The article discusses the suitability of Niklas Luhmann's theory for the study of societies of peripheral modernity, among them Brazil. It argues that the author provides relevant notions to the comprehension of phenomenons that occur in these societies, whose social systems perhaps are not totally developed and where the exclusion was differentiated, failing to represent a constitutive element of the systemic balance - as well as the inclusion - and assuming an own dynamic. Furthermore this article analyzes the validity of Luhmannian concepts of social system and social organization to analyse organized crime in Brazil. It concludes that criminal organizations can be characterized as social organizations, covering units of processes of communication that unite decisions among themselves. Acting illegally, these organizations interact with other systems and organizations, creating a net of inter-organizational relations, or even, linkages between the licit and illicit world. Moreover, they are obliged to be always innovating in order to be suitable to the changing context.
Exclusion; Social system and social organization in Luhmann; Organized crime in Brazil