Theoretical Approaches to Normativity in Communication Research

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Normativity is inarguably a major concept in the social sciences. Even so, social science research seldom acknowledges its importance, its influence on research inquiries, and its impact on the trajectories of communication science and on the scientists themselves. It is against that background that this article calls for a better understanding of the role of normativity in communication studies. In doing so, it analyzes Bourdieu's theoretical framework of field, habitus, and capital and how the intersection of all three concepts helps explain and justify the importance of norms in communication research. Finally, this article identifies differences between the norms of the orthodox and the heretics, based on various schools of thought and on paradigms from both U.S. and German communication–research histories.