Lifeworld
Lifeworld is a concept, first developed by the phenomenology philosophy. In phenomenology, as Craig (1999) states, "communication is theorized as dialogue or experience of otherness" (p. 138) Authentic communication or dialog, is founded on the experience of direct, unmediated contact with others. This conception derives in a critique to system theory, specially to cybernetics, because "it fails to explain meaning as embodied, conscious experience", (Craig, 1999, p.134) reducing the capabilities of agency.
The lifeworld to German sociologist Alfred Schütz represented an intersubjective terrain in which people both created their social realities and were simultaneously constrained by those social and cultural structures already in place. (Michael, 2005, p. 450) Lifeworld, then, correspond to the world as immediately experienced in everyday life and distinguish from objective systems like science, although they originated in lifeworld.
The concept was later restated by the Frankfurt School philosopher Jurgen Habermas. For Habermas, lifeworld is constituted by communicative reason, and means the "shared common understandings including values, that develop through face to face overtime in communities". For that reason, as Michael (2005) states, a major concern for Habermas is what he termed “the colonization of the life-world” which "implies that the system and its (formally) rationalized imperatives are increasingly coming to dominate and do violence to the lifeworld". (p. 450)
Lifeworld appears then as a critical conception of systems theory, specially the theory of science proposed by Niklas Luhmann, who argues that systems "self-organize through communicative processes that serve system functions and simultaneously establish the boundary of the system" (Cited by Poole, in press, p. 67) In this regard, Habermas reclaim a space for a space for political actions which derives in ethical decisions on the purposes of a system.
The lifeworld to German sociologist Alfred Schütz represented an intersubjective terrain in which people both created their social realities and were simultaneously constrained by those social and cultural structures already in place. (Michael, 2005, p. 450) Lifeworld, then, correspond to the world as immediately experienced in everyday life and distinguish from objective systems like science, although they originated in lifeworld.
The concept was later restated by the Frankfurt School philosopher Jurgen Habermas. For Habermas, lifeworld is constituted by communicative reason, and means the "shared common understandings including values, that develop through face to face overtime in communities". For that reason, as Michael (2005) states, a major concern for Habermas is what he termed “the colonization of the life-world” which "implies that the system and its (formally) rationalized imperatives are increasingly coming to dominate and do violence to the lifeworld". (p. 450)
Lifeworld appears then as a critical conception of systems theory, specially the theory of science proposed by Niklas Luhmann, who argues that systems "self-organize through communicative processes that serve system functions and simultaneously establish the boundary of the system" (Cited by Poole, in press, p. 67) In this regard, Habermas reclaim a space for a space for political actions which derives in ethical decisions on the purposes of a system.
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