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Networks - Fields, Forms, Semantics - Netzwerke – Felder, Formen, Semantiken

Knowledge

Basic concepts of sociology

Description

As structures of social systems, networks play an important role in their interaction with their environment. They are part of a hierarchical architecture of complexity. The seminar discusses and tests the corresponding concepts of system, hierarchy and network following texts by Herbert A. Simon, Talcott Parsons, Niklas Luhmann and Harrison C. White. George Spencer-Brown's formal calculus is used to test a uniform modeling approach. A possible guiding hypothesis for the discussion in the seminar is the fundamental (?) incongruence of fields on the one hand and semantics on the other hand of networking. The fields network faster and more chaotically than the semantics. - Impulse presentations by the students introduce the texts and case studies deepen the knowledge of the texts.

Learning objectives

Understanding the interplay of systems, hierarchies and networks in society

Preparation

Literature for introduction: Malte Doehne, Daniel A. McFarland and James Moody, Network Ecology: Introduction to the Special Issue, in: Social Networks 77 (2024), pp. 1-4.

Comment

the seminar requires reading of the texts, which are prepared for discussion by students through impulse presentations, discussed and tested using a case study

First additional field

Literature and plan:

27.01.2025: Herbert A. Simon, The Architecture of Complexity, in: The Sciences of the Artificial, 2nd ed., Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981, 192-229 (3rd ed., 1996, pp. 183-216). Impulse & discussion: NN; exercise

28.01.2025: Talcott Parsons, Some Problems of General Theory in Sociology, in: ders, Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory, New York: Free Press, 1977, pp. 229-269. impulse & discussion: NN; exercise

29.01.2025: Niklas Luhmann, Soziale Systeme: Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1984, Ch. 6: Interpenetration. Impulse & discussion: NN; exercise

30.01.2025: Harrison C. White, Identity and Control: How Social Formations Emerge, 2nd ed., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008, Chapter One: Identities Seek Control. Impulse & Discussion: NN; Exercise

Next events

No current events available!

1/4 Block course Mo, 27.01.2025 10:00 Uhr 18:00 Uhr 2.03 | Forum
2/4 Block course Tu, 28.01.2025 10:00 Uhr 18:00 Uhr 2.03 | Forum
3/4 Block course We, 29.01.2025 10:00 Uhr 18:00 Uhr 2.03 | Forum
4/4 Block course Th, 30.01.2025 10:00 Uhr 18:00 Uhr 2.03 | Forum
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Course details

Offer code 124073
Version 1 Erstversion_FS 23
Credits / ECTS 6
WSH 3
Frequence Every Springsemester

Lecturers

lecturer image
Prof. Dr. rer. soc. Dirk Baecker
Lecturer