Medium as a basic concept of sociology: contributions from systems theory

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to present the fundamental concepts of a theory of social systems, with special reference to the concepts of medium and form, and their application in sociology. By challenging the indifference and opposition shown by most contemporary sociologists to the ontological and theoretical questions of social theory (e.g. in the case of micro-sociologists’ aversion to Parsons), systems theory has, from the beginning, represented an attempt at an analysis focusing on the fundamental concepts (and on their coherent relations) of a general theory of society. Ignoring the elaboration of these concepts may be tantamount to reducing sociology to countless collections of facts of a limited informative value. Indeed, only an adequate conceptual framework will suffice. Certain recent developments in systems theory offer useful tools. Some of these developments are illustrated in this article, which marshals a network of concepts, each dealing with specific aspects relating to sociological analysis.