investigates alternative methods of teaching design studies in a school of design that still largely follows a traditional apprenticeship / practice-based programme. It looks at sustainable and student centred design educational methods of teaching and learning that are underpinned by social constructivism, soft systems thinking and second-order cybernetics. In the first two sections I construct an imaginary dialogue to demonstrate some of the difficulties in teaching design, especially theory, followed by a remodelling of this teaching scenario using Stafford Beer's muddy box regulatory system as a learning device. The following sections deal with conversation theory, story telling and projection, the way we construct and construe virtual frames of existence, while the last section deals with how we can imagine ourselves as autopoietic systems that have the capability of communicative interaction.
... 69 And somewhere else: "the blind spot is [the second-order observer's] a priori, as it were." 70 The blind spot replacing the a priori, the origin, the foundational phrase, the first gesture, the paradox of unutterability; yes, but only "as it were" -not really. Not in reality, not even in the theory. ...
The concept and application of paradox in law is the main focus of the chapter. Paradoxes abound in law: the paradox between its openness to new social issues and its corresponding closure with regard to its terminology, operation, self-image; or the paradox between the text of the law and interpretations; or indeed, the paradox between law and justice. Thus, perhaps the most important paradox of the law is where the law gets its legitimacy - in other words, is law lawful? This question calls for a radical conception of justice, simultaneously within and without the law. As will be explained, this paradox for the law represents a further challenge: is the law supposed to 'deal with' it, therefore get dirty by proving its legitimacy, or 'deal' it, pass it on, to another willing player in that rather ruthless game of legitimacy between law and politics?Starting from a short story in Borges's El Aleph, the text moves through an understanding of the paradox between law and justice and concludes with an ethical call from within the law and for the law, by virtue of its position as simply another player in the gaming table.
The theoretical underpinnings of public international law have taken the sovereign status of the nation-state for granted since the beginning of the modern era. After centuries of evolution in legal and political thought, the state's definition as a bounded territorial unit has been strictly codified. The legal development of the nation-state was an ideological project informed by extra-legal considerations. Additionally, the ever-narrowing scope of the juridical idea of sovereignty functioned as a boundary mechanism instrumental in colonising Africa and other regions. While international law claims universal liberalism today, the current system based on sovereign nation-states represents not social inclusion but fierce and dangerous exclusion.
The central thesis of this book is that the development of legal sovereignty was, rather than part of the modernist progress narrative, a historically contingent evolutionary regression. While other social systems such as economics and science became globalised, politics and law counterintuitively became more territorialised. It is argued that the nation-state today is not only anachronistic but is dangerously ill-equipped for facing international problems such as the climate crisis or global pandemics. Finally, it also leaves African states and many other formerly-colonised territories at a particular disadvantage by regulating their political practices into a predefined mould.
Although the concept ‘organisation-stakeholder relationship (OSR)’ is not new and has beenresearched extensively in the literature, few attempts have been made to critically analyseexisting viewpoints and propose a unified conceptual framework. The main research problem ofthis paper is to address this lack of a commonly accepted conceptual framework for organisationalstakeholder relationships. This is done through a critical analysis of the different perspectivesand existing conceptual frameworks, using a qualitative method whereby strategic stakeholderidentification, OSR development, and OSR maintenance are integrated to propose a conceptualframework, subsequently termed SISOSR, for building organisation-stakeholder partnerships(OSPs) with strategic stakeholders. This article is structured as follows: Firstly, the key conceptsare defined; secondly, the building blocks of the framework are presented based on soundtheoretical constructs; and. thirdly, the SISOSR framework is graphically presented and discussedto elaborate on the proposed process of OSR building, followed by concluding arguments.
This article presents an indicative sample from the results of an experiment that gatheredaudience responses to television news that was coded as “war journalism” and “peacejournalism” respectively, in South Africa, during April 2012. From the peace journalism model,evaluative criteria were derived under a set of five headings for content analysis of two televisionnews programmes and four newspapers. Distinctions under the headings were particularisedfor individual stories by critical discourse analysis to disclose potential sources of influencetransmitted into audience frames. The test material was then coded to fall within the upper andlower peace journalism quartiles of the ‘idiom and range’ of journalism, as currently practised,demonstrated by the content analysis. Transcripts of discussions by focus groups who saw thematerial, as well as written notes made whilst viewing by a larger sample of participants, werethemed according to Entman’s model of framing (1993), where causal interpretation is linked totreatment recommendation. From these interim findings, peace journalism proved to be ideationalin the sense that peace journalism viewers were more likely to perceive structural and/or systemicexplanations for problems, and more likely to see opportunities for therapeutic and/or cooperativeremedies to be applied through exertions of political agency from different levels.
