Release | Within a mesh of expectations: Dealing with dilemmas in business families using systemic tools from family coaching

Abstract: Business family members face challenges related to exposure to diverse role expectations and systems logics, the management of which often results in sit- uations of high complexity, dilemmas, and paradoxes. To address these issues, in this paper we combine key insights from social systems theory with systemic family coaching tools such as “internal maps,” […]

Membership | Editorial Board of Sociology (SAGE)

I am very pleased to announce that I shall have the honour of joining the Editorial Board of the British Sociological Association flagship journal Sociology as of January 2023.

Release | Health beyond medicine. A planetary theory extension

Abstract: In Niklas Luhmann’s vision of the modern functionally differentiated society, health presents one of the essential function systems, along with politics, law, economy, or science. While he devoted much effort to elaborating the theoretical foundations of the latter function systems, his work on the health system was relatively sparse. This research gap has been […]

Lexikonbeitrag | Funktionssystem

Roth S. (in press) Funktionssystem. In: Wirth J. and Kleve H. (Hrsg.) Lexikon des systemischen Arbeitens. Heidelberg: Carl Auer Verlag. Leseprobe: engl. function system oder functional system, franz. système fonctionnel m. → Funktionssysteme sind soziale → Systeme, die sich selbst erhalten und ausdifferenzieren (→ Autopoiesis), indem sie die Anschlussfähigkeit von → Kommunikation in einem bestimmten Erfolgsmedium […]

Release | Digital transformation of management and organization theories

Roth S. (2023), Digital transformation of management and organization theories. A research programme, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 451-459 [SSCI 1.966, Scopus, CABS**]. Abstract: This article draws on the groundwork by George Spencer Brown and Niklas Luhmann to outline a general framework for the digital transformation of management and organization […]

CFP | Luhmann Conference 2022 | Scientific communication. Observed with social system theory

Call for papers to the Luhmann Conference 2022 on “Scientific communication. Observed with social system theory” Venue: Inter-University Centre (IUC), Dubrovnik, Croatia Address: Don Frana Bulicá 4, 20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia Dates: 13-16 September 2022 Theme Science is a dynamic social system. New scientific topics and fields emerge from the system’s continuous observations of society, its environment, and science […]

Release | Special Issue | Theories are Methods. Or are they? Methodological options for organization and management research

Theories are Methods. Or are they? Methodological options for organization and management research, special issue of the Journal of Organizational Change Management [SSCI 2.293, Scopus, CNRS**, FNEGE**, CABS**]. Introduction Steffen Roth, Albert Mills, Bill Lee, and Dariusz Jemielniak: Theory as method. Introduction to supertheoretical options for organization and management research Abstract: This article is devoted to […]

Release | The great reset of management and organization theory. A European perspective

Abstract: In mid-2020, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced the Great Reset, an initiative launched to assert, describe, and shape the direction of an epochal transition brought about by the global coronavirus crisis. Rooted in a European tradition of social theory, this article aims to articulate the broader social context of this scenario and pinpoint […]

CFP | Luhmann Conference 2021 | Risks and Pathologies. Observed with Social Systems Theory

Call for papers to the Luhmann Conference 2021 on “Risks and pathologies. Observed with social systems theory” Place: Inter-University Centre (IUC), Dubrovnik, Croatia Address: Don Frana Bulicá 4, 20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia Dates: 14-17 September 2021 Theme In the year 2020, the world was hit by an unprecedented and ongoing crisis in the form of a […]