Published papers

The article outlines an approach to meaning-making and sociocultural change based on the work of Niklas Luhmann. Cultural sociology has placed great emphasis on the role of meaning but has not yet engaged with the issue of long-term historical change as initially proposed by Max Weber, and a number of recent publications lament this lack of a theoretical framework. The present study addresses that deficit by engaging with a neglected element of the work of Niklas Luhmann: his writings on meaning and culture. This in-depth analysis of Luhmann’s use of the term ‘meaning-making’ in his sociology of knowledge and culture includes a theoretical summary of this work and its application to the semantic of love in Japan. The paper’s theoretical and empirical illustrations contribute to the wider debate on long-term sociocultural change as a research topic in cultural sociology.

In this paper, the categories of centre, periphery, and semiperiphery are revised for the studies of world society. The centre of world society has primary functional differentiation, whilst other forms of differentiation, such as segmentary differentiation and stratification, remain dominant in the periphery. The semiperiphery may be defined as an arena in which functional differentiation struggles for hegemony against other forms of differentiation. Firstly, the centre is defined by its cognitive closeness as well as its power of definition and interpretation against the periphery, whilst the periphery can only accept the interpretations, definitions, and decisions performed at the centre. The emergence of national identity as a cultural identity outside of the centre is not understandable without relation to the centre. However, semiperipheral and peripheral cultural identities prevent some nations from further modernising toward functional differentiation. Secondly, the centre of modern world society is defined by the implementation of functional differentiation, whilst an important indicator of the border between the centre and periphery is the status of human rights. Thus, we can say that all regions are exposed to the structural effects of world society, especially that of the world economy, but all functional systems have not been implemented equally throughout the world. Whilst in the centre, access to social resources is guaranteed by individual human rights (fundamental rights), the population in the semiperiphery and periphery requires membership in particular organisations or social ties to obtain the benefits of the modern world and world economy. Thirdly, while the periphery of world society is seen in ‘failed states’, this paper proposes that authoritarian regimes are semiperiphery. Societies in the semiperiphery are characterised by the dominance of political and economic systems over other functional systems. The modern systems theory calls such a society an organisation society.

Angesichts der Verfassungskrise, die die Durchsetzung des Sicherheitsgesetzpakets durch die japanische Regierung 2015 auslöste, versucht das vorliegende Working Paper, strukturtheoretische Gründe für diese Krise aufzuzeigen und dafür die Struktur der peripheren Moderne im Sinne Marcelo Neves’ in Japan zu identifizieren. Sein Begriff der peripheren Moderne ist durch zwei Bestimmungen gekennzeichnet: 1) die mangelnde Rechtsautonomie und 2) die duale Inklusionsstruktur für den Zugang zur Gesellschaft. Beide Aspekte sind in der japanischen Gesellschaft evident. In dem Paper wird zuerst die schwache Rechtsautonomie in der japanischen Gesellschaft diskutiert, die zum Teil auf das „traditionelle“ Rechtsverständnis zurückzuführen ist, und die Überordnung der Politik über das Recht. Darin enthalten ist die unzulängliche Implementierung des Rechtscodes, der die politischen Entscheidungen vor Einwirkungen verschiedener partikularer Interessen und vor Einflüssen aus ihrer Umwelt schützen soll. Dann wird am Beispiel der Inklusionsstruktur von drei Subsystemen – Wirtschaftssystem, Rechtssystem und politisches System – die duale Inklusionsstruktur der japanischen Gesellschaft erläutert.

In this paper, the author discusses the concept of differentiation between the center and periphery and its structural effects within larger society. The author goes on to illustrate how the process of globalization – and increasingly intensified contact with the functionally differentiated “center”– does not always promote functional differentiation in every local society outside of it but can instead destroy the evolutionary potential existing therein. To this purpose, the author focuses on the changes of love semantics in late-19 th - and early-20 th -century Japan. Caused by the dominance of civilization semantics that corresponded to the relationship between the center and periphery at the structural level, love semantics were re-moralized, losing their power to create an autonomous sphere for intimate relationships free from societal authorities and powers such as morals and politics.