Teoria dei sistemi autopoietici e questioni ecologiche. Niklas Luhmann

[Autom. eng. transl.] The application of the theory of autopoiesis to social systems is unanimously considered one of Niklas Luhmann's greatest contributions to sociological knowledge. The present contribution intends to take on this distinctive trait, as a point of reference to interpret the complex relationship between the natural environment and society according to some theoretical lines that can be extracted from the Luhmanian approach. The contribution of the German sociologist to the sociology of the environment cannot, in fact, be confined to the important reflections on ecological communication and risk, but must be recognized and valued as an attempt to found a general theory in which the concept of environment, despite its innovative and polysemic meaning, it assumes a decisive centrality. Without the pretense of completeness, given the size and complexity of the Luhmanian work, an attempt will be made to carry out a survey on some of the most salient aspects of the theory under examination. In particular, next to the conceptual system-environment couple, we will try to probe the ecological implications of the distinction (or identification) between social systems and living systems through a comparison between the position of Luhmann and that of Humberto Maturana.