The Communicative Construction of Reality

This volume advocates a shift from the social constructivism of Luckmann and Berger to a communicative constructivism that acknowledges communication as a form of action in its own right, which constructs a social reality that guides, delimits and enables actions.

I Introduction 1. Science and Theory 2. Scientific Language and Discourse 3. Theory II From Social to Communicative Construction 1. Social Action, Intersubjectivity and Communicative Lifeworld* Excursus on Phenomenology 2. From Language to Empirical Communication Research 3. "The Social Construction of Reality" and Its Critiques III. Social Theory: Communicative Action 1. Communicative Action 2. Reciprocity, Relationality and Positionality 3. Body, Sensuality and Affectivity 4. Working, Performance and Performativity 5. Objectivations, Objectifications and Signs 6. Signs and Communication 7. Social Reality, Communicative Lifeworld and Subjectivation IV. Theory of Society (A) Time and Sequentiality 1. Sequences of Communictative Action 2. Genres, Institutions and Communicative Forms 3. Social Structures 4. Discourse 5. Legitimations 6. The Other, Censorship and Social Power (B) Space and Media 1. Space 2. Presence, Situation und Mediation V. Diagnosis: Communication Society 1. From Discursivation to the Communication Society 2. Communicatization 3. Infrastructuring 4. Translocalization 5. Storage, De-Structuration and New Boundaries of Knowledge 6. Double Subjectivation VI. Conclusion: The Refiguration of Modernity 1. Beyond Modernity and Postmodernity 2. Figuration and Refiguration 3. Refigured Modernity