Jan Overwijk discusses critical systems theory, sociologies of closure and openness, and cybernetic capitalism.

Shownotes

Jan Overwijk at the Frankfurt University Institute for Social Research:

https://www.ifs.uni-frankfurt.de/personendetails/jan-overwijk.html

Jan at the University of Humanistic Studies Utrecht:

https://www.uvh.nl/university-of-humanistic-studies/contact/search-employees?person=jimxneoBsHowOfbPivN

Overwijk, J. (2025). Cybernetic Capitalism. A Critical Theory of the Incommunicable. Fordham University Press.

https://www.fordhampress.com/9781531508937/cybernetic-capitalism/

on the website of the distributor outside of North America you can order the book with a 30% discount with the code “FFF24”:

https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/9781531508937/cybernetic-capitalism/

on Niklas Luhmann:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann

Baraldi, C., Corsi, G., & Esposito, E. (2021). Unlocking Luhmann. A Keyword Introduction to Systems Theory. transcript.

https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-5674-9/unlocking-luhmann/

Fischer-Lescano, A. (2011). Critical Systems Theory. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 38(1), 3–23.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0191453711421600

Möller, K., & Siri, J. (2023). Niklas Luhmann and Critical Systems Theory. In: R. Rogowski (Ed.), The Anthem Companion to Niklas Luhmann (pp. 141–154).

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/anthem-companion-to-niklas-luhmann/niklas-luhmann-and-critical-systems-theory/982BC5427E171D2BA0D14364377A40F5

on Critical Theory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory

on Cybernetics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics

Future Histories explanation video on cybernetics (in German):

https://youtu.be/QBKC9mM8-so?si=64v0OgBKV3xjXvLl

on Humberto Matuarana:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humberto_Maturana

on Francisco Varela:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Varela

Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1992). Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Shambhala.

https://uranos.ch/research/references/Maturana1988/maturana-h-1987-tree-of-knowledge-bkmrk.pdf

on Ferdinand de Saussure:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure

on Post-Structuralism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-structuralism

on the differentiation of society into subsystems:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differentiation_(sociology)

on Jaques Derrida:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida

Bob Jessop on Luhmann and the concept of “ecological dominance”:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318543419_The_relevance_of_Luhmann%27s_systems_theory_and_of_Laclau_and_Mouffe%27s_discourse_analysis_to_the_elaboration_of_Marx%27s_state_theory

Jessop, B. (2010). From Hegemony to Crisis? The Continuing Ecological Dominance of Neoliberalism. In: K. Birch & V. Mykhnenko (Eds.). Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism: The Collapse of an Economic Order? (pp. 171–187). Zed Books.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318524063_The_continuing_ecological_dominance_of_neoliberalism_in_the_crisis

on Surplus Value in Marx and Marxism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_value

on Louis Althusser:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Althusser

Althusser, L. (2014). On the Reproduction of Capitalism: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. Verso.

https://legalform.blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/althusser-on-the-reproduction-of-capitalism.pdf

on Stuart Hall:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hall_(cultural_theorist)

on Capital Strikes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_strike

on the concept of “rationalization” in sociology:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_(sociology)

on Max Weber:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber

Weber, M. (2005). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Routledge.

https://gpde.direito.ufmg.br/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MAX-WEBER.pdf

Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Profile Books.

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/

on Surveillance Capitalism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism

on Herbert Marcuse:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse

Marcuse, H. (2002). One-Dimensional Man. Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Routledge.

https://files.libcom.org/files/Marcuse,%20H%20-%20One-Dimensional%20Man,%202nd%20edn.%20(Routledge,%202002).pdf

on Jürgen Habermas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Habermas

on Jean-François Lyotard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Lyotard

Lyotard, J.-F. (1988). The Differend. Phrases in Dispute. University of Minnesota Press.

https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816616114/differend/

on Thermodynamics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamics

on the Technocracy Movement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement

Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. Polity.

https://giuseppecapograssi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bauman-liquid-modernity.pdf

on New Materialism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_materialism

on Gilles Deleuze:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Deleuze

on Bruno Latour:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Latour

on Donna Haraway:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Haraway

for criticisms of new materialism and associated tendencies and authors:

Malm, A. (2018). The Progress of this Storm. Nature and Society in a Warming World. Verso.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/574-the-progress-of-this-storm

Brown, W. (2019). In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. Columbia University Press.