Worry conversations (in Danish, bekymringssamtale) and other network meetings are normally described as offering integrated solutions to complex problems by connecting a variety of views and resources. Adopting a systems-theoretical approach, this article suggests that worry conversations can be better understood if viewed as a loosening technology. Based on a case study, the article presents the hypothesis that worry conversations and network meetings can connect normally disconnected views and knowledge, and, more importantly, disconnect elements normally connected. By disconnecting observations made in a school context from the education system, schools can invite other organisations and function systems to turn what is vaguely formulated as a worry into a problem in their own systems. This increases connectivity, but also the risk that the worry will fail to be specified as a problem and the talk to develop into decisions.
This chapter first discusses the physical or natural form of voice. The chapter defines the voice by discussing its relationships with the concepts of silence and noise with anecdotes in a holistic view. It explains when voice can turn noise and how silence can be reached through noise normalization when there is still perceived noise present. The chapter ends by discussing the differences between physical and inner voices as well as narrative or written voice to emphasize the importance of true value of voice in social relationships. Changes and potential transformation on these concepts with digital revolution are also discussed.
Predicated on a one-sided focus on political ‘voice’, analyses of political silences traditionally focused almost exclusively on their negative role as the harmful absence of participation or responsibility. More recently, a new appreciation for the wide spectrum of political functions of silence has gained ground, including forms of willful renitence and even active resistance. Yet this thematic expansion has also resulted in a loss of focus. Lacking a common analytical framework, research on political silences risks limiting itself to the purely additive: finding and filling in ever more minute ‘blank spots’ on the periphery of the map of political research. Building on the work of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, this paper proposes a solution to this dilemma by means of a reconsideration of the political role of expectations. In political discourse, the expected distribution of moments of silence and articulation expresses established power structures, while unexpected silences and the breaking of expected silences conversely present a powerful means of calling these into question. Focusing on this ambivalence paves the way to a new systematic typology of political silences as a distinct mode of political communication. But above all, it points to the value of silence as an analytical probe, an instrument to fathom the expectations and constraints structuring political discourse in various contexts and spaces. Besides providing the study of silence with an overarching research focus, such an approach would thus build a bridge between the issue of political silence and wider debates on the structures of the political field as a whole.
This dissertation is based on three studies that provide qualitative analyses of systemic
inclusion and exclusion processes for the group labelled minority language students in
Norwegian educational policy. The theoretical framework is systems-theory, as
understood by Niklas Luhmann. Overall, the dissertation focuses on the systemic
conditions for inclusion, especially the excluding side effects of expectations,
requirements and categorisations that at the outset are regarded as inclusive. The
dissertation contributes to the research field of inclusive education both empirically, by
providing knowledge about the multiple barriers minority language students encounter
in the educational system, and theoretically, by showing how Luhmann’s systemstheory can prove useful in studies of educational inclusion and exclusion.
Sometimes results from qualitative perspective in empirical sociological research shows that observed subjects do not talk about the phenomenon studied. This paper asks about the extent to which this silence can be considered a sociological evidence. If so, then an evidence of what. First it is presented a study that inquiries about the near future to Spanish society about climate change in a qualitative perspective, but an almost absolute silence about the subject by the qualitative perspective. After some interpretations about these results, it becomes necessary to redefine the concept of discourse for the sociological research, with special references to Foucault and Boltanski, in order to point out its basic and essential elements. In this way, we proposed that a phenomenon as relevant as climate change does not reach to daily conversation because it is socially sedimented (following Schutz's work on relevance) and it has not got a discourse.
Many studies have documented how welfare service and professional practices increasingly depend upon the willingness of the citizen to engage actively in dialogues with professionals. This, however, produces the problem of how to deal with citizens who are silent. The framework of Motivational Interviewing presents itself as one solution to this problem. This article explores how Motivational Interviewing operates with a set of strategies to avoid the silence of citizens. We draw on theoretical concepts developed by Niklas Luhmann to analyse a particular instantiation of Motivational Interviewing produced by the Danish National Board of Health, namely a conversation concept entitled, the Marijuana Conversation. We ask thus: what is put at stake when health communication is designed to anticipate and make itself immune to the citizens’ refusal to have a dialogue. Our analysis identifies the different strategies of the conversation concept to make it difficult for the citizen to refuse continued communication. We conclude that by trying to make itself immune to the citizen’s ‘no’, the conversation undermines the possibilities of reaching its objective of empowering the citizen.
