Claudio Baraldi Boeken

Focusing on children's agency, this book explores how it can be fostered in both formal and informal educational settings. Adopting a sociological perspective, the author emphasizes viewing children as social agents, highlighting interactional structures that promote agency over traditional teaching methods. Based on over twenty years of field research across various Italian and international contexts, it uniquely combines theoretical insights with practical examples, illustrating the interplay between social structures and children's agency.

Niklas Luhmann's theory is fascinating and complex. Using the reticular form of the glossary, this book makes the theory accessible while maintaining its complexity. Without being obstructed by knowledge gaps or oblique references, readers inside and outside sociology receive support to explore and engage with sociological systems theory.

This book provides an insight into the ideas of one of the world’s greatest sociologists: Niklas Luhmann. It explains, in clear and concise language, the basic concepts of Social Systems Theory and their application to the specific case of the Education System, which was considered by Luhmann as a primary subsystem of modern society. It illustrates the complex and sophisticated thinking that characterises Luhmann’s work and explains that Luhmann’s theory has given an important and original contribution to the study of education from a sociological point of view. His contribution has some resonance in recent social constructionist and relational approaches to education, as well as in studies of educational interaction. In addition, research methodologies, in particular mixed methods strategies, draw heavily on epistemological issues. The book finally argues that educationists can appreciate the extent of Luhmann’s contribution to the field of education, although their perspective cannot be fully harmonised with, nor reduced to, the sociological one. This divergence of perspectives can stimulate pedagogy to call into question its conceptual framework as well its approach to social situations in the classroom.

Niklas Luhmanns Theorie sozialer Systeme wird heute immer eindeutiger als einer der interessantesten und fruchtbarsten Ansätze im Bereich der Sozialwissenschaften anerkannt. Dieses Glossar ist ein Arbeitsinstrument, das einerseits als Einleitung in die komplexe Theorie Luhmanns dienen kann und das andererseits die Anwendung der von dieser Theorie angebotenen Begriffe erleichtern dürfte. Die Form des Glossars soll eine »modulare« Einstellung zur Theorie ermöglichen. Die Erläuterungen zu einem Begriff umfassen durchschnittlich drei bis vier Seiten. Zu jedem Begriff gibt es eine Reihe bibliographischer Hinweise. Ein System von Verweisungen zwischen den Begriffen wurde durch »Lektürewege« ergänzt, die bestimmte Verbindungen zwischen den Begriffen in bezug auf thematische Felder - wie zum Beispiel Selbstreferenz, soziale Differenzierung, Konstruktivismus usw. - angeben.