Public Relations, Cooperation, and Justice ─ From Evolutionary Biology to Ethics

Modern approaches to public relations cluster into three camps along a continuum:

• conflict-oriented egoism e.g. forms of contingency theory that focus almost exclusively on the wellbeing of an entity;
• redressed egoism e.g. subsidies to redress PR’s egoistic nature; and
• forms of self-interested cooperation e.g. fully functioning society theory.

Public Relations, Cooperation, and Justice draws upon interdisciplinary research from evolutionary biology, philosophy, and rhetoric to establish that relationships built on cooperation and justice are more productive than those built on conflict and egoistic competition. Just as importantly, this innovative book shuns normative, utopian appeals, offering instead only empirical, materialistic evidence for its conclusions.

This is powerful, multidisciplinary, and well-documented analysis, including specific strategies for the enactment of PR as a quest for cooperation and justice, aligns the discipline of public relations with basic human nature. It will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of public relations and communication ethics.

Charles Marsh is the Oscar Stauffer Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. His primary areas of research involve public relations, ethics and classical rhetoric. His research has appeared in Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Mass Media Ethics and other journals. He is the author of Classical Rhetoric and Modern Public Relations: An Isocratean Model and co-author of the textbooks Public Relations: A Values-Driven Approach and Strategic Writing: Multimedia Writing for Public Relations, Advertising and More. His current research interests involve examining the fully functioning society theory of public relations. Pioneered by Robert L. Heath, that theory holds that a core function of public relations involves working to build humane and effective societies. Toward that end, he is examining public relations through the lenses of evolutionary biology, social justice and classical rhetoric.