Kloof Booksellers & Scientia Verlag

ISBN 9781581126952

Uitgever [S.l.] : Universal Publishers, 2003. 2nd edition. Paperback. viii, 360 pp. Conditie: als nieuw

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Meer info Conditie: als nieuw. SOCIOLOGY

Extra informatie - This Sociological Theory of Communication is founded in a tradition that includes Giddens' (1979) structuration theory, Habermas' (1981) theory of communicative action, and Luhmann's (1984) proposal to consider social systems as self-organizing. The study also elaborates on Shannon's (1948) mathematical theory of communication for the formalization and operationalization of the non-linear dynamics. Social networks evolve in terms of reflexive exchanges. The codification of the reflections in language and symbolic media generates and reproduces meaning at the level of society. Under sociologically specifiable conditions, the discursive reconstructions can be expected to make the systems under reflection increasingly knowledge-intensive. The development of scientific communications can be studied using citation analysis. The exchange media at the interfaces of knowledge production provide us with the evolutionary model of a Triple Helix of university-industry- government relations. The construction of the European Information Society is further analyzed in terms of interacting networks of communication. The issues of sustainable development and the expectation of social change are discussed in relation to the feasibility of a general theory of communication. Loet Leydesdorff (Ph.D. sociology, M.A. philosophy, and M.Sc. biochemistry) is Senior Lecturer at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR). He has published in the philosophy of science, social network analysis, scientometrics, and the sociology of innovation. His studies of communication in science, technology, and innovation enabled him to specify theory and methods for understanding the self-organizing dynamics of the knowledge base of social systems.