https://www.social-ecology.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/The-Wellek-Library-Lectures-Wendy-Brown-In-the-Ruins-of-Neoliberalism_-The-Rise-of-Antidemocratic-Politics-in-the-West-Columbia-University-Press-2019.pdf

Hendrikse, R. (2018). Neo-illiberalism. Geoforum, 95, 169–172.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718518302057

on N. Katherine Hayles:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._Katherine_Hayles

Deleuze, G. (1992). Postscript on the Societies of Control. October. Vol. 59. (Winter 1992), 3-7.

https://cidadeinseguranca.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/deleuze_control.pdf

Brenner, R., Glick, M. (1991). The Regulation Approach. Theory and History. New Left Review. 1/188.

https://newleftreview.org/issues/i188/articles/robert-brenner-mark-glick-the-regulation-approach-theory-and-history.pdf

on the “Regulation School”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_school

Chiapello, E., & Boltanski, L. (2018). The New Spirit of Capitalism. Verso.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/1980-the-new-spirit-of-capitalism

Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2000). Empire. Harvard University Press.

https://monoskop.org/images/9/95/Hardt_Michael_Negri_Antonio_Empire.pdf

on the Tierra Artificial Life Program:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierra_(computer_simulation)

on Gilbert Simondon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Simondon

on Karen Barad:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Barad

on Post-Fordism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Fordism

on Taylorism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management

Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform Capitalism. Polity.

https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=platform-capitalism--9781509504862

Hayek, F. A. (2014). The Constitution of Liberty. Routledge.

https://ia600805.us.archive.org/35/items/TheConstitutionOfLiberty/The%20Constitution%20of%20Liberty.pdf

van Dyk, S. (2018). Post-Wage Politics and the Rise of Community Capitalism. Work, Employment and Society, 32(3), 528–545.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017018755663

on Rosa Luxemburg:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Luxemburg

on Luxemburg’s thought on imperialism:

https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/44096/rosa-luxemburgs-heterodox-view-of-the-global-south

Fraser, N. (2022). Cannibal Capitalism. How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet and What We Can Do About It. Verso.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/2685-cannibal-capitalism

on Mariarosa Dalla Costa:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariarosa_Dalla_Costa

on the “Wages for Housework” Campaign:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wages_for_Housework

Moore, J. W. (2015). Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. Verso.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/74-capitalism-in-the-web-of-life

on Stafford Beer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stafford_Beer

Pickering, A. (2010). The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future. University of Chicago Press.

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo8169881.html

Foucualt’s quote on socialist governmentality is from this book:

Foucault, M. (2008). The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-1979. Palgrave Macmillan.

https://1000littlehammers.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/birth_of_biopolitics.pdf

Groos, J. (2025). Planning as an Art of Government. In: J. Groos & C. Sorg (Eds.). Creative Construction. Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond (pp. 115-132). Bristol University Press.

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction

Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics

S03E30 | Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries

https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e30-matt-huber-kohei-saito-on-growth-progress-and-left-imaginaries/

S03E29 | Nancy Fraser on Alternatives to Capitalism

https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e29-nancy-fraser-on-alternatives-to-capitalism/

S03E19 | Wendy Brown on Socialist Governmentality

https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e19-wendy-brown-on-socialist-governmentality/

S03E04 | Tim Platenkamp on Republican Socialism, General Planning and Parametric Control

https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e04-tim-platenkamp-on-republican-socialism-general-planning-and-parametric-control/

S03E03 | Planning for Entropy on Sociometabolic Planning

https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e03-planning-for-entropy-on-sociometabolic-planning/

S02E31 | Thomas Swann on Anarchist Cybernetics

https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02/e31-thomas-swann-on-anarchist-cybernetics/

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If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:

Democratic planning – an information website

https://www.democratic-planning.com/

Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.

https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1

Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction

International Network for Democratic Economic Planning

https://www.indep.network/

Democratic Planning Research Platform:

https://www.planningresearch.net/

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Episode Keywords

#JanOverwijk, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #futurehistoriesinternational, #NiklasLuhmann, #FrankfurtSchool, #CriticalTheory, #SystemsTheory, #Sociology, #MaxWeber, #Economy, #Capitalism, #CapitalistState, #Cybernetics, #Rationalization, #PoliticalEconomy, #DemocraticPlanning, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #Governmentality, #Ecology, #NewMaterialism, #Posthumanism, #CyberneticCapitalism, #Totality

The cybernetic brain

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