Keywords: Habermas, Communicative Action, Participation, Evaluation, Measurement Measuring Communicative Action for Participatory Communication Thomas L. Jacobson Department of Communications School of Informatics 357 Baldy Hall University at Buffalo, State University of New York Buffalo, NY 14214 Email: Jacobson@buffalo.edu Presented to the Intercultural and Development Division at the 54th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, New Orleans LA, May 27-31, 2004 (Awarded Top Paper in Development Communication). Measuring Communicative Action for Participatory Communication Abstract The need to find practical tools for evaluating social change programs that are participatory is now widely held in the field of development communication. And yet, few definitions of participatory communication supporting empirical assessment have been advanced. This paper represents the beginning of a program of research aiming to determine whether Habermas’s theory of communicative action can be useful in serving the need to find empirical concepts for program design and evaluation. The paper reviews the theory’s empirical claims and explores its methodological implications. It advances an operational definition of communicative action. And it reports an exploratory study designed to examine the properties of measures based on this operational definition. Findings of this exploratory study show well-behaved measures and a potential for predictive validity. Progress on scale design will be required. A program of continued methodological research is briefly outlined in closing. And a proposal is made that the theory of communicative action and social psychological theories of learning be used in complementary fashion in analysis of communication for social change programs. Measuring Communicative Action … 1 Measuring Communicative Action for Participatory Communication Introduction The value of community participation in directed social change efforts has been generally understood for decades. Paulo Freire’s work in the 1960’s led to the expression of a position dissenting from diffusion based approaches that subsequently gained a broad following in fields ranging from communication to adult education to environmental conservation (Aronowitz, 1993; Freire, 1993; McLaren & Leonard, 1993). More recently, multilateral organizations, government agencies, global non-governmental organizations, and foundations have come to accept the idea that self-directed change offers opportunities for success that transfer-of-expertise does not (Rockefeller Foundation, 2001; United States Agency for International Development, accessed Nov. 1, 2003; World Bank, 1996). Field techniques useful for facilitating participatory development have been developed (Chambers, 1994). Despite this trend, however, the opportunity to benefit fully from this new mindset depends on defining participation in a way that can facilitate program design, implementation, and evaluation. Such definition has not as yet emerged. One recent assessment of work on participation finds a number of points of convergence in thinking on participation but concludes that fundamental definition is still lacking (Waisbord, 2001). Another recent assessment favorably reviews progress but suggests that clearly defining participation may be counter productive (Gumucio Dagron, 2001). Dispute over key ideas is also present. For example, some hold that participation is suitable as a goal of social change but that participation employed as a means to change can only be manipulative (Huesca, 2002). The specific issues comprising the discourse, and debates, Measuring Communicative Action … 2 over participatory communication have been well documented and will not be covered here (Jacobson & Servaes, 1999; Servaes, Jacobson, & White, 1996; White, 1999; Whitmore, 1998). This report addresses the need to develop measurable indicators of participatory communication. The approach taken explores the use of Jurgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action for applied purposes (Habermas, 1984, 1987). It is an attempt to identify those of his theory’s concepts that are empirically oriented and then to design measures of participatory communication based on these concepts. Such an application is similar to what health communication researchers do when using social learning theory, for example, to design and evaluate health behavior change programs (Bandura, 1977). Such programs apply the theory rather than test it. Such is our eventual aim. But there are two significant differences between such health communication work and this current program. The first is that measures of social learning concepts used in behavior change programs have been previously designed and evaluated in theoretically oriented empirical research. In the case of the theory of communicative action, this empirical and methodological work has not been done. Despite the vast literature associated with Habermas’s theory, empirical measures of communicative action have not been developed. The paper’s main burden is to argue the idea that the theory of communicative action is suitable, in principle, as a conceptual foundation for studying participation. The second difference between social learning theory and the theory of communicative action is a difference in what Dewey called object domains. They focus on different things. Social learning theory provides conceptual tools for understanding Measuring Communicative Action … 3 and facilitating learning, while the theory of communicative action provides conceptual tools for understanding and potentially for facilitating collective action. This difference may comprise the basis for usefully complementary roles these theories can play in understanding. communication for social change. Neither the social psychological nor communication action approaches alone addresses the full range of behaviors involved in self directed change. Social psychological theories already are employed within behavior change programs intended to be participatory. They explain learning processes that are focal in social change specific to issue areas such as health behavior, agricultural practices and so on. Understanding these learning processes is of fundamental importance. However, because collectively enacted participation is not conceptually internal to the theory of learning itself, participation must be designed on an ad hoc basis. The theory of communicative action entirely addresses participatory communication. However, it addresses learning in specific content areas not at all. So, if a change program were designed starting with communicative action then anything needed to achieve community goals beyond collectively enacted participation, anything such as knowledge of effective message design for targeted behavior change goals, would have to be conducted on an ad hoc basis. For this reason it appears that if community based learning processes are to be conceptualized as participatory processes, then learning theory and communicative action theory must be used in a complementary fashion. Learning theory would