Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action was the most influential theory of the last two decades of the twentieth century. In the 1970s, the great theories of the past were being disqualified as products of a modernity that was said to be disappearing, and whose values and analyses were being scorned, including democracy, equality, and even goodness, truth, and beauty. The world was in rapidly accelerating crisis following the oil crisis of 1973. Amid widespread disorientation, a postmodernism or post-structuralism was growing that claimed that science and truth did not exist—that they were narratives, impositions of power—that rejected democracy and human rights, and that vindicated theories of the Nazi author Heidegger or of the defender of pederasty Foucault.
Habermas set out to develop a theory that would recover goodness, truth, and beauty, re-articulating them in a way that could withstand the attacks of the dominant postmodernism. As rigorous as he was, he began studying French by attending classes alongside the typical students of that subject, without them initially knowing who he was. He believed he had to read the French post-structuralists in their own language. The Theory of Communicative Action was the first and major result of that great individual project. Other important works followed, especially The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity and Between Facts and Norms.
However, no individual has enough time even to read all the books required to develop the sociological theories that society—and sociology itself—needs today. There is even less time to engage in dialogue about them with citizens so that they meet the current scientific criterion of co-creation. In the book The Dialogic Sociology, some problems with his theory are pointed out. Among other shortcomings of his theory are his misunderstanding of the role played by the expressive revolution in the theory of Talcott Parsons and his misunderstanding of the theory of speech acts developed by both J. L. Austin and John Searle.
Current sociological theories are co-created through dialogue with different sciences and with diverse sectors of the public. This coming weeks, the recent book by Sari Hanafi Against Symbolic Liberalism. A Plea for Dialogical Sociology —one of the leading authors of dialogical sociology—will be presented in several cities in Spain (it is also available in Spanish, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish). His contribution is being developed and co-created with other sociologists and in dialogue with a wide range of people, thus ensuring not only its scientific impact but also its social impact.
Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Barcelona.
Extensive experience in the participation of EU funded research projects particularly from the EC’s Framework Programme.
Co-editor of RASP: Research on Ageing and Social Policy.