Even though Niklas Luhmann himself never declared his own approach as a cybernetic one, and even if the relationship between systems theory and cybernetics is still not clearly defined in every way, it seems to be legitimate to classify Luhmann's Theory of Social Systems into the field of cybernetics approaches, more precisely as a socio-cybernetic one. Beside the concept of autopoiesis by Maturana and Varela there are various systems thinkers and cyberneticists like Wiener, Ashby, Shannon, Bateson, von Foerster who influenced Luhmanns work deeply. Certainly he fits the cybernetic principles into his theory rather idiosyncratically and partly after some significant revisions, but one can argue that Luhmann's Theorie of Social Systems is the conclusion of a confrontation of the mayor issues of cybernetic discourse with the European philosophical tradition. In the following article it is discussed the question in what extent we can include Luhmann's work into the cybernetic tradition.  Which are the significant connection-points between cybernetics and Luhmann's work? What is the relevance of this connection for Luhmanns own theoretical development?  Which are the congruences and which are the differences? To what extent is Luhmann's Theory of Social Systems even though his critical distance - integrable into the spectrum of the approaches of ``New Cybernetic'' (as Geyer & van der Zouwen formulated in 1986)?  After a short discussion on what is characterizing a theory as a cybernetic one, the article reconstructs Luhmann's critical debate on the most important theoretical problems of cybernetics and finally it will sketch out Luhmanns answer to this debate, which he gives in his own concepts. For Luhmann the fascination of cybernetics consists in explaining the problem of constancy and invariance of systems in a highly complex and dynamical world by observing communication processes. This makes cybernetics to a definitive non-ontological approach and brings it near to the functionalistic sociology.

This article aims to demonstrate exemplarily the capability of a sociocybernetic description to deal with complexity in social structures of polycontextural observations. It contributes to understanding the currently extremely polarised public debate in Colombia about the peace agreement of 2016. Based on systems-theoretical and constructivist principles, particularly the fundamental system/environment distinction, and exemplified by the issue of a ‘culture of violence’ – a matter of heated debate in Colombian sociology – the article shows how sociocybernetic interventions may open a new way of looking at the interdependency between power, violence and culture.

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The vision of the new generation of office systems is based on the hypothesis that an automatic support system is all the more useful and acceptable, the more systems behaviour and performance are in accordance with features of human behaviour. Consequently recent development activities are influenced by the paradigm of the computer as man's "cooperative assistant". The metaphors of assistance and cooperation illustrate some major requirements to be met by new office systems. Cooperative office systems will raise a set of new questions about the future of human work, human-machine interaction, the forms of individual control of work, the scope of action and the development of competence in the frame of AI-supported cooperative work, the relative benefits of different types of organizations, etc. With increasing autonomy of the computer in task accomplishment, research should also be concerned with the question of the limits of such a development. In AI-research and development there is much discussion of the intended performance of that new technology. Perhaps this will provide insights into, how these new machines should support numerous aspects of individual or cooperative work. But we find fewer ideas about the future of human work. What will the role of the human actor be in future AI-supported cooperative work? What kind of work do we want to support with AI-machines? In the following article I will try to identify some questions for further sociological research activities. I will base my considerations on some theoretical aspects of understanding and meaning. Regarding identical and non-identical aspects in communication behaviour of human and machines, I will focus on some questions to be investigated. Finally some methodological problems of sociological research in the field of Artificial Intelligence will be discussed, especially the so-called "Time-Dilemma" of sociological research in technology.

Deeply shocked we had to take note that Nils O. Larsson, one of the authors of the last issue of Journal of Sociocybernetics, passed away very unexpectedly. Since many years Nils O. Larsson was a member of the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics (RC 51) and the International Sociological Association (ISA). He took part in the World Congress of Sociology 2010 in Gothenburg, where he organized the RC 51 – Session “Global problems require solutions with a global perspective”. This session was strongly related to one of the main themes of the XVII World Congress of Sociology:   sustainability, a subject which had become more and more in focus due to the threatening climate change and the present economic crisis. In the face of the increasing and sometimes overwhelming complexity of this problems it was Nils' ambition to develop an adequate research method that can analyse and design human activity systems on individual, family, as well as society and global level. He called this methodology "Decision Settings Analysis". Three of the papers, presented in his world congress session were published later in Volume 10 of JoS. But it was not granted to Nils that he could lived to see this result of his efforts. He died during the editorial process what came to know to us when the Volume already was published. Today, while we are preparing the VXIII World Congress of Sociology in Yokohama, we miss Nils O. Larsson very much.The current issue of the Journal of Sociocybernetics includes three theoretical oriented articles and one empircal study. In their article