be used to help beneficiary groups understand psychological barriers to successful change, and to help design effective message strategies. The theory of communicative action would be used Measuring Communicative Action … 4 to determine the extent to which a program’s communication activities were themselves participatory. The report that follows is part of a larger research program designed to explore a complementary relationship among these approaches. While best known for its macro-theoretical and philosophical propositions, the theory of communicative action has generated a number of applied studies. Generally, these assess conceptually the extent to which communicative action, or participatory communication, might take place in a given setting such as urban, regional or environmental planning (Forester, 1988; Phelps & Tewdwr-Jones, 2000; Tait & Campbell, 2000; Webler & Tuler, 2000). Various aspects of health care service delivery and environmental risk communication have been examined (Barry, Stevenson, Britten, Barber, & Bradley, 2001; Santos & Chess, 2003; Sumner, 2001). A number of studies have been conducted in Third World settings. These include studies of community decision-making in Ethiopia (Hamer, 1998) and promotion of adolescent sexual health in Peru (Ramella & De La Cruz, 2000). Despite the growing amount of applied research very few studies have been conducted that attempt to measure communicative action. Webler & Tuler use the theory to help develop classifications used for coding discourses in public planning meetings (Webler & Tuler, 2000). Sulkin & Simon use the theory to justify the design of a game theoretic experiment testing the relationship between deliberation and political decisions (Sulkin & Simon, 2001). In both these studies Habermas’s emphasis on fairness in discourse is highlighted but his stricter empirical claims do not play a role. Unlike what has been attempted previously, the approach employed here is intended as a straightforward matter of deriving operational measures from key empirical Measuring Communicative Action … 5 categories. The paper begins by briefly reviewing the theory, focusing on those of its theoretical concepts that are empirically oriented. Next, methodological implications of the theory are explored, and an operational definition of communicative action is presented. Illustrative measures of communicative action based on its empirical concepts are also proposed. This comprises the bulk of the paper i.e. a conceptual analysis of certain empirical prospects for the theory. Such an extensive conceptual analysis is required due both to certain unique aspects of the theory and because it has not been operationalized in this way previously. However, data from an exploratory survey using the proposed measures are also presented. The aim here is to further illustrate the approach outlined conceptually, as well as to provisionally assess properties of, and relations among, the proposed measures. A hypothesis is employed for use in examining predictive validity. In closing, a discussion section explores complementary features of social psychological and communication theories and then proposes next steps for research. Conceptual Framework Communicative Action Validity Claims. Action oriented toward understanding, communicative action strictly speaking, is understood in relation to reciprocal expectations that underlie human communication. These are claims to the assumed validity of communicative behaviors, or utterances, and are called validity claims. On Habermas’s view, speech acts are exchanged with the presumption that utterances are: 1) true, 2) normatively appropriate, 3) sincere, and 4) comprehensible. And they are received with this expectation. These expectations are usually of an unconscious nature, and such unconscious expectations are Measuring Communicative Action … 6 what make possible the coordination of behavior among individuals. (Note: The first three validity claims share properties the fourth does not. In much of his later work, Habermas focuses on the first three. For applied purposes, all four can be important. The discussion that follows sometimes treats three and sometimes all four.) Although validity expectations operate in an unconscious way as a substructure of communication, they can also be made conscious. If conscious doubt arises as to an utterance’s validity then one or more claims can be raised for discussion, or “thematized.” Understanding, as an outcome, is determined through yes/no answers to propositions amounting in practice to agreement. Good faith action oriented to reaching understanding regarding a thematized claim is communicative action strictly speaking. “…I shall speak of communicative action whenever the actions of the agents involved are coordinated not through egocentric calculations of success but through acts of reaching understanding” (Habermas, 1984, pp. 285-6). Speech Conditions. The theory analyzes acts of reaching understanding at length, with particular regard for speech conditions that must obtain for action to be communicative. Habermas explains that participants in communication must be free to “call into question any proposal” … to “introduce any proposal” … and to “express any attitudes, wishes, or needs.” There must be a “symmetrical distribution of opportunities to contribute” to discussion. There must be adequate time to arrive at agreement. Outcomes must be determined through “good reasons,” or the “force of the better argument” (Habermas, 1990, pp. 88-89). The theory recognizes that deceptive communication is common, but treats deception as a process that plays upon this deeper level of reciprocal expectations. When Measuring Communicative Action … 7 we lie, we play upon these expectations by giving people to understand, or feigning, that we are acting truthfully, appropriately, and/or sincerely when in fact we are not. Action oriented towards deception is a type of strategic action that aims for success. Success refers to aims that are egocentric in the sense that they are pursued for self-interest and without regard for the interests of others. Figure 1 presents a breakdown of action types, showing how the theory differentiates communicative from strategic action, and breaks both of these down into subtypes Strategic action has two subtypes, and one of these subtypes comprises two additional subtypes. _______________ Figure 1 about here _______________ Given that deception and all other forms of communication play upon reciprocal validity expectations, the validity basis of speech is treated as a theoretical reconstruction of the necessary conditions for all communication. The conditions specifying communicative action are collectively referred to, for the sake of convenience, as the ideal speech situation, and in-process they are referred to as discourse. Despite appearances that may be given by the theory’s abstractness, communicative action is not a rarified process and normal behavior only approximates it. It takes place during daily interactions among parents and children, between friends, and in workplace debates. It