This is the English description of Benno Flügel’s non-fiction book, which was published on the 4th of June 2026.
A Theory of Systems for the Polycrisis. Drawing upon Luhmann, Rosa, Arendt, Camus, and Sauer, this work weaves together sociology, philosophy, and contemporary analysis into a synthesis that investigates the structural shifts of our time-economically, technologically, and culturally. Comprising a main essay in six parts and 25 appendices.
The work’s analytical core is an examination of the functional systems of contemporary society in the tradition of Luhmann — politics, financial economy, real economy, science, media, culture, religion, and the tech ecosystem. Building on Rosa, it diagnoses a technological acceleration of financial economy, algorithmic media systems, and tech ecosystem, whose logic spreads to the other functional systems and destabilises them. The resulting polycrisis affects social strata with different intensity; a causal analysis of this is developed through Sauer’s class theory. As a counter-architecture, the work proposes the Luhmann antithesis: paradoxical guiding distinctions, communicative reflexivity, and multi-systemic connectivity. The main essay concludes with proposals for an institutional architecture and a humanist stance grounded in Arendt and Camus.
The main essay is flanked by twenty-five appendices that apply the analytical framework to specific fields. Methodologically, they treat the theoretical traditions of complexity (Hayek, Heisenberg, evolutionary biology), the relation between Sauer’s and Rosa’s diagnoses, the algorithmic norm, and the social-psychological preconditions of collective mobilisation. Socially, they examine multi-level marketing, the manosphere, the tech ideology, and the figure of the class- and culture-boundary-crosser. Culturally, the inquiries range from Schlingensief and Hochhuth to women in comedy, from sport as a mass psychology of resilience to global mediation through music, literature, and art, and to the erosion of cinema by streaming. Existential appendices treat hope, ageing, and the place of the individual in the polycrisis. The appendices are written to stand on their own — readers familiar with the main essay can move between them freely.
More info on Benno Flügels non-fiction book: https://bennofluegel.de/buecher/