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Les relations publiques au service du changement social Les approches cocréatives axées sur la communauté pour combattre les inégalités raciales
Abstract
Le présent article porte sur les pratiques de communication des organismes à but non lucratif (OBNL) et vise à approfondir la compréhension des pratiques de relations publiques qualifiées d’« activistes » des organismes de divers secteurs d’activité qui font face à la discrimination et qui sont engagés dans la lutte contre les inégalités raciales. La communication dite activiste joue un rôle essentiel en favorisant la création collective de sens, la formation de réseaux de soutien et l’expansion de mouvements de lutte contre les inégalités raciales grâce à la diffusion de contre-discours efficaces. L’objectif principal de cet article est donc de mettre en lumière les pratiques, tactiques et discours de relations publiques utilisés par les organismes engagés dans la lutte contre les inégalités raciales. En adoptant une approche dialogique et cocréative, cette étude cherche à souligner le rôle crucial des relations publiques dans la défense et l’amplification des voix des groupes marginalisés en mettant en relief les différentes dimensions de l’agentivité qui sous-tendent cette approche.
relations publiques, activisme, inégalités raciales, groupes marginalisés, agentivité
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A key focus of intersectional research is to engage with the power dynamics resulting from the sameness/difference paradox that Crenshaw (1991) originally identified in Black women’s legal status. This article extends intersectional research in public relations by investigating how the tensions of responding to this paradox unfold in professional life. I combine Carastathis’ (2017) use of intersectionality as a provisional concept that can prompt different thinking about taken-for-granted realities, and Jorbá and Rodó-Zárate’s (2019) formulation of intersectional categories as fluid structural and agentic properties of a particular situation, to understand how sameness/difference is strategically negotiated by public relations practitioners of colour, the tensions that arise during these negotiations, and the impact of such negotiations on their own professional standing, as well as on the unmarked, normative white, male and middle-class identities that characterize the ‘post-race’ professional spaces in which they work. I conclude that, without genuine recognition of the daily compromises and sacrifices that practitioners of colour have to make in order to foster perceptions of ‘sameness’ and keep ‘difference’ at bay, the professional field’s blindness to its white, male and middle-class archetypes will persist – and will continue to blight the careers of those for whom the comfort of belonging remains elusive.
Dialogic theory and engagement hold great potential as frameworks for thinking about how social media can facilitate public discussions about social issues. Of course, having the potential for dialogue is very different than finding actual instances of dialogic engagement. This article explores the philosophical and technical features of dialogue that need to be present for social media to be used dialogically. Through the metaphor of “architecture,” this article reimagines dialogic communication through social media. We introduce four design frameworks including user expectations, engagement, content curation, and sustainment that may facilitate dialogic engagement for fostering social change.
A recent critical turn to both public relations and institutional studies has highlighted ‘agency’ as a shared important theme. While public relations scholars call to bring back ‘agency’ into analysis of practice and process of public relations, neo-institutionalists use ‘agency’ to explain heterogeneity and innovation in institutional outcomes. In this context, this article proposes to use ‘agency’ as a meeting ground to explore how the two disciplines could engage in a dialogue that improves mutual understanding and theoretical enrichment of each other. It argues that institutional thoughts such as ‘embedded agency’, ‘institutional entrepreneurship’ and ‘institutional work’ advance understandings of the downplayed issues of power, diversity and activism in the public relations literature. In turn, the multi-paradigmatic public relations scholarship provides useful tools for analysing institutional agency. Also, this article discusses future research agenda to advance fruitful collaboration between the two domains.
Through a nationally representative U.S. survey of 1,214 participants, this study examined attitudes toward the role of corporations in public interest communications and response to a series of recent high-profile corporate social advocacy cases. Findings provide preliminary evidence for what types of public interests are most appropriate for organizations to address, based on perceived motivations, commitment to advocacy, and dimension of corporations as actors for social change. Results from this study suggest demographic differences by political viewpoints, age, income, education, and gender. However, an overall level of agreement across all respondents indicates that corporations should engage in addressing important social issues, which is particularly noteworthy given that the U.S. population skews conservative.
