Niklas Luhmann’s Study of Risk- Sociology and Policy-Making
Author: Jeng-Ti Huang
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
There is a structural coupling between the psychological system and the socialsystem. Thus, when we make a political decision, we are constrained by a socialsystem. Based on this viewpoint, research on how the social system operates iscrucial to political decision-making. Luhmann regards the social system as a self-referential system, and its unit is communication rather than human beings. Undersuch circumstances, Luhmann points out that the risk-communication model ofsocial system is “risk / danger”, not “risk / safety”; its risk-evaluation is a multiplecontingent operation, and the social systems sometimes use risk-transformation tomanage their risks. In order to explain the above viewpoints, this paper “observes”the risk communications of function systems. This refers to the adoption offingerprint databanks as a tool for personal identification in Taiwan.