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Copyright of Revista Colombiana de Sociologia is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present paper compares the commuicative definitions of “the social” proposed by Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas from a systematic perspective. From the results reached, the reciprocal receptions between the authors are discussed and a renewed theoretical interpretation of divergences and convergences is proposed. The hypothesis of the work states that Habermas and Luhmann, based in the concept of communication, converge in a radically dyadic and multi-leveled conception of the sociological analytical unit, however they diverge in its analytical segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been, in the last decades, a bunch of different authors claiming the convenience of describing the most basic elements of current societies as fluids. As a consequence of this proposal, it began the construction of a theoretical model of social fluidity that still needs more accuracy and development. This paper, which is just the first half of a propaedeutic work, trays to build the necessary grounds for the empirical implementation of afore mentioned theoretical model. We start by reviewing the main concepts used by the so called "Theories of Complexity" in modelling complex processes in other scientific fields. Then we point out the limits that may be found in using these theories when modelling the specific complexity of current social fluidity. Finally we discuss how such concepts should be modified and developed in order to be useful in the context of a theory of social fluidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]