ABSTRACT
Translation theory has proved to be a versatile analytical lens used by scholars working from different traditions. On the basis of a systematic literature review, this study adds to our understanding of the ‘translations’ of translation theory by identifying the distinguishing features of the most common theoretical approaches to translation within the organization and management discipline: actor-network theory, knowledge-based theory, and Scandinavian institutionalism. Although each of these approaches already has borne much fruit in research, the literature is diverse and somewhat fragmented, but also overlapping. We discuss the ways in which the three versions of translation theory may be combined and enrich each other so as to inform future research, thereby offering a more complete understanding of translation in and across organizational settings.
Cet article presente en detail les etapes d’une methode d’analyse qualitative, l’analyse par theorisation ancree, qui est une adaptation-transformation de la grounded theory approach. La methode permet de theoriser un phenomene empirique a travers la codification, la categorisation, la mise en relation, l’integration, la modelisation et la theorisation. La presentation de la methode est illustree par des exemples de recherches menees par l’auteur.
This essay provides a response to the articles in this special issue by introducing the concepts of dialogue, groupthink, and long-term thinking. The philosophy of the Long Now Foundation (an organization devoted to sustainable development and long-term planning) is used as a frame for the essay because of its close fit with rhetoric and dialogue. The essay examines the contributions to the special issue and identifies similarities of thought and argument.
Previous research has regarded social media pages of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) as the organizations’ strategic space for public engagement and further collective action. However, individuals may take advantage of organizations’ pages to form networks beyond the organizations to achieve their own goals, extending their engagement to connective action. Based on content analysis of individuals’ posts on 100 NPOs’ social media pages, this exploratory study develops an original categorization scheme and reveals unique functions of and diverse networks initiated from such posts. In this way, this study combines research on public relations and connective action and captures the transformed roles and dynamics of the public and the organizations as they work toward social change.
This chapter confronts a long-standing discourse in the largest PR markets—the profession’s unsuccessful efforts to diversify PR’s overwhelmingly white, middle-class characteristics. This long-standing problem is exacerbated in the digital age as discrimination and racism have become ‘baked in’ features of platform algorithms and social media activity. The chapter’s focus is the UK where, despite many heralded diversity initiatives, few concrete changes have been recorded in UK PR. According to one industry survey, the needle on PR’s diversity gauge has scarcely budged; 91% of the Chartered Institute of Profession (CIPR) State of the Profession survey respondents in 2020 classified themselves as white—compared with 92% in 2019. The chapter analyses a 2020 webinar hosted by the CIPR’s Diversity and Inclusion Network; the chapter concludes that UK PR’s diversity and inclusion policies are linked chiefly with protectionist discourses, where diversity initiatives help to protect white spaces and mask racism in the profession.
Purpose
Despite an increasing body of research on value co-creation through social media, service organizations still face difficulties in leveraging the potential of social media communication to facilitate value co-creation with multiple stakeholders. This article addresses this challenge by adopting a multistakeholder, communication perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This article uses a conceptual approach and builds upon concepts widely recognized in the public relations (PR) literature to assess communication in multistakeholder social media-mediated exchanges.
Findings
This article discusses the role of social media communication in enabling value co-creation as well as the communicative challenges that come along with it. Moreover, applying PR academic insights to the service innovation and service recovery research fields, it advances theoretical propositions that predict how service organizations can successfully build upon the social media communication fundamentals – namely dialogue, engagement, social presence and conversational human voice – to trigger value co-creation with and among multiple stakeholders.
Originality/value
This article introduces selected relevant theoretical concepts from the PR field and develops novel theoretical propositions that are likely to make unique contributions to the service management field. The article also advances future research avenues that will help service and communication scholars together move the field forward.
This article employs queer of color (QOC) critique as an analytical lens for public relations research. Expanding QOC inquiry in public relations is important because transgender people of color have been excluded from mainstream public relations theory and research. To address this gap and empirical opportunity, this article uses qualitative interviews to explore the experiences of transgender communicators of color in the United States who participate in public relations work. Habitus, intersectionality and QOC critique provide a theoretical framework that informs analysis. Advocacy, representation and empowerment are identified as important themes that characterize the experiences of our participants. Structural, representational and political intersectionality emerged as key reasons for their public relations work. The inclusion of QOC critique in public relations research joins and extends critical public relations perspectives that counter hegemonic racial and gender dynamics that characterize the public relations field.
