Luhmann in da Contact Zone: Towards a Postcolonial Critique of Sociological Systems Theory

Abstract

Thgis chapter reads the works of German sociologist and systems theorist Niklas Luhmann in the context of spaces of transcultural encounter where ‘global designs and local histories’ (Mignolo) interact and thus make the question of inclusion into or exclusion from ‘world society’ (Luhmann) particularly pressing. The title of this contribution, ‘Luhmann in da Contact Zone’, is deliberately ambiguous: On the one hand, the authors of course use ‘Luhmann’ metonymically, as representative of a highly complex theoretical design. They cursorily outline this design with a special focus on the notion of a singular, modern ‘world society’, only to confront it with the epistemic challenges of the contact zone. On the other hand, this critique will also involve the close observation of Niklas Luhmann as a human observer (a category which within the logic of systems theory actually does not exist) who increasingly transpires in his later writings on exclusion in the global South. By following this dual strategy, the authors wish to trace an increasing fracture between Luhmann and his theory, between abstract theoretical design and personalized testimony. It is by exploring and measuring this fracture that they hope to eventually be able to map out the potential of a possibly more productive encounter between systems theory and specific strands of postcolonial theory for a pluritopic reading of global modernity.