The Making of Meaning in the Sociology of Niklas Luhmann

Abstract This chapter outlines a different approach to the work of Niklas Luhmann, one that is critical of sociology’s tendency to reduce theoretical projects to single labels, but also to show that there is much to gain from engaging with a sociological project that provides a profound understanding of meaning-making. Recently the fields of cultural sociology, cultural history, and the arts and humanities have widely discussed meaning but have been largely unaware of the rich and conceptually advanced theory of meaning developed by Luhmann. Consequently, in this chapter an in-depth analysis of this term and its embedding in Luhmann’s sociology of knowledge and culture is presented in order to overcome simplistic accounts that reduce this sociological project to being concerned only with systems. Such a rephrased reading shall not only provide a guide to the reader when approaching the translated chapters by Luhmann but will also open up a new debate of the sociological theory presented by Luhmann.