Theory of Society, Volume 1This first volume of Niklas Luhmann's two part final work was initially published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society on a scale not attempted since Talcott Parsons. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative