Observing Society: Meaning, Communication, and Social Systems By ...

analysis, and ethnography have been productively used by social system theorists. However, we outline Luhmann's pioneering functional and comparative method that is uniquely relevant for observing how communication selects and relates its own problems and solutions. Drawing a distinction between problem and solution recreates the familiar two-sided form of the datum: marking variables and their possible actualizations on one side, while indicating constants on the other. Observing society, the quintessential problem system, construct and selectively connect its differentiated problems and solutions necessarily integrates theory and method. The functional method, we believe, has the greatest potential for demonstrating the value of social system theory's resources.

The Attraction of Sociological Theory

We were motivated to write this book by a number of different interests. The incredible work of Niklas Luhmann has yet to be appreciated outside of the German speaking world. Part of the problem is that many of his texts, including his capstone work, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft (The Society of Society), have yet to be translated into English. Another part of the problem is the challenge of interpreting his creative and highly abstract ideas. “Complicated conceptual relationships of this kind,” Luhmann asserted, “may intimidate sociologists” (1995a:488). Both the authors of the present work have taught social system theory in the United States and Germany and we have seen even our most capable students fall into a state of despair after spending time reading Luhmann. In German, and in English, as within any other tongue, it takes time to learn the language of the theory. Luhmann is the first to admit that his writing is not easy to digest. His use of highly abstract concepts seems to serve as a way of warning readers not to speed along without realizing just how much he wants to adjust the sociological imagination and its resources. He wanted clear and decisive new concepts, new ways to connect ideas, and a new way of disciplining sociology. We try to convey Luhmann's ideas without losing their inventive and sophisticated quality. Our intention is to