NIKLAS LUHMANN'S SYSTEMIC POST-STRUCTURALISM

This article presents Niklas Luhmann's systemic theory, critically discussing its main concepts, and highlighting post-structuralist characteristics common to much of contemporary sociological theory. The bottom line - and what we are really trying to demonstrate - is that the same theoretical-philosophical factors that generated the metaphysics crisis, of humanism as the mainstay of classical sociological theory, as well as the scientific determinism crisis, influenced Luhmann's systemic theory, especially from its “autopoietic turn”, in the 1980s. To this end, concepts such as decentralization, deconstruction, de-structuring, complexity, system-surroundings, communication and relationality are explored, among others that are also present in what is termed Niklas Luhmann's post-structuralist systemic theory.

Keywords:
Niklas Luhmann; Post-structuralism; Complexity; Post-determinism; Relationality