This research seeks to shed light on perceived brand authenticity as it relates to LGBTQ stakeholders. Through in-depth interviews, this study centers the voices of LGBTQ practitioners to explore perceived brand authenticity. The empirical purpose of this study is exploratory: to gain a better understanding of perceived brand authenticity of LGBTQ marketing, as well as its drivers and consequences. The practical purpose of this study provides insights for both scholars and practitioners, suggesting methods for engaging in meaningful LGBTQ brand communication. Drawing from extant research, this article grounds its exploration in four dimensions of perceived brand authenticity: credibility, integrity, symbolism, and continuity. The article then identifies the prominence of skepticism in working with historically marginalized groups and proposes adding a fifth dimension: representativeness.
This study explores the impact of organization–public relationships (OPRs) and issue-related situational factors on publics’ intention to participate in CSR campaigns, based on relationship management theory and the situational theory of problem-solving (STOPS). We surveyed 698 respondents living in the United States about two CSR campaigns, one focused on girls’ empowerment and one on deforestation. The results showed that situational motivation and OPRs were strongly and directly related to publics’ participation intention for both CSR campaigns. Only two situational perceptions – constraint recognition and involvement recognition – were indirectly related to publics’ participation. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings.
This article introduces the theory of the corporate responsibility to race (CRR). It holds that corporations should communicate in ways that advocate for racial justice, attempt to improve race relations, and support achieving a more equitable and harmonious society. Corporations have this responsibility to race because they have historically perpetuated and profited from racial oppression, making corporations contributors to, and benefactors of, racial injustice. However, recently corporations have been using their platforms to speak against racial injustice in an effort to improve race relations. CRR theory provides a new way to readily identify, understand, contextualize, theorize and analyze corporate communication about race. Although CRR emerges from a Unites States perspective, and as a public relations concept, it has global applications in any place where racial difference leads to oppression, and it has analytical value in any field where organizational resources can be leveraged to fight oppression.
Social media might represent the greatest social innovation/revolution in the history of communication, fundamentally altering how humans communicate, and the practice of public relations, journalism, advertising, marketing, and business. Dozens of theories and concepts including dialogue, engagement, identification, social presence, uses and gratifications, conversational human voice, and many others inform social media. However, what has commonly taken place in social media contexts and public relations has been the importation and application of other theories and concepts, rather than exploring and clarifying the unique features and capabilities of social media per se. This essay argues that social media represent a new communication paradigm, and this essay takes up the challenge of building social media theory for public relations by identifying features of social media that have emerged from existing research as fundamental to understanding social media, and eventually developing a theory(s) of social media for public relations.
Public communication campaigns aim to create social change by influencing audiences’ behaviors and thus help nonprofit organizations fulfill their mission. These campaigns, however, often fail to deliver their anticipated impact. Using public relations research as a theoretical lens, this paper's contribution is twofold: first, we develop a typology that classifies the different communication approaches used in public communication campaigns. Based on one of the most prominent public relations theories, the Four Models of Public Relations, we differentiate communication approaches along the dimensions of communication purpose and communication style. Combining these two dimensions in a typology, we identify the following communication approaches: directing, platforming, mobilizing, and involving. We provide numerous real‐life examples of public campaigns for each one. Second, we formulate propositions about these communication approaches’ effectiveness relying on a key concept of public relations research: namely, audience segmentation. Using the transtheoretical model, we show that audiences can be segmented along five “stages of readiness to adopt a promoted behavior.” Conceptualizing behavior change as an iterative, dynamic process that entails stage progresses as well as backdrops, we derive how audiences’ “stage of readiness” relates to the effectiveness of the identified communication approaches.
Notre article interroge la montée de la recherche partenariale ou collaborative (RPC) aux côtés de la recherche universitaire « classique ». Nous nous demandons dans quelle mesure la pratique de la recherche partenariale contribue à l'émergence de processus de collaboration, de médiation, de partage de connaissances, voire de « co-construction » de connaissances. La recherche partenariale vise à favoriser une collaboration continue et engagée de membres provenant de divers milieux, de la recherche mais aussi du terrain ou de la pratique. Nous montrons que les différences de rôles, de contextes de travail, de temporalités, d’identité peuvent expliquer les difficultés de mise en place d’échanges entre les divers milieux (universitaire, communautaire, syndicaux, ou autres, selon les cas) et nous identifions aussi les avantages de la RPC et les conditions permettant de profiter de ces avantages.
