ABSTRACT
After the extensive analysis of Luhmann’s model it is time to review where a systems-theoretical approach takes us regarding the analysis of contemporary eco-politics and the project of constructing a theory of post-ecologism. It has been suggested that Luhmann’s theory merely ‘reformulates in its own jargon what others have analysed and described a long time ago’ (Rucht and Roth 1992: 32). Neckel and Wolf (1994) believe that the attractiveness of Luhmann’s model boils down to ‘the fascination of amorality’, which they consider as characteristic for ‘the new individualism of the middle classes’ and the ‘postmodern Zeitgeist’ of disoriented ‘left-wing intellectuals’ (92ff.). Ulrich Beck suggests that Luhmann’s thinking fails to recognise that in contemporary society, ‘questions of functional differentiation’ are increasingly replaced by ‘questions of functional coordination’ (1997a: 27), and that the ‘logic of differentiation’ therefore needs to be replaced by a more contemporary ‘logic of mediation’ (ibid.: 112). Undoubtedly, all these views contain an element of truth, but such generalising rejections of the systems-theoretical model do not do justice to Luhmann’s enormous theoretical efforts, and they fail to capture the fundamentally new elements in his thinking. Luhmann’s theory can, of course, be criticised in a number of respects, some of which will be addressed below. But this should not distract us from the fact that it provides most valuable cues for a theory of contemporary eco-politics.
