Communicative Action, Public Sphere and Democracy at Work

Page contents > Main bibliographical references

i-Studio 5 seminars, seminar 2: 5 March 2002
Professor Marina Calloni, Università degli Studi di Milano

Communicative action, public sphere and deliberative democracy are key concepts that lie at the basis of Jürgen Habermas' political philosophy and discourse ethics.

The aim of my presentation is to consider whether Habermas' theory of communicative action can be employed and be effective in empowering democracy in management and organisation systems, at the end of the industrial revolution and with the adoption of new information technologies. More generally, my aim is to consider whether notions, which are usually employed in the domain of moral, political and social philosophy, can be applied as normative issues in the work environment and the knowledge society.

Therefore, my presentation is divided methodologically into two main sections:

A theoretical reconstruction of Habermas' theory and in particular of the concepts of communicative reason and deliberative democracy
A possible ‘pragmatic’ application of these notions to information systems and organisations

The concept of ‘democracy at work’ is thus conceived in a double sense:

In political terms, as a constant process of inclusion of excluded human beings and claims
In organisational terms, as the normative possibility of having influence in transforming and enlarging, from bottom up, decision-making processes. The new ‘communicative’ structure of labour can be used not only in ‘strategic’ terms but also for interactively improving relationships at work and developing a reciprocal collaboration among interested actors, considering the possible benefits in production and creative imagination

In the light of the conflicts arising in post-Tayloristic societies and in the embedding of new forms of political and economic power at the global level, the question becomes the transformation of a knowledge society and of the organisation of labour on the basis of a ‘communicative and legitimate’ power.

Habermas' normative and counter-factual approach to the linguistic presuppositions of an intersubjective communication, the struggle against the colonialisation of the life world, and the formation of the will through public discourse and deliberative democracy can be usefully applied to the reframing of the possibility of conceiving fairer relationships in the workplace, and challenging autopoietic systems based on competition, hierarchy and power.

Main bibliographical references

Jürgen Habermas:

Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit, Neuwied: Luchterhand, 1962 (The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: an inquiry into a category of bourgeois society, Cambridge: Polity, 1992)
Zur Rekonstruktion des Historischen Materialismus, Frankfurt a M: Suhrkamp, 1976 (Communication and the Evolution of Society, Boston: Beacon Press, 1979)
with Niklas Luhmann Theorie der Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechmologie, Frankfurt a M: Suhrkamp, 1971
Theorie des Kommunikativen Handelns, Frankfurt a M: Suhrkamp, 1981 (The Theory of Communicative Action, Boston: Beacon, 1987)
Moralbewußtsein und Kommunikatives Handeln, Frankfurt a M: Suhrkamp, 1983 (Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990)
Nachmetaphysisches Denken: philosophische aufsätze, Frankfurt a M: Suhrkamp, 1988 (Postmetaphysical Thinking: philosophical essays, Oxford: Polity Press, 1992)
Faktizität und Geltung, Frankfurt a M: Suhrkamp, 1992 (Between Facts and Norms: contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy, Oxford: Polity, 1996)
Die Einbeziehung des Anderen, Frankfurt a M: Suhrkamp, 1996 (The Inclusion of the Other: studies in political theory, Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1998)
Die Postnationale Konstellation: politische essays, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1998 (The Postnational Constellation: political essays, London: Polity Press, 2001)
Zeit der Ubergänge, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2001

For further information:

Professor Marina Calloni
Social and Political Philosophy
Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca
Facoltà di Sociologia
Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8
I - 20126 Milano

Email: marina.calloni@unimib.it