Within digital landscapes, public relations research suggests organizations and publics do not always operate in ways that scholars originally predict. Fitting with the theme of this special issue, this article challenges consensus-driven orientations of dialogue, embracing the postmodern concept of dissensus and critically contesting the dialogic promise of digital communication through a case of corporate political advocacy. By applying critical discourse analysis (CDA), this article analyzes Ben & Jerry’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the subsequent public response. This article advances dialogic theory by presenting an agonistic orientation toward dialogue.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the propositions of activism and prosocial public relations that an organization will engage in non-confrontational (prosocial) public relations and negotiation by building up internal resources, reaching out to target publics, and making connections to a cause to gain visibility and support.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was a single embedded case study that explored the public relations and communication tactics of a non-profit organization (NGO).
Findings
Observations from the case study support the proposition. This study begins to establish some of the public relations methods of how a successful prosocial NGO can successfully engage its publics through activism and negotiation.
Research limitations/implications
A single embedded case study is not generalizable to a population but is generalizable to theory so it is trustworthy and replicable when using a similar organization studying the same concepts in this paper.
Practical implications
An organization can reach out to publics through publicity, promotion, and information to raise the visibility of the organization and encourage active participation. The organization increased support for its cause and helped to establish the reputation of the organization as a legitimate, trustworthy and effective establishment. The study further uncovered nurturing relationships as an additional fourth element to the process of prosocial public relations.
Social implications
Activism, prosocial public relations and negotiation in corporate communications and in this case a non-profit can apply to increase well-being and society conditions.
Originality/value
This study is the only one of its kind to apply activism, prosocial public relations and negotiation theory to a practical case using a non-profit entity.
Social media provides scholars with important portals into the lives of marginalized communities and the movements organized to combat issues of race and racism in society. However, how to incorporate the seemingly unwieldy amount of social media data for research in our fields can pose challenges to further clarify how people navigate our social world and the issues with in it, but also how they organize to push for social change and equality. In what follows, the authors discuss how social media data can be used to enhance our studies of black lives in reflection of the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement on issues such as gun violence, public health, and higher education.
In response to a series of race-related incidents in the United States in 2014, Starbucks launched the Race Together Initiative, a multifaceted public relations campaign designed to spark a national dialogue on race. The campaign generated a great deal of discussion in the public sphere including some praise and much criticism. This article uses critical race theory as a theoretical lens to analyze the Race Together campaign as well as reactions to it in the news media and on Twitter. The purpose of this article is to use critical race theory to enrich understandings of the Race Together campaign as well as to explore the implications of corporate public relations campaigns that attempt to address sensitive social issues such as race.
Why are some voices louder in public debates than others? And why can’t all voices be equally heard? This book draws significant new meaning to the inter-relationships of public relations and social change through a number of activist case studies, and rebuilds knowledge around alternative communicative practices that are ethical, sustainable, and effective. Demetrious offers a powerful critical description of the dominant model of public relations used in the twentieth century, showing that ‘PR’ was arrogant, unethical and politically offensive in ways that have severely weakened democratic process and its public standing and professional credibility. The book argues that change within the field of public relations is imminent and urgent—for us all. As the effects of climate change intensify, and are magnified by high carbon dioxide emitting industries, vigorous public debate is vital in the exploration of new ideas and action and if alternative futures are to be imagined. In these conditions, articulate and persistent publics will appear in the form of grassroots activists, asking contentious questions about risks and tabling them for public discussion in bold, inventive, and effective ways. Yet the entrenched power relations in and through public relations in contemporary industrialized society provide no certainty these voices will be heard. Following this path, Demetrious theorises an alternative set of social relations to those used in the twentieth century: public communication. Constructed from communicative practices of grassroots activists and synthesis of diverse theoretical positions, public communication is a principled approach that avoids the deep contradictions and flawed coherences of essentialist public relations and instead represents an important ethical reorientation in the communicative fields. Lastly, she brings original new perspectives to understand current and emergent developments in activism and public relations brought about through the proliferation of Internet and digital cultures.
