The Social Differentiation of the Educational System

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2321339
AutoresRaf Vanderstraeten (0000-0002-4155-2499, University of Leuven, Belgium and University of Bielefeld, Germany, autor correspondente)
Ano2004
Volume38
Fascículo2
Páginas255-272
Data de publicação2004-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038038504040863
OpenAlexW2067218745
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas32
Referências citadas39

In line with a long sociological tradition, Niklas Luhmann has analysed the basic characteristics of modern society in terms of social differentiation. Luhmann has focused on the forms of differentiation, and argued that modern society is differentiated according to subsystems that concentrate on one function (e.g. the economy, law, science, politics, education). In the first part of the article, I explore the backgrounds of this systems-theoretical framework. In the second part, this framework is used to analyse the structural characteristics of the educational system. This system has its basis in the school's complexes of interaction and organization. But education is also confronted with the consequences of its own autonomy, its own mode of operating. It is suggested that these secondary effects have more impact on the evolution of this system than its societal environment

Autonomy · Differentiation · Epistemology · Function (biology) · Political science · Politics · Social science · Social system · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Critical Realism in Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy