Communicative Action IV: The Two Logics of Communication

Abstract

Argumentation as an attempt to transform something collectively problematic into something collectively valid is at the core of all forms of discourse. Communicative action and ideal speech are forms of communication that establish validity. Because labour and management operate under the condition of the Two Logics of Communicative and Collective Action, the problem of validity varies between them.⁴²⁹ For labour, validity is established as coordinated communicative action while management relies on instrumental communication to establish it. In the communicative or exchange domain (C) that links the labour (A) and the management domain (B), two fundamentally different modes of communication meet. Generally, collective action in each domain begins with a group of social actors whose subjective beliefs and/or objective social relations position them in an environment of common circumstances that generates a shared interest located inside their domain. Labour can communicate about their interests in the labour domain, while management does the same in their domain.