Name: Digital Transformation of Social Theory
Start: 2025-11-25T17:30:00+00:00
Location: Wolfson College, Barton Road, CB3 9BB Cambridge, United Kingdom

This talk outlines a programme to build a universal social theory machine: a Turing-style architecture that emulates established analogue traditions (from Durkheim and Weber to Parsons and Giddens) and recodes them into digital theory—matrix-based operations over true distinctions (mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive). The method is not metaphorical digitisation but formal recoding: identify a theory’s guiding distinctions, test their truth conditions, and, where needed, translate false into true distinctions so that classical arguments can run as reproducible programmes. The result is the prospect of a “Supervacuus”: a minimal, distinction-driven engine capable of hosting and comparing theory programmes, much as a universal Turing machine hosts algorithms.
For social theorising, the payoffs are: (i) theoretical transparency in terms models that expose premises and reveal the impact of small changes in guiding distinctions; and (ii) a shift from analogue thematisations of digital phenomena to doing theory digitally, with due modesty about premises and an even-handed treatment of rival programmes in a shared, inspectable language.

Speaker
A sociologist by training, Professor Steffen Roth FRSA MCybS (PhD, Geneva; Dr. rer. oec., Chemnitz) is Full Professor of Management at Excelia Business School and a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.
An Editor-in-Chief of Kybernetes, he is also Field Editor for social systems theory at Systems Research and Behavioral Science and serves on the editorial board of Sociology. His research has appeared in Journal of Business Ethics, Sociology of Health & Illness, Journal of Business Research, Ecological Economics, Administration & Society, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, European Management Journal, and Futures.
Alongside his work on the digital transformation of social theory, an emerging line of research is the sociological recoding of economic thought, particularly in the tradition of the Austrian School of Economics. Recently, he co-organised the Luhmann Conference 2025 at Wolfson College.

Details
This is a hybrid event, which will take place in-person in the Gatsby Room (Chancellor's Centre) and also on Teams.
If you would like to attend online, please register for the Zoom link: https://wolfson-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/2XcrgkiZT-SqvoPcAm-nQg#/registration
Refreshments will be available for the in-person audience.

Access
This event will take place in the Gatsby Room on the first floor of the Chancellor's Centre. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located each floor of the building.

Contact
If you have any questions, please contact our events team - [email protected]

Wolfson Humanities Society
The Humanities Society organises regular talks spanning a wide range of topics which take place every Tuesday during term time - please sign up to their mailing list to keep up to date with their upcoming events.