Description:
Timely, authoritative and provocative, this major volume meets the emerging need for an introduction to critical public relations, to look at the diverse perspectives in the field and to construct a tentative mapping of possible ways forward. This book takes stock of how, and where, critical public relations has emerged via three main foci: theoretical traditions; critique and action; along with methodological and future implications.
Compiled by a high-profile and widely respected team of academics and bringing together the key scholars in the field, this comprehensive international collection will be a major contribution to forming and directing how critical theory increasingly informs public relations and communication. It is an essential reference for educators, scholars and students around the world in the field of public relations and critical theory. Also of interest to scholars in advertising, communication, consumer studies, cultural studies, marketing, media studies and sociology.
Review Quotes:
'It's hard to imagine a single book on PR with so many subjects and perspectives. Only the most purblind observer can ignore its power in the modern age. Public relations is in everyone's life, and is everyone's business. This book makes PR's 'invisible government' visible and potent, and proclaims the discipline's intellectual liberation.' - Simon Moore, Associate Professor, Bentley University, USA
'This collection of perspectives is nothing less than transformative. I know of no scholarly book that has equaled this book's potential to rebrand public relations in the eyes of the world. The editors and the cadre of first-rate scholars have produced a landmark collection. It is a grand achievement that, at once, has the depth and imagination to not only reframe PR but to instruct and inspire its practitioners.' - Robert E. Brown, Professor, Communications and Public Relations, Salem State University, USA and author of The Public Relations of Everything
'Thomas Jefferson once stated "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." For those who practice public relations, The Routledge Handbook of Critical Public Relations is a very patriotic book.' - Anthony R. Pratkanis, Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA