Technical power frees expectations from lifeworld limits and increases selectivity

Evidence

This technical dimension of power cancels out certain limitations on the generalization of expectation based on the lifeworld. It opens up possibilities which reach beyond this and provides, thereby, greater freedom of choice within the system. In this way the selectivity of power decisions increases at the same time, and so, ultimately, the selectivity of the power-code itself. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 744

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels Giddens’s separation of expert systems from facework — technical media replace personal, lifeworld-based trust.
• DEFINE: Sharply distinguishes ‘lifeworld’ from ‘technique’ as limits vs. extensions of expectation generalization.