  Actors are embedded in networks of communication: the relations of the actors
can be represented as the rows of a matrix, while the column vectors represent
their communications. The two systems are structurally coupled in the
co-variation: each action can be considered as a communication with reference
to the network. Co-variation among systems if repeated over time, may lead to
co-evolution. Conditions for stabilization of higher-order systems are
specifiable: segmentation, stratification, reflection, differentiation, and
self-organization can be distinguished in terms of developmental stages of
increasingly complex networks. The sociological theory of communication
occupies a central position for the clarification of the possibility of a
general theory of communication, since it confronts us with the limits of
reflexivity in human understanding and reflexive discourse. The implications
for modelling the relations among incommensurable discourses (e.g., paradigms)
are elaborated.
