TY - JOUR
AU1 - Milovanovic, Dragan
AB - 236 Humanity & Society unable to provide a thorough and unified theory of television and its impact on American culture. It could only propose a series of fragmented-albiet very interesting and insightful-visions. The Theory of Communicative Action Vol Two, Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason By: Jurgen Habermas Translated by: Thomas McCarthy Boston: Beacon Press. 1987. 457 pp. $37.50. Reviewed by: Dragan Milovanovic Northeastern Illinois University In volume two of his monumental treatise, Habermas expounds on his notion of communicative rationality. In a brilliant tour de force he reinterprets the works of Mead, Durkheim, and the systems theory of Parsons. "No theory of society," he tells us, "can be taken seriously today if it does not at least situate itself with respect to Parsons" (p. 199). In the concluding sections he attempts a reconstruction of the Weberian and Marxian prognoses of modernity and its discontents. The goal of his recent work is the integration of systems theory with the concept of the "lifeworld." Without doubt this two-volume set will encourage much fruitful investigation into the dynamics of the relationship between system and notions of subjectivity/agency. (For some thoughts on Volume One, see my review in Humanity and 
TI - Book Review: The Theory of Communicative Action Vol. Two, Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason
JF - Humanity & Society
DO - 10.1177/016059768901300215
DA - 1989-05-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/book-review-the-theory-of-communicative-action-vol-two-lifeworld-and-6xXD0yhxvp
SP - 236
EP - 238
VL - 13
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -