A high level of complexity and a continuous and always changing relationship among its elements characterizes modern world society. As a result, a constant differentiation and specialization of diverging social fields aiming to reduce the uncertainty emerging from that complexity takes place. Paradoxically, as differentiation and specialization increase, they become a new source of uncertainty. In order to confront this self-producing ambiguity, some social operations develop structural interdependencies with a sufficient level of operational stability that distinguish them from their environment. In this paper this is called contextual differentiation, i.e. the emergence of differentiated contexts of interaction, decision and
symbolization that make possible a mutilayered concretization of social functions in supranational contexts. With regard to the differentiation of law, economy and sports this process is analyzed and illustrated in four case studies: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bank for International Settlements, FIFA, the game and its publics, and the international commercial arbitration.
Keywords:
World society, functional differentiation, social systems, social theory, systems theory
Mascareño, A. (2012). Self-chaotization in world society. An outlines for a theory of contextual differentiation. Cinta De Moebio. Revista De Epistemología De Ciencias Sociales, (44). Retrieved from https://actascoloquiogiannini.uchile.cl/index.php/CDM/article/view/25890
