Spot on neglected function systems. Challenging the reignited trench warfare of politics and the economy by systemic constellations

Social systems theory suggests that function systems are of equal relevancy for society. Theoretically speaking there is indeed no reason for taking politics or arts for less relevant than the economy. However, observing concrete social systems we find that theoretically incommensurable function systems are actually ranked by relevance: It is not hard to imagine that the economy is more relevant to banks than to schools or to recall how the relevance of religion declined in the Occident. 

In other words: There is something like a relative value of the individual function systems, which obviously varies between individual social systems and can also change over time. While this idea does not challenge, but rather support, the concept of the basic functional equivalence of the function systems, it nonetheless calls for new methods for both research on the preferences certain social systems have for certain function systems and research on how these preferences change over time (cf. Roth, Scheiber and Wetzel 2010).

Against this background, the present contribution transfers basic principles of systemic constellations to the realm of science and presents a framework for the analysis of the fashionable nature of function system preferences. The method will be demonstrated during the workshop. If applied, it allows for

a) The detection of dissonances between structures and semantics of function system (p)references of social systems.  

b) A critical self-reflection of sociology, which can use it to wonder whether to follow or rather to reflect the detected trends.

The recently reignited trench warfare of politics and the economy can then be taken as a chance to challenge present 'doing more of the same'-strategies. The solution to the financial crises could be to drawing away the attention from apparently strong stimuli and rather put the spotlight on so far rather underexposed function systems.