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Vulnerable bodies, vulnerable systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2015

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos  and
Thomas E. Webb
Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos*
Affiliation:
Professor of Law and Theory, School of Law, University of Westminster. Email: [email protected]
Thomas E. Webb
Affiliation:
Faculty Academic Fellow in Law, The Law School, Lancaster University. Email: [email protected].
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

In this paper we examine the concept of vulnerability as it relates to the materiality of systems, the exclusion of human physical corporeality, and social exclusion in Luhmann's theory of social autopoiesis. We ask whether a concept of vulnerability can be included in autopoiesis in order to better conceptualise social exclusion and the excluded, with a view to understanding how, if at all, the dangers posed by this exclusion are mitigated by autopoietic processes. We are emphatically not returning to the human subject over operational systems, but seek instead to develop an understanding of the embodied nature of humans and their vulnerability within an autopoietic framework. We argue that the awareness of the risks to social functional differentiation posed by unmanaged exclusion – disenchantment, disassociation and, most drastically, dedifferentiation – provided by our analysis indicates why hyper-exclusion must be mitigated.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 11 , Issue 4: Critical Socio-legal Engagements with Systems Thinking , December 2015 , pp. 444 - 461
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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