Public Relations in Global Cultural Contexts: Multi-Paradigmatic Perspectives

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.

Nilanjana Bardhan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale, USA. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of public relations (especially in global contexts) and intercultural/international communication. She has practitioner experience in India and in the US, and her scholarship has appeared in a number of edited book collections and journals such as the Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Communication Management, Communication Education, Mass Communication and Society, and the Journal of Health Communication.
C. Kay Weaver is a Professor in the Department of Management Communication at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. She has taught across the fields of public relations, communication, media, and film studies in the UK and New Zealand. Her research has been published in a number of books and edited collections and in journals such as Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Media, Culture & Society, New Media & Society, and Feminist Media Studies.