System differentiation reproduces the whole system inside each subsystem and grows by internal disjunction

Evidence

We can conceive of system differentiation as a replication, within a system, of the difference between a system and its environment. Differentiation is thus understood as a reflexive and recursive form of system building. It repeats the same mechanism, using it to amplify its own results. In differentiated systems, as a result, we find two kinds of environment: the external environment common to all subsystems and a separate internal environment for each subsystem. This conception implies that each subsystem reconstructs and, in a sense, is the whole system in the special form of a difference between the sub-system and its environment. Differentiation thus reproduces the system in itself, multiplying specialized versions of the original system’s identity by splitting it into a number of internal systems and affiliated environments. This is not simply a decomposition into smaller chunks but rather a process of growth by internal disjunction. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 340

Categorization

• DEFINE: A precise framework definition for Luhmann’s system differentiation that Jameson will apply to Simon’s texts.
• XREF: Luhmann’s social systems theory connects to the general systems approach Jameson uses to periodize cultural forms.