The relationship between general pedagogics and the special disciplines of
the field has become increasingly obscure. That applies above all to the re
lation between general pedagogics and social pedagogics. To this is added t
he fact that, in the last few years, social pedagogics has been challenged
by a slowly emerging science of social work. Refering to system-theoretical
considerations, the author proposes to consider the theoretically obscure
relation between general pedagogics, social pedagogics, and the science of
social work as a consequence of functional differentiation reflected on the
theoretical level. If one differentiates between the educational system an
d the functional system of "social care", it is possible to also deal with
the issue of the relation between social pedagogics and general pedagogics:
education is clearly marked as that point at which the theoretical efforts
of both fields intersect.