The Making of Meaning: From the Individual to Social Order Selections from Niklas Luhmann's Works on Semantic and Social Structure

Niklas Luhmann is now widely recognized as one of the most important social theorists of the twentieth century. While several of his key texts have been translated into English significant parts of Luhmann's extensive output remain unavailable to a non-German-speaking readership. His publication in four volumes on Gesellschaftsstruktur and Semantik (Social Structure and Semantics) 1980, 1981, 1989, 1995) together constitute an important part of his work as they not only represent his contribution to a sociology of knowledge and culture, but they also set out the empirical work that underpins the development of his theory of society.

In The Making of Meaning, Christian Morgner brings together Luhmann's essential ideas from the four volume series. In this work, Luhmann presents a new empirical strategy that links the production of knowledge and culture to broader societal changes and the transformation of societal complexity. This volume provides insight into the development of Luhmann's theoretical ideas, revealing how his theory was driven by a broad range of detailed historical and comparative studies.

Informing a wide range of disciplines, from sociology to history, from law to business studies, from philosophy to cultural studies, The Making of Meaning stands as a major contribution to the sociology of knowledge and the social history of ideas.

Niklas Luhmann, prior to his death in 1998, was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Bielefeld University.

Christian Morgner is Lecturer in Culture and Communication at the University of Leicester. He is the editor (with Michael King) of Luhmann's Trust and Power (2017).