Niklas Luhmann. Education as a social system

This book provides an insight into the ideas of one of the world’s greatest sociologists: Niklas Luhmann. N. Luhmann is associated with the construction of Social Systems Theory, which developed the theory of Social System enhanced by Talcott Parsons in the 1950s. Starting from Parsons’ theory, Luhmann suggested a new view on functionalism based on constructivist epistemology. The proposed book explains, in clear and concise language, the basic concepts of Social Systems Theory and their application to the specific case of the Education System, which was considered by Luhmann as a primary subsystem of modern society. Besides the book illustrates the complex and sophisticated thinking that characterises Luhmann’s work. The opening chapter provides the context to Luhmann’s wide-ranging work, presenting an outline of his education and life in the academic community of early 1960s Germany and, his subsequent promotion to professorship at the University of Bielefeld, where he taught for the rest of his academic life. Furthermore, the chapter deals with his international controversial success, the multiple disciplines with which he dialogued and the epistemological aspects of his theory. The second chapter outlines the basic concepts of Social Systems Theory, which are useful to understand the Education System as a specific social system. The different features of the Education System are explained in detail in the three following chapters, which include a clear definition of an education system, the specific and important features associated with the problems of education, the relationship between education and society, and the problems of educational reform both on a organisational and pedagogical level. The proposed book explains that Luhmann’s theory has given an important and original contribution to the study of education from a sociological point of view. His contribution has some resonance in recent social constructionist and relational approaches to education, as well as in studies of educational interaction. In addition, research methodologies, in particular mixed methods strategies, draw heavily on epistemological issues. The proposed book finally argues that educationists can appreciate the extent of Luhmann’s contribution to the field of education, although their perspective cannot be fully harmonised with, nor reduced to, the sociological one. This divergence of perspectives can stimulate pedagogy to call into question its conceptual framework as well its approach to social situations in the classroom.