ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the basic notion of communicative action is sketched in a way that relates to the concept suggested by Habermas, Schutz and Luckmann, yet accounting for the embodied character of action and the materiality of social reality. Communicative action is defined by a process which includes a triad between subjects and objectivations. The subject’s relations are characterized by reciprocity implied in communicative action. Communicative action is bodily performed in a way that produces situational objectivations and materialized objectifications. The reciprocity of subjects’ relations yields their positionalities, which is the starting point for processes of subjectivations. As subjectivity depends on the reciprocity of the senses and affectivity, the bodily (and sensual) character of performance allows to explain how action affects the material world by performativity. Due to the basic reciprocity, this world is basically a social reality from the outset, experienced as communicative life-world by the subjects.