Understanding Public Relations

Lee Edwards is Professor of Strategic Communications and Public Engagement in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is particularly interested in the relationship between strategic communications and inequalities, social justice, democracy, and media literacy. She has published a wide range of articles, books, chapters and reports on topics including deliberative engagement in media policymaking, media literacy, public relations as a cultural intermediary, diversity in public relations, and public relations and democracy.

• Chapter 1: Starting points: Defining socio-cultural research in public relationsChapter 2: Public relations as promotion: The production and circulation of meaningChapter 3: Public relations, discourse and powerChapter 4: A political economy of public relationsChapter 5: Deliberative democracy and public relationsChapter 6: Public relations and the public sphereChapter 7: Public Relations and globalisationChapter 8: Public relations as an occupational field: The professional projectChapter 9: Race and Class in / and PRChapter 10: Feminist public relations: Performativity, Black feminism, postfeminismChapter 11: Ethics, Public Relations and SocietyChapter 12: Conclusion: Public relations beyond the organisation

Understanding Public Relations pushes the genre of the public relations text into new territory. Lee Edwards looks beyond organisational boundaries to vividly illustrate and explore the public relations occupation as a social and cultural practice.