is institutionalized in fields such as law and the sciences. Of course, deception is practiced regularly in interpersonal interaction, but appropriateness and sincerity are seen as the necessary ingredients of ties that bind in healthy family interaction, friendships, and working relationships. Deception also occurs in the professions of law and science, but professional norms in such fields approximate Measuring Communicative Action … 8 communicative action. Violations of procedural embodiments of these norms carry specified forms of sanction or criticism. One key characteristic of Habermas’s theory that is often overlooked is its empirical orientation. His position regarding ideal speech is advanced in the form of an hypothesis. Reciprocal expectations regarding validity claims are taken to comprise rules that all human beings employ in the generation of speech as a pragmatic, real, and universal necessity. These expectations should in principle be subject to empirical testing. Habermas is clear in his intent that this theory should “be capable of being checked against speakers’ intuitions, scattered across as broad a sociocultural spectrum as possible” (Habermas, 1984, p. 138). He also suggests a number of strategies that should be useful for empirical evaluation of the theory. These include “analyzing pathological patterns of communication in families,” and “examining the ontogenesis of capabilities for action” following Piaget’s research into the ontogenesis of cognitive capabilities (p. 138). There has been some debate over the scientific status of the theory (Alford, 1985). But a widely held view maintains that the theory is “fallible” in the face of empirical evidence. And while as yet untested, the theory remains open to empirical examination (Chambers, 1996, pp. 110-122; Cooke, 1997, pp. 2-3). One possible avenue for the empirical examination of this theory is opened up by a hypothesis Habermas advances concerning legitimation of democratic governments. The theory holds that democratic legitimacy is grounded in discursive power (Habermas, 1975, 1996). When citizens feel that their own potential challenges to the truth, appropriateness and sincerity of government actions are given a fair hearing in the Measuring Communicative Action … 9 political public sphere, then they are more likely to invest government with legitimacy. Conversely, when citizens feel their challenges are not heard or are ignored, then legitimacy is likely to be withheld. Similar relations might be reasonably expected at smaller scales of social organization. In settings of organizational change employee morale may be positively associated with employee belief that their opinions are taken into account. For example, major changes might be welcomed by none of a cooperatively run organization’s members. And yet, these changes might be acceptable as a least-worst alternative and assented to. A collective decision arrived at communicatively is more likely to achieve assent that one arrived at by management fiat. Whether political or organizational, compromise is acceptable to the extent it is considered fair. Fairness is determined by participants insofar as they feel that action conditions are communicative. In any case, the aim of the present analysis is, also, not to test the theory but is rather to assess the theory for needs extant in the area of development communication. Outcomes can be assessed practically, without strict concern for the scientific status of the theory, with the necessary consequent concern for the theory’s falsifiability. The utility of the theory’s account of participatory communication, therefore, is temporarily assumed for methodological purposes. The hopeful outcome will be measures of communicative action, as participation, that predict assent to collectively determined community plans. Predictive successes that may derive from such work might possibly support the theory, but only rather indirectly and not in the form of a test per se. Measuring Communicative Action … 10 Meta-Theoretical Characteristics and Empirical Implications Reconstructive Theory. To summarize, the theory of communicative action comprises a reconstruction of the conditions required for reaching understanding, i.e. for rationally motivated agreement. These conditions refer to two sets of attributes. The first set concerns the validity claims of speech comprising presumptions of truth, appropriateness, sincerity, and comprehensibility of utterances. This involves as well the possibility of negotiating validity claims that are called into question. The second set concerns the speech conditions required of speech if validity claims are to be successfully negotiated and agreement reached. These include the symmetrical distribution of opportunities to contribute to discussion, the freedom to raise any proposal, and the fairness with which each proposal is treated by giving it full and equal consideration. The conceptual framework of validity claims and speech conditions constitute the base of the theory of communicative action in the form of an empirical claim and establish the theory of communicative action as an empirical theory. The validity categories and the assumptions regarding speech conditions are considered to be real. They refer not to surface behavior but to pragmatic necessities for the coordination of behavior. Assumptions regarding validity must be necessary if speech and behavior coordination are to be made plausible. The same type of theory is exemplified in Chomsky’s theory of transformational grammar and in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (Chomsky, 1968; Piaget, 1971). For example, Chomsky’s theory offers an explanation of how it is possible that children so rapidly acquire the ability to produce an infinite variety of well-formed linguistic expressions in everyday speech. According to Chomsky the speed of language Measuring Communicative Action … 11 acquisition and the creativity of speech result from the competence acquired in forming surface level linguistic expressions by mastering transformations of fixed deep structures of language. Children do not learn the correctness of individual surface level expressions through reward, as Skinner proposed. Rather, children develop ontogenetically the ability to employ deep linguistic structures that are innate. Empirical testing of the theory is conducted by developing models of deep structures and accompanying transformational rules that can account for the variety of surface level expressions. The aim is to reconstruct the underlying conditions and processes that must necessarily exist if everyday speech is to be possible. The theory of communicative action offers a parallel form of reconstruction. The surface level behavior to be explained is action coordination rather than well formed expressions. Here, Habermas relies on the common language philosophy of Austin and Searle to show that well formed linguistic expressions are a necessary but not sufficient part of communication. Speakers’ intensions and interaction situations comprise contexts in terms of which well-formed