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Introduction to Differentiation (sociology)

See articles: sociology, sociological theory, social theory, and system theory

Differentiation is a term in system theory (found in sociology), from the viewpoint of this theory the principal feature of modern society is the increased process of system differentiation as a way of dealing with the complexity of its environment. This is accomplished through the creation of subsystems in an effort to copy within a system the difference between it and the environment. The differentiation process is a means of increasing the complexity of a system, since each subsystem can make different connections with other subsystems. It allows for more variation within the system in order to respond to variation in the environment. Increased variation facilitated by differentiation not only allows for better responses to the environment, but also allows for faster evolution (or perhaps sociocultural evolution), which is defined sociologically as a process of selection from variation; the more differentiation (and thus variation) that is available, the better the selection (Ritzer 2007:95-96).

Exemplifying Differentiation and System Theory, this this photographic mosaic may be perceived as a whole/system (a gull) or as a less complex group of parts.

Society, Luhmann argues, has to be conceived as a system made up of discrete subsystems. Any of these subsystems could be given “functional primacy” over the rest but no subsystem can be taken as the privileged point of departure for sociological analysis. Instead of reducing society as a whole to one of its subsystems, i.e.; Karl Marx and Economics, or Hans Kelsen and Law, Luhmann bases his analysis on the idea that society is a self differentiating system that will, in order to attain mastery over an environment that is always more complex than it, increase its own complexity through a proliferating of subsystems. And, just as society for Luhmann cannot be reduced to any one of its subsystems, so too its subsystems cannot be reduced to specific institutions. “Religion” is more extensive than the church, “politics” transcends the governmental apparatus, and “economics” encompasses more than the sum total of organizations of production. (Holmes et al 1983).

There are four Types of Differentiation Segmentation, Stratification, Center-Periphery, and Functional

Niklas Luhmann

see main article Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann (December 8, 1927 - November 6, 1998) was a German sociologist and "social systems theorist," as well as one the most prominent modern day thinkers in the sociological systems theory. Luhmann was born in Lüneburg, Germany, studied law at the University of Freiburg from 1946 to 1949, in 1961 he went to Harvard, where he met and studied under Talcott Parsons, then the world's most influential social systems theorist. In later years, Luhmann dismissed Parsons' theory, developing a rival approach of his own. His magnum opus, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft ("The Society of Society"), appeared in 1997 and has been subject to much review and critique since.

Segmentary Differentiation

Segmentary Differentiation divides parts of the system on the basis of the need to fulfill identical functions over and over. For instance, an automobile manufacturer has functionally similar factories for the production of cars at many different locations. Every location is organized in much the same way; each has the same structure and fulfills the same function – producing cars (Ritzer 2007:96).

Stratifactory Differentiation

Stratificatory Differentiation is a vertical differentiation according to rank or status in a system conceived as a hierarchy. Every rank fulfills a particular and distinct function in the system, for instance (and to return to the automobile analogy) the automoible manufacturing company president, the plant manager, trickling down to the assembly line worker. In Segmentary Differentiation inequality is an accidental variance and serves no essential function, however, inequality is systemic in the function of Stratified system. A stratified system is more concerned with the higher ranks (president, manager) than it is with the lower ranks (assembly worker) with regard to "influential communication." However, the ranks are dependent on each other and the social system will collapse unless all ranks realize their functions. This type of system tends to necessitate the lower ranks to initiate conflict in order to shift the influential communication to their level. (Ritzer 2007:97).

Center-Periphery Differentiation

Center-Pperiphery Differentiation is a link between Segmentary and Stratificatory, an example is again, automobile firms, may have built factories in other countries, nevertheless the headquarters for the company remains the center ruling, and to whatever extent controlling, the peripheral factories (Ritzer 2007: 98).

Functional Differentiation

Functional Differentiation is the form that dominates modern society and is also the most complex form of differentiation. All functions within a system become ascribed to a particular unit/location. Again, citing the automobile firm as an example, it may be "functionally differentiated" departmentally, having a production department, administration, accounting, planning, personnel, etc. Functional Differentiation tends to be more flexible than Stratifactory, but just as a stratified system is dependant on all rank, in a Functional system if one part fails to fulfill its task, the whole system will have great difficulty surviving. However, as long as each unit is able to fulfill its separate function, the differentiated units become largely independent; functionally differentiated systems are a complex mixture of interdependence and independence. E.g., the planning division may be dependent on the accounting division for economic data, but so long as the date is accurately compiled the planning division can be ignorant of the methodology involved to collect the data, interdependence yet independence (Ritzer 2007:98).

Code

Code is a way to distinguish elements within a system from those elements not belonging to that system. It is the basic language of a functional system. Examples are truth for the science system, payment for the economic system, legality for the legal system; its purpose is to limit the kinds of permissible communication. According to Luhmann a system will only understand and use its own code, and will not understand nor use the code of another system; there is no way to import the code of one system into another because the systems are closed and can only react to things within their environment (Ritzer 2007:100).

