Abstract
Without any doubt communication can move people to do things which they did not want without communication. The article interrogates, why communication is able to do that, what the sources of the power of communication are – namely on the other side from violence and authority. In discussion with the sociological, communication-scientific and speech-act literature the thesis is developed that the communication power appears when the communication partners have developed a relationship of respect. In such a relationship communication possesses the power to strengthen identity or to damage. The power of communication therefore results on relationship of respect and the identity-making ability of communication.
© 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
