Cover -- CONTENTS -- Editorial advisory board -- Preface -- Editors' introduction -- Contributors to the Festschrift -- The cold war within a sociological systems perspective -- Reflexivity revisited: the sociocybernetics of belief, meaning, truth and power -- Thank you Felix Geyer -- Happiness and the pursuit of happiness -- Thinking about experience and action -- The sociological concept of autopoiesis -- Sociocybernetics and social entropy theory -- The challenge of the past for the future of the social sciences -- The necessity of trans-scientific frameworks for doing interdisciplinary research -- Sociocybernetics and testability: a bridge too far? -- A forgotten message? von Bertalanffy's puzzle -- Corporate social responsibility from the viewpoint of systems thinking -- Social knowledge for a world in transition -- Complex systems studies and the concepts of security -- Is Kevin Warwick a dandy? -- The crisis of contemporary science -- Studying alienation: toward a better society? -- The biological metaphor of a second-order observer and the sociological discourse -- The two faces of American power -- The vicarious self -- Cybernetics and systems on the web: Jerry Wiesner and MIT -- Awards -- Book reviews -- Book reports -- Announcements -- Special announcements.