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Dramaturgical Action and Jürgen Habermas
Brief Biography: Jürgen Habermas (Born June 18, 1929 - ) is a German philosopher and sociologist. Habermas is sometimes considered to be a neo-Marxian theorist because he focused on the foundation of theory. Many scholars in a variety of disciplines know the most famous sociologist of the Frankfurt School to be also a critical theorist. He suggested that humans are very much capable of rationality and given some circumstances are able to communicate with another human. Thus, the obstacle that would prevent the process of reason and mutual understanding can be identified, comprehended, and reduced. He is one of the most renowned philosophers and social theorists of our time and undoubtedly the best-known German philosopher.

Dramaturgical Action (Definition):
Habermas got the idea of dramaturgical action from dramaturgy, a concept used by Erving Goffman in a metaphoric way to describe social interaction. Goffman defined dramaturgy as a view of social life as a series of dramatic performances akin to those performed in the theater. He also thought that when people interact with each other, they want to present a certain sense of self that will be accepted by other people in the society.

Dramaturgical action is a social action that is designed to be seen by others and to optimize our public self-image. With this action, people (or actors) could somehow make the best of ther image to the people that viewed them. It’s considered a self-expression in which an individual, conscious of the image he or she is portraying to those around him/her, strategically stylizes this image in order to attain certain goals.

Habermas describes the way a person wishes to express themselces to an audience when putting himself or herself on "stage" so to speak. Habermas differenciates between a subject capable of free-will expression and an observable object with such properties as extension, weight and colour, to demonstrate the dramaturgical action of human actors. Encounter and performance are very important concepts in which participants form a visible public for each other and perform for one another.

When dealing with dramaturgical action, sometimes a person is neither solitary nor is that person a member of a social group, but is indeed interacting with people who are apart of a social group. The person evokes in his public a certain image, an impression of him. This person has privileged access to his own intentions, desires, but have the ability to monitor or regulate public access to them. There is a presentation of self that is not spontaneous but is stylized, with a view to the audience. Dramaturgical action specifies coordination as consensus between the player and their public.

One of Habermas’s source for dramatugical action is the sociologist, Max Weber. Habermas derived his idea of the concept from Weber describing the four types of action which included afectional action, traditional action, value-rational action, and means-ends action. Affectional action (also known as emotional action) is action that is the result of one’s emotional state or to express feelings; non rational. (ex. Crying because of someone’s passing) Traditional action is action that is being done based on the ways things have been done habitually or customarily. (ex. Brushing your teeth or opening presents on Christmas Day). Value-rational action is an action that is done leading a valued goal without thinking of the consequnces. (“The end sanctifies the means”). Means-ends rational action is action that invloves pursuit of the ends that a person has chosen. This action is therefore not guided by a larger value system.

Habermas’other action types:
Instrumental action is a social action pursued after evaluation its consequences and consideration of the various means to achieve it. They usually planned and taken after considering costs and consequences. Normative Action - People in a social group set forth to pursue common values or norms that are within that particular group. According to Habermas, this action is often performed automatically because of shared habits within a society. Normative action does not refer to the behavior of basically solitary actors who come upon other actors in their environment, but to members of a social group who orient their action to common values.

Theological action – Action in which the person makes a decision among alternative courses of action, with a view to the realization of an end, guided by maxims, and based on an interpretation of the situation. There is a subset to theological action called strategic action. This happens when the person anticipates what other people will do that is driven by goals.

Communicative action vs. dramaturgical action:
Habermas describes the concept of communicative action as being when a person seek to reach an understanding about the action situation and their plan of action in order to coordinate their actions by way of agreement.

Based on the two concepts of dramaturgical action and communicative action, I see slight difference in the two. Both concepts are means of communication. However, Habermas does state that dramaturgical action is reliant on communicative action.

References:
1. Jürgen Habermas: The Theory of Communicative Action, Frankfurt 1981.

2. Lyytinen, K & Klein, H. (1985) “The Critical Theory of Jurgen Habermas as a Basis for a Theory of Information Systems”, Chapter 12, Research Methods in Information Systems, Enid Mumford (Ed), Elsevier, B.V.

3. Goffman, Erving. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Garden City, NY, Doubleday Anchor Books..

4. Roderick, Rick (1986). Habermas and the foundations of critical theory. N.Y.: St. Martin's.

5. Johnson, James (1991). Habermas on Strategic and Communicative Action. Northwestern University. Political Theory, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 181-201, May 1991