https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/issue/feed 2025-12-19T21:23:56+00:00 Dr. Hugo Cadenas hcadenas@uchile.cl Open Journal Systems <p>MAD is a biannual electronic publication sponsored by the Master in Systemic Analysis Applied to Society, belonging to the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Chile. The journal publishes original scientific papers in social sciences, research advances, essays, book reviews, and translations, in which perspectives and approaches related to social systems theory, sociocybernetics, and systemic socio-constructivism are applied. </p> https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82293 2025-12-19T11:20:04+00:00 Antônio Luz Luz Costa aclcosta@uesc.br Emerson Palmieri emersonpalmieri93@gmail.com Sergio Pignuoli Ocampo spignuoli@conicet.gov.ar 2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82294 2025-12-19T12:19:55+00:00 Antônio Luz Costa aclcosta@uesc.br

This article analyzes how the understanding that society develops about itself, as it self-describes, is increasingly mediated by programs based on algorithms. The term “algorithms of society” highlights the role of algorithms in social description, showing that these operations configure contexts and autonomous structures within the digital systems themselves. Inspired by Niklas Luhmann’s The Society of Society, it investigates how social self-description begins to incorporate algorithmic mediation, expanding the scope and articulation of social semantics. The text deepens the notions of “form” and “medium” to argue that algorithms structure social operations and communicational possibilities: algorithms have ceased to be merely external tools and have come to operate as internal elements of social self-description, responding to the demand to deal with complexity, acceleration and functional differentiation. The data show that essential decisions today are mediated by algorithmic systems whose legitimacy is naturalized despite the opacity of their criteria. The article concludes that, as algorithms become operators of decision and meaning, they reconfigure the way society observes itself, organizes itself, and produces meaning in the present.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82295 2025-12-19T12:34:25+00:00 Emerson Palmieri emersonpalmieri93@gmail.com Antônio Brasil Jr antoniobrasiljr@gmail.com

The objective of this text is to map a significant portion of academic literature on digital media, focusing on studies on artificial intelligence and algorithms based on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory. This mapping exercise allows us to reveal the directions and tensions this topic takes within theory, the issues most frequently chosen for analysis, and the most explored concepts within Luhmann's theoretical framework. Based on this mapping, we will provide a state-of-the-art overview of the subject, a relatively accurate picture of what systems theory has accomplished to date regarding studies about algorithms and AI.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82299 2025-12-19T20:13:12+00:00 Makena Marchesi makmarchesi2@gmail.com

This article investigates computational systems based on the epistemological premises of Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Autopoietic Social Systems, in order to determine whether they are merely technical devices used by functional systems in communication processes or whether they constitute an autonomous social system. To this end, the research question is posed: do computational systems constitute autonomous communicative structures in modern functionally differentiated society? Drawing on bibliographic research, the article outlines the systemic theory developed by Luhmann as well as the evolution of the concept of technology. Within this horizon, the so-called high technologies stand out, particularly computational systems. It then presents the positions of Elena Esposito, Sergio Pignuoli Ocampo, Jesper Tække, André Reichel, and Dirk Baecker regarding the role of technology from the perspective of luhmannian theory. Although these authors share a common theoretical framework, their conclusions diverge: some argue that technology merely enables specific forms of communication; others claim it inaugurates a new form of social differentiation, an autonomous system distinct from both society and the individual; and some even foresee in it the emergence of a new society. The article concludes that the theory of social systems, although originally formulated in a pre-digital context, still provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding contemporary communicative transformations.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82300 2025-12-19T20:24:11+00:00 Gastón Becerra gastonbecerra@sociales.uba.ar

This article analyzes the phenomenon of big data from a sociological perspective, using Social Systems Theory (SST) as its conceptual framework. In the first section, we present the phenomenon of big data and approach it as a discursive construction that articulates a sociotechnical mandate along with promises of objectivity and control. We offer a conceptualization of this phenomenon as a self-description of society and briefly discuss the thesis of its disruptive impact on the social structure. In the second section, we propose an initial conceptual framework for a sociology of data and the social practice of data production and data repurpose, referred to as datafication. Drawing on contributions from critical data studies and SST, we explore four theses: datafication as an autopoietic process, the constitution of data within communication, inclusion/exclusion dynamics in data, and the possible emergence of a functional system.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82301 2025-12-19T20:34:15+00:00 Rosario Rogel-Salazar rrogels@uamex.mx

