| 1. | Introduction | 1 |
| 1.1 | 'Self-organization' | 2 |
| 1.2 | Self-organization remains a hypothesis | 11 |
| 1.3 | A hypothesis refers to a theory | 13 |
| 1.4 | The 'self-organization' paradigm in sociology | 17 |
| 1.5 | An example: 'interpenetration' | 21 |
| 1.6 | The re-entry of time into the representation | 26 |
| 1.7 | The progam of studies | 30 |
| Part 1 | Sociological Reflections | |
| 2. | Towards a sociological theory of communication | 35 |
| 2.1 | Uncertainty, information, and meaning | 38 |
| 2.2 | Giddens' structuration theory | 44 |
| 2.3 | Self-organization theory | 49 |
| 2.4 | Luhmann's restriction | 54 |
| 2.5 | The social system and biological autopoisesis | 55 |
| 2.6 | Habermas' objection | 58 |
| 2.7 | Language | 62 |
| 2.8 | Infrareflexivity | 67 |
| 2.9 | Communication of 'information' in messages | 71 |
| 2.10 | What is evolving? | 74 |
| 3 | The evolution of communication networks | 79 |
| 3.1 | The perspective of social systems theory | 80 |
| 3.1.1 | The methodological basis | |
| 3.1.2 | Human communication | |
| 3.1.3 | The status of the observables | |
| 3.2 | Communication and communication systems | 90 |
| 3.2.1 | Variation and selection | |
| 3.2.2 | Stabilization, self-organization, and globalization | |
| 3.2.3 | Complexity among systems | |
| 3.3 | The evolutionary perspective | 105 |
| 3.3.1 | Complexity in the time dimension | |
| 3.3.2 | Inter-system dependencies | |
| 3.4 | Conclusions | 113 |
| 3.5 | Excursion on the possibility of artificial evolution | 114 |
| 4. | The non-linear dynamics of sociological reflections | 117 |
| 4.1 | The evolutionary need for reflections | 118 |
| 4.2 | The duality of social communication | 120 |
| 4.3 | The regime of modernity | 123 |
| 4.4 | The endogenous character of technological change | 126 |
| 4.5 | Differentiation among reflexive discourses | 128 |
| 4.6 | The 'duality' in sociological understanding | 130 |
| 4.7 | Implications for sociological theorizing | 134 |
| 4.8 | Conclusions | 136 |
| Part 2 | Is Society a Self-Organizing System? | 139 |
| 5. | New perspectives on empirical theories | 143 |
| 5.1 | Four models of 'structure'/'action' contingencies | 142 |
| 5.1.1 | The aggregation hypothesis | |
| 5.1.2 | The hypothesis of 'unintended consequences' | |
| 5.1.3 | Symbolic interactionism and the situational approach | |
| 5.1.4 | Systems theory in sociology | |
| 5.2 | The model of parallel and distributed processing | 155 |
| 5.2.1 | The operational independence of the social system | |
| 5.2.2 | The networks network, and the actors act | |
| 5.2.3 | The role of the network | |
| 5.2.4 | Interpenetration operationalized | |
| 5.3 | The local and the global network | 165 |
| 5.3.1 | Hierarchy and heterarchy in the network | |
| 5.3.2 | Heuristic functions of the model | |
| 5.3.3 | Algorithms of parallel and distributed processing | |
| 5.3.4 | 'Meaning' at the level of the network | |
| 5.4 | Summary and conclusions | 175 |
| 6. | A Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations | |
| 6.1 | Functional versus institutional differentiation | 178 |
| 6.2 | The 'scientific-technical revolution' (1870-1890) | 180 |
| 6.3 | Complexity within scientific communication | 182 |
| 6.3.1 | Annotations, references, and citations | |
| 6.3.2 | The modern 'citation' as a complex index | |
| 6.3.3 | The latency of the cognitive dimension | |
| 6.4 | Complexity at the level of society | 191 |
| 6.4.1 | Horizontal and vertical couplings | |
| 6.4.2 | Translation systems | |
| 6.5 | Emergence and drifts of trans-epistemes | 202 |
| 6.5.1 | The techno-sciences | |
| 6.5.2 | Economic consequences | |
| 6.5.3 | Policy implications | |
| 6.6 | Conclusions | 209 |
| 7. | The European information society | 213 |
| 7.1 | The EU-Network Systems | 215 |
| 7.2 | Methods and data | 217 |
| 7.2.1 | Data | |
| 7.2.2 | Methods | |
| 7.2.2.1 | Longitudinal studies | |
| 7.2.2.2 | Functional versus national differentiation | |
| 7.3 | Results | 224 |
| 7.3.1 | The European monetary system | |
| 7.3.2 | The European publication system | |
| 7.3.3 | The case of 'biotechnology' | |
| 7.4 | Conclusions | 233 |
| 8. | Regime changes and sustainable development | 235 |
| 8.1 | The paradigm shift | 236 |
| 8.1.1 | Ex post and ex ante | |
| 8.1.2 | Second-order dynamics | |
| 8.2 | Prediction in second-order systems theory | 245 |
| 8.3 | Consequences | 248 |
| 8.3.1 | The carrying capacity of second-order systems | |
| 8.3.2 | Sustainability of technological solutions | |
| 8.3.3 | Trajectories and regimes | |
| 8.3.4 | Sub-optima, hill-climbing, and changes of regime | |
| 8.4 | Conclusions | 258 |
| Part 3 | Philosophical Reflections | 261 |
| 9. | Uncertainty and the communication of 'time' | 263 |
| 9.1 | The construction of the modern cosmology | 266 |
| 9.1.1 | 'Uncertainty' in the new philosophy | |
| 9.1.2 | 'Time' in the new philosophy | |
| 9.2 | 'The time of the Lord is the best of all times' | 272 |
| 9.3 | The deconstruction of the modern cosmology | 275 |
| 9.3.1 | 'Uncertainty' as the 'substance' of communication | |
| 9.3.2 | The probabilistic interpretation of communication | |
| 9.4 | The self-organization of uncertainty | 281 |
| 9.4.1 | Interaction among communication systems | |
| 9.4.2 | Extension in the time dimension | |
| 9.5 | The study of complex dynamics | 289 |
| 9.6 | Towards a general theory of communication? | 292 |
| 10. | The expectation of social change | 297 |
| 10.1 | The post-institutional perspective | 299 |
| 10.1.1 | 'All that is solid melts into air' | |
| 10.1.2 | The linguistic turn | |
| 10.1.3 | Retention | |
| 10.2 | Exclusion and the new social movements | 314 |
| 10.3 | Knowledge-based development | 318 |
| Bibliography | 323 |
| Author Index | 343 |
| Subject Index | 347 |