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Preprint | From Spaceship to Lifeboat: Artemis II and the Radicalisation of a Planetary Perspective
Abstract: This article examines the semantic shift from Spaceship Earth to Lifeboat Earth in contemporary planetary discourse. Taking recent rhetoric surrounding the Artemis II mission as its point of departure, it argues that the description of Earth as a “lifeboat” marks a significant radicalisation of an older metaphorical field. Whereas the Apollo era helped naturalise the image of Earth…
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Event | When Programmes Disagree About Programmes: Code Poetry and the Problem of Programme–Programme Communication
What happens when programmes interpret programmes? As decision-making becomes increasingly mediated by computational procedures, interactions between programmes themselves come into view as a potential site of communication. This workshop explores the challenge of programme–programme communication through the case of code poetry—an artefact that simultaneously invites formal execution and semantic interpretation. Drawing on a moderated dialogue…
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Protected: CFP | Luhmann Conference 2027
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Event | Wolfson Tool Factory
On 23 April 2026, we will convene for the first-ever Wolfson Tool Factory meeting—an experimental workshop dedicated to the co-production of theory-based management and consulting tools. This event is supported by the Wolfson College Research Networks. The idea is simple but ambitious: To bring together social (systems) theorists and consultants working with for-profit, non-profit, and…
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Release | Ideological Repurposing of Institutions of Higher Management Education: Historical Lessons and Contemporary Imperatives
Abstract: This article examines the ideological repurposing of institutions of higher management education (IHMEs) from a systems-theoretical perspective. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems, we analyse both historical and contemporary cases to identify structural similarities in how institutions of higher education (IHEs) have been reoriented to serve external political imperatives. Through a functional…
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Release | Reimagining ESG: A Tetralemma Approach to Multifunctional Sustainability Reporting
Abstract: ESG frameworks have become a central tool for aligning corporate strategies with sustainability imperatives. Yet, by reducing environmental, social, and governance dimensions to standardised metrics, conventional ESG framework risk obscuring the complex ethical commitments that arise from incommensurable societal subsystems. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, this paper critiques ESG’s tendency to privilege…
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Announcement | Kybernetes and SRBS included in the FNEGE journal ranking
I am very pleased to announce that, following a 2024 initiative by the Luhmann Conference Community, Systems Research and Behavioral Science and Kybernetes have been included in the FNEGE Classement des revues scientifiques en sciences de gestion et management 2025, the most influential academic business and management journal ranking in the francophone world.
