This article revisits the place of normative and other practical issues in the wider conceptual architecture of communication theory, building on the tradition of philosophical pragmatism. The article first characterizes everyday concepts of communication as the accumulated outcome of natural evolution and history: practical resources for human existence and social coexistence. Such practical concepts have served as the point of departure for diverse theoretical conceptions of what communication is. The second part of the article highlights the past neglect and current (...) potential of normative communication theories that ask, in addition, what communication ought to be, and what it could be, taking the relationship between communication and justice as a case in point. The final section returns to empirical conceptualizations of different institutions, practices and discourses of communication: In a pragmatist perspective, it is conceivable to study not only what communication is, but also what it could be, and what it ought to be. (shrink)