expressions find their meanings and uses. Propositional content is an important aspect of language use, but only one aspect. Once the need for extra-linguistic analysis of communication is established Habermas finds in George Herbert Mead (Mead, 1934) and Talcott Parsons (Parsons, 1977) the framework of an approach to action theory that provides categories of action, e.g. behavior, which must be mastered if individuals are to be able to fully develop individual identities and to function in relation to social norms (Habermas, 1987). Validity, appropriateness and sincerity conditions refer to claims that are negotiated through language but cannot be reduced to syntax and semantics or even Chomsky’s Measuring Communicative Action … 12 competence in relation to well-formed expressions. The acquisition of communication skills therefore includes acquisition of “interactive competence” in addition to acquisition of these other competencies. Tests of this interactive competence have been discussed in a number of fields, but actually pursued in none. This is perhaps due to the fact that the theory’s object domain falls outside the core areas of individual fields. In any case, it is fundamental to the theory that the conceptual framework of validity and speech conditions is empirical. This is Habermas’s path out of Kantian transcendentalism to which elements of his thought are indebted, and into social science. It is also his path away from philosophical foundationalism more generally, toward the fallibalism of scientific investigation. If there has been a dearth of empirical research into communicative action it is not by Habermas’s design. His contribution is theoretical, but he very much hopes for empirical corroboration and his theory requires it. Action vs Behavior. The theory of communicative action makes a number of metatheoretical assumptions that have methodological consequences. Two require treatment here. One of these concerns the theory’s being a form of “action theory” (Habermas, 1987; Habermas, 1988, pp. 223-243). A number of strands of action theory can be found in sociology today. One reaches back through rule theory to the late Wittgenstein (Harre & Secord, 1972). Another reaches back through methodological implications of verstehen to Weber (Cicourel, 1964). And still another is based in symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969). These strands of action theory vary considerably among themselves and Habermas has his differences with each of them. His analysis of the “limits of linguistically oriented Measuring Communicative Action … 13 interpretive sociology,” takes issues chiefly with the relativism and lack of explanatory power in much action theory (Habermas, 1988, pp. 175-184). Side stepping these differences for present purposes, action theory holds that understanding human behavior requires understanding something of actors’ frameworks of meaning. This is contrary to classical behaviorism’s black box approach to understanding behavior. In action theory, to understand what someone might do, what they are doing, and what they may have done, requires, in part, taking account of what they think and feel, or more specifically their meaning frameworks. In terms of action oriented toward understanding, it is necessary to understand actor validity claims as they themselves experience them. This has methodological implications. For, validity claims can only be ascertained by participants themselves. An outside observer cannot judge for a research subject, for example, whether he or she trusts his or her interlocutor. Nor can an outsider determine whether a research subject believes that the behavior of his or her interlocutor is normatively appropriate. These things can only be learned directly from the subject. Therefore, observation and measurement of communicative action can only be obtained, in principle, from “self-reports.” Formal Pragmatics. The action theoretical nature of Habermas’s theory is one characteristic that has methodological consequences. Another concerns the theory’s having been advanced as a “formal pragmatics.” As noted, the theory of communicative action is reconstructive in nature. It endeavors to explain behavior by specifying certain capabilities that are required to make behavior possible. The reciprocal expectations regarding validity and speech that underlie communication behavior are treated as being Measuring Communicative Action … 14 necessary and real, but they are not necessarily evident themselves in a direct way. Using the Chomskian metaphor, they comprise a deep structure of communicative interaction. What happens at the surface expresses an empirical complexity that derives from the overlapping of practical contexts in daily life with interpersonal differences as well as historical and cultural values. Habermas characterizes this theory as a “formal pragmatics,” as compared to “empirical pragmatics.” The latter includes narrative analysis, ethnolinguistics, and other richly descriptive accounts of language in use. In contrast, a formal pragmatics attempts to explain how any of this surface level complexity is possible. The methodological implications of this attribute of the theory also concern the design of indicators of communicative action. The formal nature of the theory means that indicators of action must vary by behavioral context, and indicates why this is so. Even while embodying formal claims, every expression containing a challenge to a validity claim, and every expression responding with a justification, embodies a specific language with all the idiom and idiosyncrasy that comprises an individual’s use of language. As interpersonal behavior, validity claims are made differently than they are made in the public sphere. This means that every empirical study of communicative action must use different questionnaire item wordings. Studies must refer strictly to validity claims and speech conditions, but these must be embodied variously at various levels and contexts of interaction, as illustrated below. Measuring Communicative Action … 15 Methodology and Procedures We have attempted to provide thus far a specification of the theory’s key empirical concepts, along with some meta-theoretical assumptions and their methodological implications. It will now be possible to briefly summarize and specify procedures for observation and measurement. 1: Indicators of communicative action must derive from the theory’s key empirical concepts. This represents a straightforward approach to deriving operational definitions from conceptual ones. Two sets of conditions are specified: the validity basis of speech and the speech conditions required to negotiate validity claims. Both sets of concepts require indicators. Table 1 indicates these two sets of conditions. _______________ Table 1 about here _______________ It should be noted that the mere fact of the freedom to contribute to a discussion comprises the condition of communicative action regardless of whether contributions are actually made. This conceptual feature bears on operational design. Actual challenges to validity claims are not required for communicative action, but only the availability of opportunities to raise challenges. Conversely, the act of challenging a validity claim alone is not an indicator of fully communicative conditions. For it is possible to speak out even in threatening or otherwise non-communicative conditions. 