This article examines how—while maintaining the true/false binary code that distinguishes scientific communications—the self-evaluation of the science system has been reprogrammed through couplings with algorithmic infrastructures. Four dimensions are analyzed: 1. Temporality: the adoption of preprints and continuous editing has turned manuscripts into “living documents”; 2. Visibility: open peer review has deployed new circuits of legitimation; 3. Traceability: versioning, linking to data and code, and monitored retractions ensure an auditable operational memory; and 4. Agency: the incorporation of LLM platforms and AI tools reconfigures roles and flows in discovery, writing, and evaluation. In addition, emerging pathologies (predatory publishers, paper mills, plagiarism, and undeclared use of AI) are integrated as disturbances that affect the system's programs and expectations. The concept of algorithmically mediated self-evaluation is proposed as a heuristic category. It is concluded that self-evaluation persists as an essential function, although its forms have been reconfigured by new socio-technical infrastructures that demand criteria of transparency and accountability in line with the current communication regime.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82302 2025-12-19T20:49:28+00:00 Pedro Henrique Ribeiro pedro.ribeiro@udem.edu

This paper aims to present an approach to legal sociology that schematically profiles the main means of communication (dissemination) with "stages" in the evolution of society, the state, law and "legal subjectivity" (cultural forms). The main focus of the discussion will be a comprehensive interpretation of the work of Thomas Vesting. The proposal is to: (a) present in a schematic and interpretative way the authors' 3 "ideal types" of "society-state-media-culture"; (b) discuss the limits and possibilities of this proposal, in which we seek to reduce the "cultural" focus of Vesting's latest works and return to the more markedly focused studies of the broadcast media. (c) To this end, the contribution seeks to bring to the debate provocative contributions that are less centered on cultural elements and more focused on a sociology of the media. It follows considerations of the sociological characteristics of the current legal system at a time when we seem to be facing the "End of the Gutenberg Galaxy"; that is, a moment in which the "world of the printed book" seems to be losing its paradigmatic space.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82303 2025-12-19T20:57:10+00:00 Sergio Pignuoli Ocampo spignuoli@conicet.gov.ar

This essay aims to explore the tensions between digital communication and legitimation by procedures within the framework of a sociology of artificial communication. First, it reconstructs the emergence of the digital medium among society's means of propagation. Then, it establishes the medial and operational relationship between digital and artificial communication. Then, it examines and compares the communicative possibilities of digital and artificial communication. Our analysis reveals technical, temporal, and participatory differences in how digital and artificial communication are integrated into judicial, electoral, parliamentary, and administrative organizations that are responsible for making and implementing collectively binding decisions. These differences are relevant for characterizing the distinct challenges each poses to procedural legitimacy.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82304 2025-12-19T21:06:21+00:00 Artur Stamford da Silva artur.silva@ufpe.br

The presence of computational algorithms in various areas of everyday life has led us to propose the term ‘algorithmic society’. To investigate how algorithms are influencing society's laws, we searched the Internet for cases. The searches were conducted using the following terms in Spanish, English, and Portuguese: ‘algorithms and law,’ ‘artificial intelligence and law,’ ‘artificial intelligence and legal cases,’ and ‘artificial intelligence and legal decisions.’ The responses were compiled and the data presented in an Excel spreadsheet and analysed from the perspective of Niklas Luhmann's theory of society as a communication system with meaning. In our survey, we observed two extremes: on the one hand, those who consider the relationship between algorithms and law as a way to solve various problems in legal practice and, on the other hand, those who consider this relationship to be harmful, as artificial intelligence algorithms will replace humans. Our research to date leads us to believe that both extremes are misleading, not only because futurism is a form of self-delusion, but also because the responsibility for human decision-making will never cease to be human. After all, in all human interpretation (including legal interpretation), the attribution of value, the acceptance or rejection of an argument or information, is not a matter of the interpreter's exclusive will, but involves the participation and presence of various elements of the materiality, temporality and sociality of meaning.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 https://revistamad.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/82305 2025-12-19T21:16:23+00:00 Álvaro Farias Pinheiro alvaro.fpinheiro@ufpe.br

The rise of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms (AIA) and Computational Intelligence Algorithms (CIA) marks contemporary technological evolution, playing a crucial role in building intelligent systems that drive decisions in various domains. Objective: To explore how the integration of AIA and CIA in Society 4.0 reshapes decision-making, highlighting the benefits, ethical challenges, and influence of these algorithms on social and organizational transformation. Methodology: Contextual and critical analysis of the literature on the application of AIA and CIA, focusing on the areas of public, legal, and business management, as well as hyperautomation and its implications. Results: Society 4.0 is characterized by the intensive use of interconnected technologies that enable global automation and optimization. The rapid adoption of algorithms raises questions about transparency, explainability, and social impacts, especially in sensitive legal contexts. AI and CIA are fundamental to digital transformation, promoting advanced analytics and automation of complex tasks in productive sectors and in the formulation of public policies. Conclusion: The implementation of AI and CIA is revolutionizing society by providing tools for more efficient and effective decisions. However, it is crucial to address the ethical challenges to ensure the reliability and impartiality of automated systems.

2025-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025