This volume applies postmodern theory to public relations, providing an alternative lens to public relations theory and practice and developing public relations theory within the context of postmodernism. Author Derina R. Holtzhausen focuses on two key issues and their application to public relations theory and practice: the postmodernization of society, and the possibilities postmodern theories offer to explain and understand public relations practice in today’s changing society. Holtzhausen's argument is that existing theory should be evaluated from a postmodern perspective to determine its applicability to postmodernity. Utilizing practitioner perspectives throughout the volume, she explores the practice of public relations as a form of activism.
This paper reports results of an empirical research which aimed to identify strategic principles of intervention in favor of collective action protest. Our literature review highlights two needs for knowledge : 1. identification of sociopolitical intervention strategies supported by theoretical and empirical considerations, and 2. contextual phenomena which influence the choice of these strategies. The achievement of 27 monographs on social struggles allows identifying middle range strategies and those processes that lead actors to carry out plans that were not always planned at the starting point. In conclusion, the author retains certain principles of his observations to any professional organizer to become more strategic.
Increasingly, scholars and practitioners are defining public relations as relationship management. The investigation reported herein is an attempt to identify through qualitative research and verify through quantitative research relationship dimensions upon which good organization-public relationships are initiated, developed, and maintained. The respondents for this study were local telephone subscribers who resided in territories that were recently opened to competition for local telephone service. A total of 384 respondents were surveyed.The results indicate that the relationship dimensions of trust, openness, involvement, investment, and commitment differentiate those respondents who indicated they would stay with the current provider, would sign up with a new provider, or were undecided as to what they would do. Conclusions as to the impact of public relations as relationship management are offered, as well as suggestions for future areas of research.Dr. Ledingham and Dr. Bruning are members of the Public Relations faculty at Capital University in Columbus, OH.
Group work aims both at helping individuals cope with personal difficulties and at eliminating social problems through collective action. Women's groups have made a unique contribution to linking personal and social change through their explicit dual focus. This paper deals with the different ways women use groups to mobilize their strengths towards social change. It begins by explaining why women chose all-female groups as the primary tool for building both individual strengths and a social movement. Key features of different group types are presented, including those focused primarily on social change and those in which social action is a secondary goal. The paper ends with a discussion of obstacles to social change and some ways women's groups can overcome them.
This article explores the concept of relationships in the theory and practice of public relations. Even though the public relations function builds and maintains organizations' relationships with publics, we found few definitions of such relationships in public relations literature. We also found the same paucity of useful definitions in the literature of other fields in which the concept of relationships is central.
Purpose
This paper evaluates the influence of the institutional context on the dynamics of institutional change and the possibilities for human agency in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparison of the emergence of the temporary work agency industry in five countries is used to illustrate the influence of three elements of the institutional context: high/low pressure field emergence, societal confidence, and power and discretion of the emerging industry.
Findings
The analysis reveals how these three elements affect the dynamics of new field development. It shows the interaction between institutionalising and de‐institutionalising pressures and the dialectical nature of the process when comparing the developments over time between different national (institutional) contexts.
Research limitations/implications
Propositions for further research are formulated. Combining the effects of the three situational variables three models of industry institutionalization are established: autonomous development, constrained development and societalisation.
Practical implications
The findings illustrate the situated condition of human and organizational agency in processes of institutional entrepreneurship. Our analysis also shows how early externally constraining effects slow down early institutionalisation of a new organizational field, but at the same time trigger processes of institutional structuration that strengthen the institutionalising role of the industry in the long run.
Originality/value
The comparative analysis helps to see how the dynamics of institutional renewal are affected by institutional context and highlights the situated nature of effective human agency.
This essay clarifies the concept of dialogue in public relations. As public relations theory and research move toward a two-way relational communication model, many scholars and practitioners are increasingly using the terms “dialogic” and “dialogue” to describe ethical and practical approaches to public relations. The concept of dialogue is deeply rooted in philosophy and relational communication theory. Its inclusion in the public relations vocabulary is an important step toward understanding how organizations can build relationships that serve both organizational and public interests. This essay traces the roots of dialogue, identifies several over-arching tenets, and provides three ways that organizations can incorporate dialogue into their communication with publics.
The Practice of Macro Social Work
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Analytical Skills for Community Organization Practice
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