2: Direct indicators of communicative action must be obtained through selfreports. The assessment of validity conditions that hold during communication can only be performed by participants themselves. Outsiders cannot do this for the same reason it may be said that one person cannot “speak for” another. Thus, the most direct kind of Measuring Communicative Action … 16 indicator would be one that asks participants themselves whether they feel during a program the freedom to raise validity claims, and have the expectation that their voice will be heard. It is of course possible to design indicators the assessment of which is conducted by non-participants. These indicators would involve such things as counting attendance at meetings and contributions to discussion. However, such assessment can only be of a secondary nature. The direct measure of communicative action requires, in principle, a self-report. For illustrative purposes prompts soliciting validity and speech condition assessments in Table 2 are indicated in a dyadic context. _______________ Table 2 about here _______________ 3: Indicators of communicative action vary by scale and context of analysis. As noted, the formal pragmatic requirements of communication are expressed somewhat differently in different action contexts and at different scales of interaction and analysis. In small groups the goal of collective decision-making processes can potentially be consensus. As interaction conditions increase in scale this possibility is lost. In largescale democratic institutions validity assessments concern weather the actor could challenge a claim and be heard if they chose to do so. This can take the form of assessing whether or not the actor’s position is represented in public debate. Nevertheless, at any scale of interaction, expectations regarding validity are operant and can in principle be assessed by participants. Also, relations of varying duration are relevant at each scale of interaction (See Table 3). _______________ Table 3 about here _______________ Measuring Communicative Action … 17 4: Validity and speech measures are dimensional and additive. The reconstruction of the validity basis of speech and of the ideal typical speech conditions is formal. Therefore, action oriented toward understanding is in daily operation an approximation, or matter of degree. During typical interaction a hearer will treat a speaker as being “correct for present purposes,” “appropriate enough not to raise ire,” “sincere but not perhaps caring very much.” Furthermore, although the criterion for understanding is acceptance of propositions admitting of yes/no answers, assent to propositions offered is also a matter of degree ranging from grudging to enthusiastic. Therefore, it is suitable to measure both self-reports of communicative action attributes and also outcomes at an ordinal level of measurement or higher. Action characterized by the satisfaction of a greater number of communicative conditions is more communicative than is action characterized by a fewer number. At a very general conceptual level, this claim should be unobjectionable. Whether the individual attribute scales can be combined additively on an interval, for example, basis remains to be determined through methodological research. An Operational Definition Based on the foregoing, it is possible to specify an operational definition of communicative action. Due to the character of the theory it is not possible to provide exact wording for item designs. However, it is possible to specify operational procedures required for designing individual items and item banks that indicate communicative action, as follows. Communicative action can be operationally defined as self-reports regarding the extent to which respondents in a given action situation feel that they Measuring Communicative Action … 18 themselves, or surrogates, are free to engage in discourse characterized by all three speech conditions regarding all four validity claims. Exploratory Study Aim and Justification An exploratory study was conducted to examine the properties of measures based on the methodological considerations presented above. One aim was to examine the properties of measures individually and in relation to one another. Another was to begin exploring the reliability and validity of these measures. Given the broad scope of the theory of communicative action this was necessarily a very limited study in a substantive sense, using a single context of interaction. A hypothesis was employed to explore predictive validity. Design The study comprised a survey using validity claims and speech conditions as independent variables to predict an outcome that features centrally in Habermas’s work as mentioned briefly above, i.e. democratic legitimacy. This is a macro-social political expression of the reciprocity expectation enacted in speech. The theory of discursive democracy holds that citizen acceptance of a decision will be a function of the extent that they believe all viewpoints, including theirs, were taken into account. Even a decision against a citizen’s wishes is more likely to be acceptable if the citizen feels his or her viewpoint was heard. In the language of communicative action, citizens will grant the legitimacy of a decision if they believe key decision-makers were correct on the facts they used in formulating the decision, if it was an appropriate decision for them to make, if the decision-makers were sincere in expressing their positions, and if citizen positions were fairly heard and considered. Citizens are most likely to believe this if they believe Measuring Communicative Action … 19 they had an opportunity to contribute to debate or if those with like positions had such opportunities. The applied context for this study was a decision taken in a northeastern state to raise tuition dramatically over the course of a single year. Tuition was raised by $950. This decision was made by the governor, trustees of the state university system appointed by the governor, and the state legislature. Many students and their parents felt this increase to be too large. Students raised statewide protest including demonstrations on campuses across the state as well as in the state capital. Student newspapers were replete with criticism of such a dramatic increase in a single year. Precedures and Hypothesis A convenience sample of 86 undergraduate students was administered a questionnaire with 21 question items. Students were allowed 15 minutes to complete the survey. Two items reflected each of the four validity claims. The pairs were summed to create four validity scales. A single item reflected each of the three speech conditions. Two items were designed, and summed, to measure the degree to which students accepted as legitimate the decision to raise