Organizations form as catalysts where specialized power media crystallize

Evidence

The possibilities for reinforcing and transmitting selectivity leave an imprint in the symbolical structure of the communication medium and can be exhausted only if, within society, not only subsystems of the societal system but other additional types of systems, have also been formed – namely organizations. The symbolism which serves general societal functions presupposes a difference between, and an interdependence among, several possibilities for system formation. The use of more limited possibilities for system formation is a precondition for the realization of emerging society-wide possibilities. At the same time, the differentiation and specification of specialized communication media create catalysts for system formations in the form of organizations concerned, in particular, with property and political power backed by force. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 780

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that limited system formations are a precondition for society-wide possibilities maps onto Giddens’s point that faceless commitments deliver institutional trust precisely because organizations concentrate expertise. — connects to: Ideas gain influence only through organizational architecture and network building — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 605