ABSTRACT
Reichertz explains that communicative constructivism supplements Berger and Luckmann’s sociology of knowledge with theory-of-power considerations. He argues that communicative constructivism is an extended constructivism in terms of the situativity and path dependence of mutual communicative acting, and thus in terms of the systematic observance of social practices and artifacts. Communicative construction deals with the problem that not everybody who is involved in social communication has the same power to realize, or even to legitimize and institutionalize, their expectations and demands. A significant difference between social and communicative constructivism is that language can no longer be seen as the main factor for objectivities and internalization, but rather it is communicative acting that produces objectivities and internalization. Communicative constructivism of reality generates not only the world we deal with but also the identities of people who are communicating with one another. The power of communicative acting is predicated on the powerful implementation of specific forms of socialization, which, following Berger and Luckmann, are aimed at the creation of reliability or institutionalization. Reichertz argues that the source of communicative power is the relationship between the communication partners. Hence, communication between two or more people always constructs not only a social relationship – and, in turn, the identity of the communication partners – but also social reality.
