Incommunication, an Essential Concept in Contemporary Political Communication

Abstract

Communication and incommunication are inseparable, but incommunication is the condition for communication, and can no longer be considered as “the failure of communication”. Incommunication and otherness are complementary for thinking about the difficulties linked to the illusions of the “communication society”. Europe is only a sum of incommunications and only endless negotiations prevent failure, whether about the enlargement process or the incessant resolution of crises. With incommunication, we rediscover the importance of the concept of otherness. Incommunication is an integral part of political construction. To revalue incommunication, and all the contradictory dimensions of history and politics, is to escape the constant devaluation of communication, often reduced to attempts at manipulation, and to legitimize intercomprehension as a modest but essential tool for the organization of debates. Incommunication, negotiation, and translation: three essential concepts to try to manage the question of otherness.