This book sets out a range of theoretical approaches that can underpin a socio-cultural view of public relations, offering students a new set of insights into public relations that illustrate the effects of the profession on its environment.

Culture, Race, and Class-Based Perspectives in Public Relations, edited by Damion Waymer, covers timely and understudied topics in the field of public relations (PR). Via research, case analysis, and theoretical discussion, the contributors to this volume explore the ways that scholars can address issues of voice (or the lack thereof) that marginalized publics have encountered in the past or are currently encountering in regard to matters of culture, race, and class. A central question this book asks is what role can and does a greater understanding of culture, race, and class play in helping scholars, teachers, students, and practitioners to aid in society becoming a better place to live and work? Culture as well as other divisive social constructs such as race and class must be unpacked, problematized, and considered carefully before the fully functioning vision of society can be deemed possible. Some topics included are the Black Panther Party and Native American Activist rhetorical PR, risk equity, critical race theory, and pedagogical approaches to teaching culture, race, and class. This edited volume serves an important early step by scholars—via the context of public relations—in this process of advocating social justice as well as organizations' role in helping society achieve these ends.

This text introduces a socio-cultural approach to public relations as a way of analysing the growing importance of public relations in its social, cultural and political contexts and brings theory to life with a range of case studies, including YouTube vlogging, the global fair trade movement and the 2016 EU referendum in the UK.

The published research shows the profession is facing crucial changes: the existence of new organisational structures better aligned with the social demands; the birth of new techniques to interact with organisations in a more trustworthy manner; and the growing pressure by social groups that act against and for social values, ideas and identities.

This book argues that we are witnessing the emergence of ‘commercial democracy’ in which public relations, promotional culture and the media play a new, central role. As the conventional democratic promise of political representation loses traction with the public in many countries, commercial culture steps into this vacuum by offering mirror forms of democracy. Commercial democracy promises representation, voice and agency to the public and in doing so creates new forms of social contract. Based on empirical material, this book examines the Public Relations (PR) produced by corporations and communications produced by charities in an intensely mediatized society. It presents a novel analysis of the shifting significance of brand and reputation. It analyses the ascendancy of commercial speech, PRs’ relationship to post-truth politics, and the transformation of cultural intermediaries into ‘social brokers’. As PR and promotional culture come to inhabit the realm of the social contract and new forms of politics, ‘the public’ and the very idea of ‘publicity’ are transformed.

While public relations practice has become increasingly globalized, scholars are still behind in theorizing about the intersections of culture, communication, and power at this level of practice. This volume emphasizes theories and concepts that highlight global interconnectedness through a range of interpretative and critical approaches to understanding the global significance and impacts of public relations. Providing a critical examination of public relations’ contribution to globalization and international power relations, the chapters included here explore alternative paradigms, most notably interpretive and critical perspectives informed by qualitative research. The volume encourages alternative ‘ways of knowing’ that overcome the shortcomings of positivist epistemologies. The editors include multiple paradigmatic approaches for a more complex understanding of the subject matter, making a valuable contribution toward widening the philosophical scope of public relations scholarship. This book will serve well as a core text in classes in international public relations, global public relations, and advanced strategic public relations. Students as well as practitioners of public relations will benefit from reading the perspectives included here.

Culture and Public Relations explores the impact of culture - societal and organizational - through the global lens of public relations. With contributors from Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, this collection offers international perspectives on an increasingly important area. It is required reading for scholars, researchers, and students in public relations and business.