Should we drop critique just because of its impossibility? This chapter tries to find a way to eat the cake and have it too, insisting in the meaningfulness of having a critical practice taking as point of departure the impossibility of critique. First, we discuss the classical concept of critique and how it ran into problems as demonstrated in many post-foundational theories. Then, we present the work of Luhmann’s epistemology and its particular problematization of the lack of any stable foundation for critique. Finally, the chapter elaborates on how to respond to the challenges of a foundational critique without abandoning the ambition of committing to a critical sociology.
This paper explores ways in which Niklas Luhmann's work on meaning systems can be used to theoretically frame a more scientific understanding of the intense drive of some human beings towards meaning. It is argued, based mainly on references selected in Luhmannian literature, but including also suggestions from other authors, that the educational path allowing one to grow in the capability for observing complexity, that is in the capability for processing meaning, presupposes developments in three areas: the capability for servicing the autopoiesis of communication and consciousness; the capability for enhancing own self-descriptions; and the capability for controlling self-generated semantic intransparency. The general inability for reading the complexity of immediate circumstances is also addressed.
The present investigation examines the hypothesis that contemporary pop music has caught ‘retromania’: infected by its own past, it will bring about its own downfall. It identifies this observation as retrology: a specific school of thought within pop history. The article first looks at the major premises on which retrology is founded. It then asks why these assumptions have been so widely accepted. Next, it offers a sociological approach to look at pop music’s increasing interest in the past without recourse to moralistic divisions. Pop is seen as a social system, and not as an opaque accumulation of individual activities. Reproducing itself by a specific form of communication—the concatenation of songs—its main goal is simply to continue; it therefore desires neither ‘advancement’ nor ‘retro-gression’. The conclusion is that retro does not indicate a crisis; rather the opposite—it allows pop to carry on.
“Communication” is widely employed in social movement and terrorism studies in the description of symbolic structures related to protest mobilisation and clandestine political violence. This article argues, however, that common understandings of communication over-emphasise its instrumental aspects and therefore cannot fully consider the term’s conceptual opportunities. In response, this article conceptualises an analytical approach to clandestine political violence within a social movement framework, according to a Luhmannian understanding of communication as the mode of social differentiation. The theoretical argument is illustrated by empirical examples from the era of “armed struggle” in Western Europe.
AbStRAct Many studies have explored Network Direct Selling Organisations (NDSOs) because they create many communicative contexts and demonstrate such a diverse range of communicative processes that form and sustain this large industry. These organisations exist in more than 70 countries, and have almost 88 million members who generate over US$132 billion annually (WFDSA, 2011). This paper argues that although NDSOs can be differentiated from other types of organising, their characteristics can be linked to some key premises in postmodern thinking about organising. It utilises the schismatic metaphor identified by Morgan (1981) to generate further insights into the study of individuals as composite unities of operationally closed self-creating systems that co-create organisations such as NDSOs. The schismatic metaphor is utilised to provide a powerful framework for social analysis of organisations by identifying and discussing some theoretical links between postmodernism, social autopoiesis, and second-order cybernetics.
The article contributes to the discussions of the relationships between planners and the local community, with a focus on the intervention of the planner in reaching reflexivity and just decisions. In spite of the commonly acknowledged phenomenon of local communities that protest against “unwanted” risk facilities, the principal contradiction in the problem formulation between their lifeworld and the structure of modern institutions has received little attention. This is the focus of the following case study, which explores the communicative activity of the local community within a planning process of mining in a new EU member state. In the theoretical section, I discuss the theory of Habermas to re-investigate the widely criticized foundations of communicative planning. I approach the statements of Habermas with the help of Luhmann to reveal that their different viewpoints may be complementary rather than oppositional. The empirical analysis focuses on the lifeworld of the affected community members and the decision-making process by institutions. The analysis reveals preconditions embedded deeply in the planning process that prevents community members from the introduction of their vision of the issue.
