Prelims

Half Title

The Systemic Approach in Sociology and Niklas Luhmann

Title Page

The Systemic Approach in Sociology and Niklas Luhmann: Expectations, Discussions, Doubts

By

Jiří Šubrt

Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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First edition 2020

Copyright © Jiří Šubrt 2020.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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ISBN: 978-1-83909-032-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-029-5 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-031-8 (Epub)

Contents

List of Reviewers

Prof. Dr. Hildegard Weiss, University of Vienna, Austria

Dr. Massimiliano Ruzzeddu, Niccolò Cusano University, Italy

Acknowledgements

I first began to learn about the systemic approach as a student of sociology at the Charles University in Prague in the early 1980s, thanks to my unforgettable teacher, Associate Prof. Eduard Urbánek, who, despite the adversity associated in then-socialist Czechoslovakia with the expression “normalization”, managed to maintain a high level of knowledge of Western sociology and pass it on to his students. Years later, professional internships abroad, especially in Germany, afforded me a deeper insight. Particularly valuable to me in this respect were study visits to the John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien at the Freien Universität Berlin, where I had the opportunity of repeated consultation with Prof. Harald Wenzel, a prominent expert in American sociology.

A stand-out role in my professional formation was played by Prof. Richard Jung, who worked for a period as assistant to Talcott Parsons at Harvard University in the 1950s, and later, as Professor of Sociology and Theoretical Psychology, spent two decades at University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he became Director of the System Research Center. At the end of his life, Jung returned to the Czech Republic to live in his hometown, Kutná Hora. There I had opportunities to visit him and discuss systems theory, which was foundational for me. Another notable figure was Prof. Helmut Staubmann, an expert on systems sociology from the University of Innsbruck, whom I met at the XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology in Yokohama.

Significant inspiration has also come through meetings with Prof. Andrea Pitasi and Dr Massimiliano Ruzzeddu, two leading representatives of the World Complexity Science Academy, with whom I have had regular discussions at a number of professional conferences over the past decade. Regarding the preparation of the text in English, which is not my mother tongue, my long-time language advisor, Edward Everett, again helped me greatly. Finally, its development was substantially assisted by a seven-month internship at the Institute of Sociology of Vienna University under Prof. Christoph Reinprecht. This internship was supported by Operation Program Research, Development and Education, project “International Mobility of Charles University Research Workers” (registration number CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_027/0008495).