Lukas Fuchs receives Best Paper Award at the 2023 Luhmann Conference

Lukas Fuchs, post-doctoral fellow in the Philosophy & Ethics group, has received the Best Paper Award at the 2023 Luhmann Conference.

Announcing the award on LinkedIn, the Luhmann Conference organizers wrote, “Lukas' paper does not just tick the boxes of our criteria - it transcends them. With its precise argumentation, theoretical foundation, and innovative insights, his work impressed the committee.”

Fuchs’ paper is entitled “The steering function of the state in techno-economic transformations for sustainability”. Fuchs writes, “This paper uses the systems theoretical lens by Niklas Luhmann to analyse recent proposals for the state to take an active role in pursuing mission-oriented innovation policy and market shaping. While Luhmann argues that modern societies are characterised by the “functional differentiation” of social systems, the paper explores ways to formulate a more optimistic view on the steering function of the state.”

Sponsored by the Next Society Institute, the Luhmann Conference Best Paper Award was created “to recognize a contribution that demonstrates theoretical excellence and inspires new research perspectives in the field of social systems theory.”

The conference took place 12-15th September 2023 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The theme of the 2023 conference was “Environments: Observed with social systems theory.”