tuition. Remaining items solicited demographic information to serve as control variables (See Appendix 1). The test hypothesis was: Legitimacy would be positively associated with validity and speech conditions, individually and jointly. Findings Given the study’s methodological purposes its measurement outcomes are of principle note. Distributions and variances of all communicative measures were well behaved in terms of distribution and variance (See Appendix 2 for descriptive statistics). Measuring Communicative Action … 20 Correlations among measures were not high enough to suggest the likelihood of problems with multicollinearity. Levels of association among the pairs of measures comprising validity claim variables were modest and Conbach’s alpha coefficients were low, with an average of .39. To serve suitably in scale construction items should produce much higher coefficients. The low alphas here were in part a function of the small number of items in each scale, and should be improved with the addition of other items as well as other design improvements. A linear regression model was fitted to the data entering both sets of communicative action variables simultaneously, producing an R2 = .49 (F (7,77) = 10.46, p. < .001 (See Table 4). Beta weights indicate that Truth and Appropriateness variables were the strongest predictors, both achievng statistically significant t values. The Comprehension variable had no apparent effect. The speech condition variables each appeared to have modest if any effects. Preliminary examination of control variables indicated that the communicative action variables accounted for substantial variance over some standard demographic measures. A hierarchical model was fitted to the data entering control variables in step 1: party leaning, gender, family income, ethnicity - white/non-white (R2 = .12, F 4,78 = 2.5, p. < .05). Validity and speech condition variables were entered in step 2 (R2 Change = .39, F Change 7,71 = 7.8, p. < .001). The hypothesis was substantially supported. Communicative action conditions as a block substantially predicted student positions on the legitimacy of the state’s decision to raise tuition. Predictive success tentatively supports construct validity. Measuring Communicative Action … 21 _______________ Table 4 about here _______________ Summary The need to find practical tools for evaluating behavior change programs that are participatory is now widely held. And yet, while definitions of participatory communication vary widely none has been advanced with empirical research design in mind. The theory of communicative offers a conceptual framework that can in principle be operationalized. This paper represents the beginning of a program of methodological research aiming to determine whether this is in fact the case. The paper reviews the theory’s empirical claims and explores its methodological implications. It advances an operational definition of communicative action. And it briefly reports an exploratory study designed to examine the properties of measures based on this operational definition. While the theory of communicative action rests on an empirical foundation, it has attributes whose methodological implications determine options for operationalization. The bulk of this paper addresses these implications and options. To summarize, as a theory with empirical claims, measures must be designed to indicate key empirical concepts. These chiefly refer to communicative presumptions regarding four validity claims and three speech conditions. As a reconstruction of communicative presumptions the theory concerns something similar to deep structures of communication rather than surface behaviors. Therefore, indicators must address these deep structures. At the surface level these will be expressed variously, and the design of indicators must take this into account. For one thing these presumptions apply in all Measuring Communicative Action … 22 action contexts at all scales of possible change, so measures must be adapted for use with each application. As a version of action theory the theory of communicative action makes participant, or research subject, viewpoints focal. Therefore, data must be gathered in the form of self-reports. Finally, these presumptions serve to regulate behavior, not to determine it. They are seldom if ever expressed purely. So, they must be treated as being in some way dimensional. Measurement should take place at an ordinal level or higher. An operational definition of communication has been advanced taking these metatheoretical and methodological characteristics of the theory into account. Communicative action can be operationally defined as self-reports regarding the extent to which respondents in a given action situation feel that they themselves, or surrogates, are free to engage in discourse characterized by all three speech conditions regarding all four validity claims. The study reported here explored this operational definition by designing communicative action measures suitable for political discourse over state level educational policy. The measures exhibited well-behaved properties that may be considered promising. The communicative action measures in this data set predicted outcomes fairly strongly as a block. Effects of individual variables were uneven. The comprehension variable had no effect. Apparently, the respondents in this sample felt no compunction about assessing policy legitimacy even when they admittedly knew little about the policy issue in question. Low alphas for the two-item scales comprising validity measures were unsurprising and indicate need for further work. Subsequent instruments Measuring Communicative Action … 23 will include a larger number of indicators for each scale and more detailed analysis of the contributions of individual scales. The choice for a study of state level political discourse was based on convenience. A number of subsequent exploratory studies will continue to be conducted in the context of the United States, with other populations on other issues. One or more of these should include action contexts smaller in scale than state politics, contexts in which citizens are actually able to debate and/or to get involved in some sort of planning and evaluation themselves. Continuing to examine the kinds of measures and relations explored here will comprise part of continued studies. In addition, other matters that are theoretical in nature must be explored. For one, the constructs comprising Habermas’s action theory have been treated here as being of a piece, predicting legitimacy in an additive manner as a block, i.e. as if all validity claims and speech condition indicators score high or low in predicting an outcome. However, the theory pertains as well to empirical conditions in which validity of one type might be high, while another is low. For example, one could trust a friend’s intentions but believe their grasp of the facts is weak, or believe a politician’s grasp of the facts is good but also that he or she is stepping beyond the bounds of their office in making a certain decision. There would seem