• Katharina Mader

• Friederike Wütscher

30.4.1998

The meeting’s objective was to give an intensive scientific examination to the topic of the conditions of adequacy and success in social theory: What is social theory expected to achieve in the first place? To what extent does system theory itself transport the ontological premises such that “systems really exist”? Can the notion of society as a reflective concept for the rhetoric about social affairs be reconstructed? Can social theory be conceived as a re-construct of societal self-description or as presuppositions relevant to self-description in social action? On what level of theoretical reflection about society should system theory in particular be placed? To what end is system theory an adequate self-description of society?

Participants: G. Bechmann (Speaker, Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse des Forschungszentrums Karlsruhe) Dr. Michael Decker (Europäische Akademie); Priv.-Doz. Armin Grunwald (Europäische Akademie), Dr. Mathias Gutmann (Europäische Akademie); Dr. L. Hack (Osnabrück); Dr. Gerd Hanekamp (Europäische Akademie); Professor Dr. Neuendorf (Dortmund); Professor Dr. W. Krohn (Bielefeld); Dr. M. Weingarten (Marburg).