Summary

The aim of the article is to increase interest in the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann among practicing social workers. The enigmatic statement from Luhmann that only ‘communication can communicate’ is explained with reference to his autopoietic systems theory which identifies three distinct types of systems: systems of communication, systems of life and systems of consciousness. The article proceeds to describe the meaning and nature of autopoietic systems before discussing the place of the individual in Luhmann’s theory and how it is relevant for practicing social workers. The concepts of psychic systems, structural coupling and communicative codes are described and discussed.

Findings

The conceptual framework derived from Luhmann’s systems theory is applied to a description of the social worker/client encounter. Communication in social work practice is polyphonic: it is structured by a hybrid of communicative codes which the practitioner must draw on depending on the auspices of the communicative context. The key conclusion of the article is that Luhmann retains a conception of the individual as an active agent in systems theory aiming ‘noise’ at the function systems with which the individual interacts.

Applications

The article suggests that the systems perspective presented provides social workers with a useful and nuanced framework for reflective practice because it makes the components of the practice system explicit and visible.

中文翻译：

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卢曼的心理系统理论与社会工作实践中的交流

概括

本文的目的是提高实践社会工作者对 Niklas Luhmann 社会系统理论的兴趣。卢曼关于只有“交流才能交流”的神秘陈述，参照他的自创生系统理论进行了解释，该理论确定了三种不同类型的系统：交流系统、生命系统和意识系统。在讨论个人在 Luhmann 理论中的位置以及它与实践社会工作者的关系之前，文章继续描述自创生系统的含义和性质。描述和讨论了心理系统、结构耦合和交流代码的概念。

发现

源自 Luhmann 系统理论的概念框架被应用于对社会工作者/客户遭遇的描述。社会工作实践中的交流是复调的：它由混合的交流代码构成，从业者必须根据交流环境的支持来利用这些代码。这篇文章的关键结论是，卢曼保留了个人作为系统理论中的积极代理的概念，其目标是“噪音”于个人与之交互的功能系统。

应用

这篇文章表明，所提出的系统视角为社会工作者提供了一个有用且细致入微的反思实践框架，因为它使实践系统的组成部分变得清晰可见。