Boundaries

From Geography

Boundaries are a key issue in Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. Particularly with the transition from closed and statistic to open and dynamic systems (Gren, 2003). The question that arise is how it is possible to distinguish a autopoietic system from its environment. The answer is that those systems can establish boundaries that distinguish them from their environment (Maturana and Varela, 1987 in Gren, 2003). A system in this way reproduces its own boundaries as a selection of possibilities (meanings) that are open for a system, selected from a surplus of possibilities offered by the environment (Noe, 2006).

Boundaries do have another meaning to Luhmann’s systems. Namely in combination with space. He sees space as a sharp boundary that locates everything either on the one side or on the other (Gren, 2003).

References

Gren, M. & Zierhofer, W. (2003) The unity of difference: a critical appraisal of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems in the context of corporeality and spatiality. In: Environment and Planning A. Vol. 35, pp. 615-630.

Noe, E. & Alrøe, H.F. (2006). Combining Luhmann and Actor-Network Theory to See Farm Enterprises as Self-organizing Systems. In: Cybernetics & Human Knowing. Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 34-48.

Published by Pauline van Heugten