Inequality as a program of the world digital society: on the digitalization and its effects from a Luhmannian perspective

Purpose This essay interrogates the structural logic of inequality within the emerging digital society. Moving beyond analyses of specific, digitally-mediated disparities (e.g., of race, class or gender), it aims to conceptualize inequality at the level of society’s elementary form, examining how it is systematically programmed into the digital social order. Design/methodology/approach The analysis adopts Niklas Luhmann’s formal theoretical framework of social systems theory. It operationalizes Luhmann’s tripartite concept of “program,” which structures operations at the levels of function systems, organizations, and interactions. This conceptual apparatus is used to conduct a bottom-up analysis of digital society across four meaning dimensions: social, temporal, thematic and enactive. Findings The study argues that digitization acts not merely as a technological layer but as a transformative medium that recalibrates the programming of social inequality. It introduces new conditional and goal-oriented programs, particularly exacerbating secondary inequalities characterized by influence, in which digital platforms and algorithms impose external criteria of correctness (correct/incorrect) on function systems. Originality/value The article’s primary contribution lies in its novel synthesis of Luhmannian systems theory with the phenomenology of digitization. By theorizing inequality as a programmed feature of society’s digital architecture – rather than a contingent outcome – it provides a foundational, formal perspective for diagnosing how digital media structurally reshape inclusion, exclusion and influence across all societal domains.