ABSTRACT
Temporality is an essential aspect of what makes communicative action, and thus society, processual. As we want to derive sociality not from consciousness but from communicative action, we do not consider the temporality of subjective consciousness as the guiding presupposition for social temporality. With the consideration of sequences, the book enters the field of sociological theory.
Sequences represent empirical and temporal continuations of communicative action. Society emerges and exists when sequences of actions are continued successfully. The continuation of communicative action is not only achieved by the referential sense, as is conventionalized, for example, in linguistic signs. It is, rather, embodied and, because of its physicality, the sequential continuation of communicative action also takes place through meaning that can unfold in action and in objectivation. Because coordination and synchronization, so to speak, extend the reciprocity of communicative action to the duration of the respective sequence, they allow for communicative reflexivity. This is the basis for the marking of boundaries of communicative action and its forms. As a lasting continuation of communicative action, the realization and perception or observation of actions promote the strengthening of subjectivity in time, allowing for the durability of the subject, the development of a self and the collection of knowledge. Knowledge arises from the sequences of communicative action. On this basis, we can turn to the specific communicative forms called “genres,” “institutions” and “structures.” From a sociological point of view, we focus on the very general traits of social structures that apply to all types of society. One example is the concept of social worlds, which shows how the fundamental socio-theoretical structural units can be explained by communicative action. On the basis of sequences, institutions and structures, we can also turn to the analysis of language, sign systems and discourses.