Understanding the Risk of Complexity

It is exemplified that in Segmentary differentiation if a segment fails to fulfill its function it does not affect or threaten the larger system. If an auto plant in Michigan stops production does not threaten the overall system, or the plants in other locations. However, as complexity increases so does the risk of system breakdown. If a rank structure in a Stratified system fails, it threatens the system; a Center-Periphery system might be threatened if the control measure, or the Center/Headquarters failed; and in a Functionally differentiated system, due to the existence of interdependence despite independence the failure of one unit will cause a problem for the social system, possibly leading to its breakdown. The growth of complexity increases the abilities of a system to deal with its environment, but complexity increases the risk of system breakdown. It is important to note that more complex systems do not necessarily exclude less complex systems, in some instances the more complex system may require the existence of the less complex system to function (Ritzer 2007:98-100).

Differentiation and Modern Social Theory

Luhmann uses the operative distinction between system and environment to determine that society is a complex system which replicates the system/environment distinction to form internal subsystems. Science is among these internally differentiated social systems, and within this system is the sub-system sociology. Here, in the system sociology, Luhmann finds himself again, an observer observing society. His knowledge of society as an internally differentiated system is a contingent observation made from within one of the specialized function-systems he observes. He concludes, therefore, that any social theory claiming universal status must take this contingency into account. Once one uses the basic system/environment distinction, then none of the traditional philosophical or sociological distinctions – transcendental and empirical, subject and object, ideology and science – can eliminate the contingency of enforced selectivity. Thus, Luhmann’s theory of social systems breaks not only with all forms of transcendentalism, but with the philosophy of history as well (Knodt and Rasch 1994).

Luhmann is criticized as being self referential and repetetive, this is because a system is forced to observe society from within society. Systems theory, for its part, unfolds this paradox with the notion that the observer observes society from within a subsystem (in this case: sociology) of a subsystem (science) of the social system. Its descriptions are thus “society of society” (Luhmann and Ward 2000).

Differentiation: Luhmann's Critique of Grand Theory

Luhmann felt that the society that thematized itself as political society misunderstood itself. It was simply a social system in which a newly differentiated political subsystem had functional primacy. Luhmann analyzes the Marxist approach to an economy based society: In this theory, the concept of economic society is understood to denote a new type of society in which production, and beyond that “a metabolically founded system of needs” replaces politics as the central social process. From another perspective also characteristic of Marxist thought, the term “bourgeois society” is meant to signify that a politically defined ruling segment is now replaced as the dominant stratum by the owners of property. Luhmann’s reservations concerning not only Marxist, but also bourgeois theories of economic society parallel his criticisms of Aristotelian political philosophy as a theory of political society. Both theories make the understandable error of "pars pro toto," of taking the part for the whole, which in this context means identifying a social subsystem with the whole of society. The error can be traced to the dramatic nature of the emergence of each subsystem and its functional primacy (for a time) in relation to the other spheres of society. Nevertheless, the functional primacy claimed for the economy should not have led to asserting an economic permeation of all spheres of life. The notion of the economy possessing functional primacy is compatible with the well-known circumstance that the political subsystem not only grew increasingly differentiated (from religion, morals, and customs if not from the economy) but also continued to increase in size and internal complexity over the course of the entire capitalist epoch. For functional primacy need only imply that the internal complexity of a given subsystem is the greatest, and that the new developmental stage of society is characterized by tasks and problems originating primarily in this sphere (Arato and Luhmann 1994).

Useful External Links

The Legacy of Niklas Luhmann

The World as a Social System

The Postmodern Condition

This is a current but brief sociologically based commentary on Lyotard’s book, also briefly cites Luhmann

Another Photographic Mosaic

References

Arato, Andrew and Niklas Luhmann. 1994. “Civil Society and Political Theory in the Work of Luhmann and Beyond” New German Critique, No. 61, Special Issue on Niklas Luhmann. Retrieved April 24, 2007 Available: JSTOR Scholarly Journal Archive.

Holmes, Stephen, Charles Larmore, Niklas Luhmann, and James Schmidt. 1983. “Review: Luhmann in English- The Differentiation of Society” Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 12, No.2. Retrieved April 24, 2007 Available: JSTOR Scholarly Journal Archive.

Knodt, Eva M. and William Rasch. 1994. “Systems Theory and the System of Theory” New German Critique, No. 61, Special Issue on Niklas Luhmann. Retrieved April 24, 2007 Available: JSTOR Scholarly Journal Archive.

Luhmann, Niklas and Sean Ward. 2000. “Die Gesellshcaft der Gesellschaft” The German Quarterly, Vol. 73, No.2. Retrieved April 24, 2007 Available: JSTOR Scholarly Journal Archive.

Naustdalslid, Jon. 1977. “A Multi-Level Approach to the Study of Center- Periphery Systems and Socio-Economic Change” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 14, No. 3. Retrieved April 24, 2007 Available: JSTOR Scholarly Journal Archive.

Ritzer, George. 2007. Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots, The Basics, Second Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.