Roel in 't Veld is dean of the Netherlands School of Public Administration, professor of Organisation Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, professor of Management of Public Organisations at the Utrecht School of Governance and professor of Hybrid Organisations at the Open University of the Netherlands.

• I Introduction.- 1. Autopoiesis, configuration and steering: impossibility theorem or dynamic steering theory.- 2. Introduction to configuration approach: a process theory for societal steering.- 3. Introduction to autopoiesis theory and autopoietic steering.- II Configuration Theory.- 4. Some notions on social integration and steering.- 5. Offering new possibilities of organizing in social situations: towards a posture of decentering and centering.- 6. Managing of social cognitive configurations in a multiple context.- 7. Knowledge, reification and organization; some critical comments.- 8. The feasibility of developing a political steering theory based on process-oriented configuration theories.- 9. Effective policy making in a multi-actor setting: networks and steering.- 10. Consistency, configuration, closure and change.- III. Autopoiesis Theory.- 11. Autopoieses and steering: how politics profit from the normative surplus of capital.- 12. Environmental mediation: an example of applied autopoiesis?.- 13. Autopoiesis and steering: the role of identity.- 14. Policy instruments for steering autopoietic actors.- 15. Autopoiesis, learning and governmental steering.- 16. Communication and steering: what the science of public administration could learn from Habermas and Luhmann.- 17. Applicability of autopoiesis to administration science.- 18. Simulation: learning environments for (self-)steering in social systems.- IV. Conference Impressions.- 19. A stranger in paradise? Autopoiesis, configuration and societal steering.- Authors Index.- About the Authors.