to be much to explore here. Another matter concerns the issue of reciprocity in expectations. In the case of political legitimacy, standard political theory holds that democratic legitimacy obtains when citizens support a government, believing it represents them, regardless of whether this government is earnestly listening to its constituency or whether its decisions are Measuring Communicative Action … 24 smart. Thus, Habermas holds that legitimacy accrues to a government to the extent that citizens believe they are being heard regardless of whether they are in fact being heard, and regardless of whether or not the government is effective in discharging its technical responsibilities. Citizens will learn whether the government is sincere and effective or not over time, in principle, and this will eventually bear upon legitimacy. But the connection between legitimation and actual performance is indirect. This means that validity and speech conditions can be ascertained singly from citizens. In other behavioral contexts it may be necessary to observe both parties to an interaction rather than just one. This would be necessary especially when either latent strategic or systematically distorted communication occurs, i.e. when one or more parties are lying or when unrecognized and unacknowledged power differentials affect communicative opportunities. If results continue to bear out overall then research might be justified in the context of directed social change efforts. The way this might be accomplished can be considered in closing. It was noted in the introduction that the theory of communicative action might complement social psychological theories such as social learning theory in program design and evaluation. Now that the applied relevance of communicative action has been outlined in some detail this can be considered more fully. As stated earlier, social psychological learning theories can be employed within behavior change programs intended to be participatory. However, in such cases the concept of collectively enacted participation is not internal to the theory of learning itself and must be imported from outside learning theory. Alternatively, collectively determined participation entirely comprises the scope of the theory of communicative Measuring Communicative Action … 25 action. And thus, correspondingly, if a change program were designed starting with communicative action, then anything beyond collectively enacted participation that was needed to achieve community goals, anything such as knowledge of effective message design, would have to be imported from outside the theory of communicative action. For example, social learning theory explains behavior change through learning by specifying social learning’s antecedent conditions, including behavioral models, efficacy assessments, and so on. These conditions are antecedent to behavior change in a wide variety of settings, in relation to a highly general set of possible learned behaviors (Bandura, 1977). When employed for the purposes of applied behavior change, theoretical constructs regarding these conditions can be used to design communication strategies that are likely to induce behavior change in desired directions toward more reflective and effective family planning, the practice of oral rehydration, or new agricultural practices. The theory explains under what conditions behavior change toward such goals might be achieved based on predictable aggregate changes in the behavior of individuals. The theory of communicative action is not a theory of behavior change. It is an action theory that explains how self-directed collective activity can and sometimes does take place, i.e. when participation is taking place and when it is not. The theory can be used to generate some predictions and it can also be used to facilitate communicative interaction by design. However, both predictions and the interactions facilitated are limited to those regarding action relations among participants, not learned behaviors in general. Thus, the theory’s relevance to applied change projects lies not in its conceptualization of learning and behavior change generally speaking, but rather in its Measuring Communicative Action … 26 ability to determine when behavior change is collectively self-determined. As exemplified in the data reported here, the theory is intended to discriminate whether change is democratically legitimate as compared to being imposed through political and administrative momentum. The theory could similarly be used to discriminate whether family planning or new agricultural programs are implemented in a manner that is participatory as compared to being imposed through something like political and administrative momentum, e.g. the momentum of money channeled from the North through ministries of Southern governments into local communities. There may be no reason to assume that all, or even most, programs are animated this way. There may be no reason to assume that all, or even most, programs are contaminated in part this way. However, without relevant concepts and measures there is no systematic way to assess beneficiary views. The participation movement has been much concerned with such questions, but the theory of communicative action can be used in a unique way to directly address them, i.e. systematically and operationally. The theory suggests that regardless of program designers’ intentions, skills, and backgrounds, the only way to know whether program related interaction is participatory is to ask local residents their opinions regarding the full range of validity and speech conditions. Therefore, in applied settings the theory of communicative action can be used to complement the work covered by social psychological theories of learning. Social learning theory can be used with participatory intent to determine when, how, and why to employ message strategies whose design is informed by the concepts of social learning. The theory of communicative action might be helpful in determining the extent to which such a participatory intent has been Measuring Communicative Action … 27 fulfilled. Just as importantly, the theory’s concepts might be used as guidelines to facilitate participation, i.e. through communicative action. Measuring Communicative Action … 28 References Alford, C. F. (1985). 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Participatory Development [WEb Page]. USAID. Retrieved July 21, 2003, from the World Wide Web: http://www.usaid.gov/about/part_devel/ Waisbord, S. (2001). Family tree of theories, methodologies and strategies in development communication: Convergences and differences. The Communication Initiative. Retrieved, from the World Wide Web: http://www.comminit.com/stsilviocomm/sld-2881.html Webler, T., & Tuler, S. (2000). Fairness and competence in citizen participation Theoretical reflections from a case study. Administration & Society, 32(5), 566595. White, S. A. (Ed.). (1999). The art of facilitating participation: Releasing the power of grassroots communication. New Dehli: Sage Publications. Whitmore, E. (Ed.). (1998). Understanding and practicing participtory evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. World Bank. (1996). World Bank participation sourcebook. Washington, DC: Author. Measuring Communicative Action … 32 Appendix 1: Communicative Action Survey Questionnaire Sample Questions from Tuition Hike Survey Questionnaire (Note: These variables can be adapted to any kind of intervention including community health discussions, the design of literacy programs, or land use management, etc.) To what extent do you agree with the following statements? (Please mark an X beneath the most appropriate answer.) 