In this article, we examine the communication of health risks caused by technological and natural disasters to the public. Contrary to the commonly accepted view, we argue that in the context of the risk society, the transformation and multiplication of risk messages among the public is a healthy sign. We aim to show how the recipients of risk communication can overcome the confusion that emanates from the inevitable contradictions of warning messages. We used Luhmann’s communication theory to develop a model of the analysis of personal interpretations of warning messages and examined how this explained the variations in the personal sense of risk that shaped the reception of a warning message. Our model developed Luhmann’s concepts of first- and second-order observations: direct and reflective approaches to risk messages. Using data derived from seven focus groups conducted in four Estonian cities in 2009–2010, we examined how the choice between direct and reflective approaches to risk messages was dependent on recipient’s reflection of social relations in the messages and the channels of their delivery. We found that the first response to the warning message depended on whether the information could be dealt with by first-order observation. When members of the focus group realised they needed to use a second-order observation strategy, they tended to use emotions to respond to risk messages. Our data show that defining risks and legitimising solutions in a collective discussion tended to be more important for an individual than accessing the one-dimensional official constructions of risks.
This article considers the nature of silence in UK asylum cases involving lesbian and gay claimants, asking whether the ambiguous and textured quality of silence can be a productive site of resistance, or whether the effect of silence perpetuates the problematic conceptualization of the refugee as a subjugated actor whose voice is muted within a hearing. The article discusses silence in light of the formal provisions of the Refugee Convention and evidentiary necessities around proof of an objective/subjective fear of persecution, questioning the impact silence has on the rendering of testimony and whether it is detrimental to an asylum claim. The equivocal nature of silence imparts a vulnerability to interpretation, rendering it subject to the imposition of unsolicited meaning. Silence's indeterminacy, it is suggested, should give pause to the court to proceed in a manner that invokes caution around such inference.
This article reviews Niklas Luhmann's social systems perspective and comments on his theory of communication. The perspective is extended to analyse the concept of exchange in the context of marketing. The social systems perspective illuminates the aspect of marketing exchanges as a power struggle to imbue goods and services with meaning. The authors argue that Luhmann's views offer a rich theoretical ground to transcend an understanding of marketing exchange as simply a swap of tangible and intangible value. Rather marketing exchange can be understood as a complex locus of meaning creation and negotiation with regard to the use of goods/services in the lives of both marketers and consumers.
Risk is a key topic in the communication between developers of infrastructure projects, permit-granting authorities, and civil society. The nature of risk communication is contested among academics, however. Whereas some scholars conceive of risk communication as a matter of effectively communicating expert knowledge on factual matters to the public, others emphasise the role of symbolic construction and rhetoric. This article analyses how wind farm developers rhetorically construct risks in relation to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a large offshore wind farm project. Our analysis is inspired by the New Rhetoric, the theory of argumentation developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (Traite de l'argumentation - la nouvelle rhetorique, Brussels: Editions des presses de l'universite de Bruxelles, 1958). We suggest that the EIA adopt a dual argumentative strategy. The report associates numerous risks with the project by identifying and cataloguing them; however, these risks are also disconnected from the project by being described as nonexistent, negligible, or manageable. We discuss some implications of considering EIAs, not as accounts of reality, but as loci of production for this reality.
Strikingly, theorizing about digital technologies has led us to recognize many habitual subjects of research as figures against
fields that are also worthy of study. Communication, for example, becomes visible only against the field of silence. Silence
is critically important for the construction of reality – and the social construction of reality has a complement, the also necessary contemplative construction of reality. Silence is so sensitive and fragile that an inability to achieve it, or to get rid of it, or to
correct the wrong kind of silence often provides early indicators of individual, group, communal, and society-wide stresses
from information technologies. Indeed, we might treat difficulties with silence as miners treated canaries in coal mines,
as early warning signals. The story has already been told that nightingales in London now have to sing so loudly in order
to be heard above the ambient noise that the birds are in danger of breaking the noise ordinance law.
Surely something has gone awry if nightingales break the law when they sing. Finding ways to protect silence as an arena of
personal and social choice is a particularly poignant, evocative, and instructive ethical and policy horizon at this frontier
moment for the human species. This article introduces the theory of the contemplative construction of reality, explores what
the study of silence tells us about reality construction processes, and outlines a research agenda.
Silence has traditionally been analysed in linguistic terms as those moments of non-speech/non-sound interspersed between words and sounds. I will attempt to take this academic reasoning further to deconstruct established notions of silence and incorporate contemporary methods of investigation to arrive at a more viable and dynamic observation of the event. Silence goes beyond this simple dualistic and binary contrast and I believe may reveal itself as negotiator of language, wherein the impossibility of an absolute truth is translated into the imminent. This thesis will be an attempt at a discourse that redefines silence's fleeting site as an impending source for the political as such.
The Mafia's system of silence in communication, film and literature: Perversions of society and transgressions of Omerta
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