earticle

영어

The aims of this paper are twofold: one is to examine the key concepts and ideas of Luhmann's systems theory as relevant to planning and public policy, and the other is to induce from Luhmann's theory some fresh thoughts and insights for planning. From Luhmann's systems-theoretic perspective, planning can be seen as a form of steering aimed to coordinate processes of spatial organization as determined by the interplay of the multiple number of operationally closed social systems. Luhmann's understanding of modern society as being functionally differentiated into self-referentially operating autopoietic social systems suggests that, under the improbability of transparent translation of communication between social systems, direct steering like rational planning and consensus-oriented deliberative planning necessarily fails to deal with the complexity of planning and policy issues in modern society. They are at most amount to the generation of superficial meta-languages or a blurring of the system boundaries. Then, the indirect forms of steering are, according to Luhmann's perspective, claimed to be compatible with the planning environment composed of multiple autopoietic systems with differentiated communications. It is then argued that indirect steering could be operationalized by establishing structural coupling between social systems or by steering at the level of programs.