Niklas Luhmann: Contingency, risk, trust and reflection

The hurdle of Niklas Luhmann's extensive theories is their complexity and level of abstraction. These qualities are, however, exactly what constitute their empirical sensitivity to the interrelation between organization and society in today's hyper-complex society. Luhmann never theorized on public relations; yet his theories enable identification of frames for understanding public relations in interrelation to society's overall coordination processes. Contemporary society apparently tries to solve problems activated by the blind reflexivity of modernization by activating reflective forms of coordination. Correspondingly, practice ideals of public relations can be reconstructed as reflection-the specific worldview which facilitates self-insight in relation to the social context. Copyright © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved