Communicative Action as Socio-ontological Praxis

• In Event: 398 - Section on Marxist Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Marxist Sociology Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Critical Issues in Culture and Communication

Abstract

An argument is presented for counter-hegemonic communication flow as socio-ontological praxis, indicating how, in social transformation, communicative action brings about and builds upon a phase transition in the regime or flow of communication of authority and autonomous collective political efficacy. By replacing instrumental rationality, hierarchical communication, and structural domination (the logic of systems) with communicative and moral rationality, horizontal and egalitarian communication, and the power of agency over structure (the logic of the lifeworld) radical communicative action, in organizations, movements and national revolutions, overthrows the established monopoly of communication flow to ‘turn the world upside down’ and create a counter-hegemonic social ontology.

Author

• Christopher James Poor, University of Auckland