1) How correct are the reasons given by the state government for the tuition hike? (Please mark an X beneath the most appropriate answer.) (Truth Validity Claim) Completely Incorrect _____ Incorrect _____ Somewhat Correct _____ Correct _____ Completely Correct _____ 1 2 3 4 5 2) How appropriate was it for the SUNY trustees and the governor to make their proposals? (Note: You may or may not like their proposals, but is it appropriate for them to make such proposals?) (Normative Appropriateness Validity Claim) Completely Inappropriate _____ Inappropriate _____ Somewhat Appropriate _____ Appropriate _____ Very Appropriate _____ 1 2 3 4 5 3) How sincere was the governor in stating that he was attempting to protect the interests of students in this matter. (Sincerity Validity Claim) Very Insincere _____ Insincere _____ Somewhat Sincere _____ Sincere _____ Very Sincere _____ 1 2 3 4 5 Measuring Communicative Action … 33 4) How well do you believe you understand the decision and the basis upon which it has been made? (Comprehensibility Validity Claim) Not at all Well _____ Not Very Well _____ Somewhat Well _____ Well _____ Very Well _____ 1 2 3 4 5 5) How fairly have students been treated in terms of having an equal number of opportunities to contribute to the decision making process as compared to state officials? (Speech condition measure #1) Completely Unequal _____ Unequal _____ Somewhat Equal _____ Equal _____ Completely Equal _____ 1 2 3 4 5 6) When students have made proposals or raised issues, how equally have these proposals and issues been treated as compared to proposals or issues raised by other stakeholders in the decision-making process?) (Speech condition measure #2) Completely Unequal _____ Unequal _____ Somewhat Equal _____ Equal _____ Completely Equal _____ 1 2 3 4 5 7) How fairly have students been treated in terms of being able to raise all specific issues they would want to raise? (Speech condition measure #3) Not at all Able _____ Unable _____ Somewhat Able _____ Able _____ Completely Able _____ 1 2 3 4 5 8) Was the state decision to raise tuition a legitimate, i.e. a good and fair, decision? (Outcome Variable, could be related to community estimates of the legitimacy of any intervention.) Not at all Legitimate _____ Not Legitimate _____ Somewhat Legitimate _____ Legitimate _____ Completely Legitimate _____ 1 2 3 4 5 Measuring Communicative Action … 34 Appendix 2: Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation legitimacy 85 2 9 5.36 1.689 truth 1 85 1 5 2.92 .711 truth 2 85 1 4 2.14 .833 sum truth 85 2 8 5.06 1.266 appropriateness 1 85 1 5 3.40 .834 apropriateness 2 85 1 5 3.05 .754 sum appropriate 85 2 10 6.45 1.376 sincerity 1 85 1 4 2.36 .871 sincerity 2 85 1 5 2.46 .894 sum sincerity 85 2 9 4.82 1.513 comprehension 1 85 1 5 2.88 .918 comprehension 2 85 1 5 3.14 .888 sum comprehension 85 3 9 6.02 1.291 equal opportunity 85 1 4 1.91 .766 equal treatment 85 1 4 2.19 .627 fair treatment 85 1 5 2.76 1.054 Measuring Communicative Action … 1 Pearson Correlations *** sum sum appropri Sum compreh ate sincerity ensive equal opportu nity equal treatment fair treatment .56(**) .000 .56(**) .000 .45(**) .000 -.05 .32 .36(**) .000 .27(**) .01 .30(**) .003 .57(**) .000 1 .51(**) .000 .40(**) .000 -.1 .19 .31(**) .00 .27(**) .006 .23(*) .019 .56(**) .51(**) 1 .39(**) .02 .17 .22(*) .172 .000 .00 .000 .43 .07 .022 .058 .45(**) .40(**) .39(**) 1 -.14 .51(**) .51(**) .23(*) .000 .000 .000 .10 .000 .000 .018 -.05 -.09 .02 -.14 1 -.13 .11 .07 .32 .19 .43 .104 .12 .153 .276 .56(**) .31(**) .17 .51(**) -.13 .58(**) .19(*) .000 .002 .07 .000 .12 .000 .038 .27(**) .27(**) .22(*) .51(**) .11 .58(**) 1 .32(**) .01 .006 .02 .000 .15 .000 .3(**) .22(*) .17 .23(*) .07 .19(*) .32(**) .00 .029 .06 .018 .28 .04 .001 Legiti macy sum truth pay & legitimacy 1 sum truth sum appropriate sum sincerity Sum comprehend equal opportunity equal treatment fair treatment * significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed). ** significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed). *** n = 85 1 .001 1 Measuring Communicative Action … 1 Table 1 Key Concepts for Validity and Speech Conditions Conceptual Category Concept (from participant/actor viewpoint) Validity Claims Truth (accuracy) Appropriateness Sincerity Comprehensibility Speech Conditions Symmetric Distribution of Opportunities to Contribute Ability to Raise Any Proposition Equal Treatment of Propositions Raised Measuring Communicative Action … 2 Table 2 Illustrative Solicitations/Prompts for Key Concepts – Dyadic Validity Claims Validity/Speech Conditions Truth (accuracy) Appropriateness Sincerity Comprehension Speech Conditions Conditions Symmetric Opportunities Free to Raise Any Proposition Equal Treatment of Propositions Illustrative Response Solicitation/Prompts To what extent do you feel the other person was correct or right? To what extent do you feel the other person spoke in an appropriate manner? To what extent do you feel the other person was sincere? To what extent do you feel you understood what the other person was saying? To what extent did you feel free in having an equal opportunity to raise questions? To what extent did you feel free in raising any proposal or idea you wish for discussion? To what extent did you feel your proposal would be treated equally to others’ viewpoints? Measuring Communicative Action … 3 Table 3 Scales of Analysis and Interaction Durations Unit of Analysis Interaction Duration Dyadic exchanges A few moments An entire conversation An unending or open-ended relationship A few moments An entire meeting An unending or open-ended group Specific meeting Project phase: planning, implementation, evaluation Overall project Specific instances, including political debates General treatment of single issues over time Public sphere as a whole Group interactions Projects Public spheres Measuring Communicative Action … 1 Table 4 Regression of Communicative Action Conditions on Legitimacy Beta (Constant) t Sig. -.76 .44 Truth .29 2.83 .01 Appropriateness .34 3.41 .00 Sincerity .13 1.16 .25 Comprehension .01 .103 .92 Symmetric Opportunities .18 1.64 .11 Raise Any Proposal -.09 -.83 .41 Equal Treatment of Props .14 1.61 .11 Measuring Communicative Action … 1 Figure 1 Types of Action * Social Actions Communicative Action Action Oriented to Reaching Understanding Consensual Action Strategic Action Open Strategic Action Concealed Strategic Action Unconscious Deception (Systematically Distorted Communication) * From (Habermas, 1979, pp. 209) Conscious Deception (Manipulation)