Source: https://derroth.com/2019/08/28/cfp-moral-communication/
Call for papers to the Luhmann Conference 2020 on “Moral communication. Observed with social systems theory”
Place: Inter-University Centre (IUC), Dubrovnik, Croatia
Address: Don Frana Bulicá 4, 20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia
Dates: 15-18 September 2020
The PDF version of this CFP is available for download here.
Theme: The conference committee invites contributions on the significance of moral communication in Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. As readers familiar with his work will recognise, Luhmann’s approach to morality is characterised by a profound moral scepticism and a certain neglect of moral communication not only as an occasional topic, but also as a distinct form of communication. As contemporary society is continuously producing moral communication, however, social systems theory is bound to adequately deal with this phenomenon if its claim to a universal theory is to be maintained. We therefore welcome contributions from scholars with an interest in moral communication at all levels of society.
The conference series has always been characterised by fruitful interactions of scholars with diverse paradigmatic and empirical backgrounds in disciplinary fields as different as political science, aesthetics, sociology, theology, history, economics, health, psychology, ecology, education, and organization studies.
Social systems theory is empirically open to new semantics, different codes, and multiple levels of analysis. Presentations could therefore focus, for example, on how the medium of morality emerges from situations of double contingency and/or in everyday communication; how the moral code of good/bad informs decision-making; how complexity is reduced and increased by morally coded communication; the paradoxes that emerge and unfold in conjunction with moral coding; the relationship between moral coding and computer coding (#computerethics #ethicsofartificialintelligence); the relation between ethics and morality; etc.
![Figure 1: Ceci n’est pas une mouche. Organization observed in the medium of alternatives (left) and in the medium of values (right) [Roth S. (2017), p. 136].](https://steffenroth.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/ceci-nest-pas-une-mouche.jpg?w=300&h=157)
Figure 1: Ceci n’est pas une mouche. Organization observed in the medium of alternatives (left) and in the medium of values (right) [Roth S. (2017), p. 136].
Abstracts of 400–800 words should be sent to the corresponding convenors* by June 15, 2020. Full papers should be circulated prior to the conference.
Corresponding convenors:
- Gorm Harste, Aarhus University, Denmark
- Markus Heidingsfelder, Xiamen University Malaysia
- Klaus Laursen, Aarhus University, Denmark*
- Steffen Roth, La Rochelle Business School, France, and Kazimieras Simonavičius University, Lithuania*
- Krešimir Žažar, University of Zagreb, Croatia*
Background literature:
- Harste G. (2009). Kant’s theory of European integration: Kant’s ‘Toward Perpetual Peace’ and changing forms of separated powers in the evolution from military and politics. In Annual Review of Law and Ethics 17: 53-84.
- Harste G. (2016). The missing link in the philosophy of enlightenment. Reasonability, will and separation of powers in the philosophy of justice of H-F d’Aguesseau, Chancellor of France. In G. Baruchello et al. (eds.): Ethics, Democracy, and Markets, Aarhus University Press, pp. 104-143.
- Laursen K. B., and Noe E. (2017). The hybrid media of economy and moral: A Luhmannian perspective on value-based-food-chains. Journal of Rural Studies 56: 21-29.
- Luhmann N. (1992). The code of the moral. Cardozo Law Review 14: 995-1009.
- Luhmann N. (1996). The sociology of the moral and ethics. International Sociology 11(1): 27-36.
- Moeller H.-G. (2009). The moral fool. Columbia University Press.
- Roth S. (2019). The open theory and its enemy. Implicit moralisation as epistemological obstacle for general systems theory. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 36(3): 281-288.
- Roth S., Valentinov V., and Clausen L. (in press), Dissecting the empirical-normative divide in business ethics: the contribution of systems theory, Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, DOI: 10.1108/SAMPJ-03-2019-0107.
- Roth S., Valentinov V., Heidingsfelder M., and Pérez-Valls M. (in press). CSR beyond Economy and Society. A post-capitalist approach. Journal of Business Ethics, DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4068-y.
- Ward S. (2003). Honesty and dissimulation in upper-class interaction in early modern France: madame and the old German sincerity. Seventeenth-Century French Studies 25: 247–258.
- Ward S. (2005). Madame chats with coquettes: the evolution of early modern theories of conversation. The Seventeenth Century 20: 281–293.
- Ward S. (2017). From Fontainebleau to Facebook: the early modern discourse of sincerity and its echoes in the contemporary discourse of transparency. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 34(2): 139-147.
Background information:
Social Systems theory after Luhmann
Systems theory has had a tremendous impact in social science since the 1950s. During the last decades, however, systems theory has been completely transformed. In particular, German sociologist Niklas Luhmann’s system theory has transformed social studies. Luhmann’s “Grand Theory” got its final form with his principal work Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft 1-2 in 1997 (engl.: Theory of Society Vol. 1-2, Stanford University Press, 2013), although additional books, articles and interviews have been published, including more than twenty books now in English. Whatever one thinks about the exact form of his analysis, sociological theory has to some extent been transformed by this “Luhmann effect”.
Although Luhmann’s general theory hitherto has seemed very abstract and distant, there is a strong drive towards analyses in empirical studies that make use of Luhmann’s insights. This is evident in his seminal publication Theory of Society. Luhmann’s systems theory is more an abductive applied theory than a deductively developed theory. Yet it seems that its very abstract character has a fruitful effect.
