Interpenetration leads to inclusion insofar as the Complexity of the contributing systems is shared by the receiving systems.
But it also leads to exclusion insofar as a plurality of interpenetrating systems, in order to make this possible, must differ from each other in their Autopoiesis.
Put less abstractly: Participation in the social system requires people to make contributions of their own and leads to people being different from one another, exclusive against one another; for they must make their own contribution, must motivate themselves. Especially when they cooperate, it must be clarified against all natural similarity who makes which contribution. Dürkheim had formulated this insight as the difference between mechanical and organic solidarity; but the point is not that there are different forms of interpenetration, but that stronger interpenetration requires more inclusion and more (mutual) exclusion. The resulting problem is solved by "individualization" of persons.
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LUHMANN, Niklas, 1991. Soziale Systeme: Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie. 4. Aufl. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft, 666. ISBN 978-3-518-28266-3, p. 299.
The difference between Inclusion and Exclusion refers to the way in which a society permits individuals to be persons and therefore to participate in communication.
The concepts of interpenetration and Structural Coupling explain the relationship between systems that are internally determined by their own operations and structures. These systems are in each other’s environment and irritate each other, without having access to each other’s operations.