SYSTEMS THEORY

Links » Innonet report [for Dutch government, in Dutch]: Over goede bedoelingen en hun schadelijke bijwerkingen, Utrecht, 2006, 99pp. (Also including response- essays by Fred Schoorl, B. van de Klundert, Wim Derksen)

GOAL/DESCRIPTION
One of the most underused, undervalued and misunderstood social theories of the 20th century is undoubtedly social systems theory, launched by the late Niklas Luhmann, in his pioneering Social Systems, conceived in the early eighties. We argue that Luhmann’s understanding of society as a collection of highly interdependent and highly specialized self- reproducing autopoietic social systems, with communications as their elementary components, can elucidate strengths and weaknesses of spatial planning and design in a profoundly new and productive manner. Luhmann is particularly helpful in understanding institutional change, and the complex role of planning as a coordination effort of many social systems (law, economics, science, politics, various organizations)

COOPERATION
Cooperation with Gert Verschraegen, University of Antwerp

RESULTS
A paper in Planning Theory, on the limits of planning and the use of social systems theory in the analysis of planning and planning ambitions. We can also refer to the Innonet report mentiond above Over goede bedoelingen en hun schadelijke bijwerkingen, and to the paper in Ruimte & Planning. Also in the Social memory paper and in several chapters in the book on City culture and city planning in Tbilisi , social systems theory concepts are used.

I try to combine social systems theory with insights from post- structuralism, notably Foucault, and new institutional economics (North, Greif and others). This led to a paper for LEI, the Dutch institute for agricultural and environmental economics, and to recent work on Georgia. Also in the Minnesotan ice fishing research, and in investigations on transition and innovation, e.g. the chapters in the book edited by Katrien Termeer and Krijn Poppe, one can find this combination of insights. The concept of path- dependency is useful in combining social systems theory and institutional economics, where informal institutions, and a general notion of social construction, are recently acknowledged.

« return to all projects