ABSTRACT
Part two of the book examines systems thinking in sociology. It begins with a depiction of the development of Talcott Parsons’s systems views from his incipient early period, where he had some interaction with systems theoreticians and cyberneticists at the Macy Conferences, to his full-blown sociological systems perspective. Following that is a chapter on Niklas Luhmann, who has developed the most influential form of systems theory in the field of sociology today, though its influence has remained largely confined to Europe. This part concludes with a chapter on Immanuel Wallerstein and world systems analysis. World systems analysis is influenced not so much by early cybernetics and general systems as by an alternative set of ideas on systems traceable in lineage to Marxist and Hegelian thought. A chapter focusing on Wallerstein is included here because it is an influential form of systems thinking in sociology today and because the Hegelian, Marxist trajectory of systems thought with which it aligns needs to be acknowledged in any comprehensive treatment of the field of systems literature. If general systems theory and cybernetics represents a secret history of the twentieth century, then world systems analysis represents a renewed version of the Marxist, Hegelian tradition that is less secret, but vitally important to a contemporary understanding of systems interactions in the area of politics and economics.
