User:Kaylag84/communicativeaction

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Definition of Communicative Action-

Communicative action is a

German philosopher Jürgen Habermas
. Habermas uses this concept to describe agency in the form of communication, which under his understanding is restricted to deliberation, i.e. the free exchange of beliefs and intentions under the absence of domination.

In sociological terms the communicative action is a

dramaturgical action
(one which is designed to be seen by others and to optimize our public self-image). Habermas claims that all of those actions are parasitic upon the communicative action, which goes beyond them (Habermas, 1991, volume 1., pp.82-101).

Habermas is best known for developing the theory of communicative action through his book " Theory of Communicative Action", which was written in 1982 and said to be his first major work.


Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action

The 
social norms. Given this ambition, Habermas rightly observes that the "concept of communicative action stands or falls with the proof that a communicative agreement...can fufill functions of action coordination"(Johnson,pg.12). He also tries to delineate the normative foundations of critical theory and suggesting that the essential and concrete norms are implicit in the validity claims of all speech.(Chriss,pg.9). Communicative actionis basically concerned with achieving and maintaining mutual understanding among all those who are involved in a coordinated organizational situation. This theory assumes that everyone in the action is an actor in a social context. Organizational actors involved in communicative action depend on a common language and a shared understanding of the organizational content in order to enact meaning from each other's communicative actions
(Ngwenyama and Lee,pg.154).

== Related Theories and Concepts ==

"

strategic, which is when guided attempts to successfully influence the decisions of others are performed (e.g in relations of domination), or instrumental, which is when they are directed at efficient interventions in a state of affairs in the world (e.g through labor).He argues that instrumental and strategic actions are(in reality and conceptually)always parasitic on communicative action. Hence instrumental and strategic actions alone cannot form a stable system of social action [(http://www.philosophersnet.com/cafe/archive_article.php?id=69&name=philosopher
).]

Secondly, communicative rationality motivates action that is directed at reciprocal understanding, a process developed to reach understanding between speaking subjects and to synchronize their interpretations of the world (Deflem, 1996). Communicative action is internally linked to communicative rationality which is a central plank for Habermas' version of idealized communicative action: a condition the he terms as "unconstrained communication"([1]).

To refrain from causing any form of misunderstanding, Habermas's communicative action concept does not suggest that subjects can seek a mutual understanding only through acts of speech, signs and symbols can also be oriented into the process of understanding one another, although that is only if they can be developed into interactions mediated through language (Deflem, 1996).

Sociologically,

Durkheim is important because of his analysis of the "sacred" and process of secularization of religion([2]). Therefore, Habermas sees the language-communication framework as a new way of reaffirming the project of modernity and wants to show how the transformation of traditional society to modernity involved a secularization of normative behavior reconstructed through communicative action]]([3]
).


The

Engels supposedly understood as the basic components of social labor([4]
).


Criticisms

Criticisms following

parasitic on communicative action
, thereby hampering actors' ability to reach understanding (Chriss, pg. 549).

Several

social role". From the point of view for gender equality expressed by women, Habermas's understanding of the nurturer role amounts to a basic conceptual inadequacy. His lifeworld distinction reproduces the Marxian exclusion of "female" work form social labor ([7]
).

There are also several disagreements over validity claims because

social interaction
more generally. He cannot persuasively explain why individuals suffiently concerned with the success of their individual projects to consent the existing definition of the situation would adopt an orientation to understanding (Johnson, pg. 193).

Secondly, communicative action aims at a shared definition of the context of interaction. According to Habermas, a "definition of the situation establishes an order"." In this sense, agreements negotiated via communicative action impose constraints on individual action. It is highly unlikely that such constraints would operate impartially. Thus, given ambigous circumstances of discourse, what is to motivate an actor at least partially concerned with his individual goals to submit to such constraints?(Johnson, pg. 198).

Third, while Habermas contends that agreement between actors orientated toward reaching understanding always is possible "in principle," he acknowledges the constraints that time imposes on the actual prospect of their achieving consensus. Discussion must end sometime if communicative action is to fufill iots role of coordinating interaction. Yet time constraints might compound the uncertinty of actors embarking into the terrain discourse. For if arguement necesarilly has some termination point, then it would become exceedingly difficult for particpants to determine how to interpret failed consensus. Each individual would be left in a position of asking whether the failure actually was due to insufficientt time for ironing out differneces or whether others perhaps were not truly oriented toward reaching understanding.(Johnson, pg. 198).

Thus, even though Habermas aims at a theory based on equality, and even though he admits that power and money still pervade the relations of the private household, his theory does not, and apparently cannot, provide criticism of the power and economic relations of a gender-structured lifeworld ([8]).


Conclusion

A rehabilitated concept of

ideologies. It seems difficult to provide a modern solution to characteristically postmodern problems. Inspired by the dreams of reason, the ideal of communicative action
is a slender reed with which to overcome the powerful forces of dehumanisation increasingly evident all around us 

([9]).


Primary Resources

  • Chriss, James J. (Aug., 1995). "Habermas, Goffman, and Communicative Action: Implications for Professional Practice".

American Sociological Review 60(4), 545-565

  • Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama; Allen S. Lee(Jun., 1997). "Communication Richness in Electronic Mail: Critical Social Theory and the Contextuality of Meaning ". MIS Quarterly21(2), 145-167
  • James Johnson(May, 1991) "Habermas on Strategic and Communicative Action". Political Theory19 (2)181-201


External Links

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