We live in a risk society - or network society - that has turned liquid, inhabitants of a multi-layered information-rich environment. The uncertainties of noise, gossip, rumour, disinformation and 'chatter' surround us, demanding our interpretations. And yet, despite the abundance of social science literature on uncertainly, there is still a serious lag in communication theory. The main claim of this book is therefore that theories of intersubjectivity, dialogue and understanding are now out of joint with our world. We need to return to a theory of the ethics of interpretation which casts off the fetters of both the intersubjective paradigm of Habermas' rationalistic communication theory and systems-theoretical responses to that paradigm which seriously neglect the role of the human agent. Uncertainty and Communication offers new theoretical investigations into the communicating subject in society. It argues that although the noise of our world creates informational strain for agents and the pressure to interpret from multiple truths, multiple selves and multiple realities, that very interpretative pressure is the ethical imperative of the communicating subject.

COLIN B. GRANT is Professor of Communication Studies and Head of School, Department of Culture and Communication at the University of Surrey, UK. He is Chair, Philosophy of Communication Section, European Communication Research and Education Association. His publications include Literary Communication From Consensus to Rupture, Functions and Fictions of Communication (co-editor with D. McLaughlin), Language-Meaning-Social Construction, Rethinking Communicative Interaction (editor).