Discursive stickiness: Affective institutional texts and activist resistance

2021 ◽  
pp. 2046147X2110083
Author(s):  
Erica Ciszek ◽  
Richard Mocarsky ◽  
Sarah Price ◽  
Elaine Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Material Functions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gender Transgression ◽  
Historical Discourses ◽  
Institutional Texts ◽  
Public Relations Theory

Pushing the bounds of public relations theory and research, we explore how institutional texts have produced and reified stigmas around gender transgression and how these texts are bound up in moments of activism and resistance. We considered how different discursive and material functions get “stuck” together by way of texts and how this sticking depends on a history of association and institutionalization. Activism presents opportunities to challenge institutional and structural stickiness, and we argue that public relations can challenge the affective assemblages that comprise and perpetuate these systems, unsettling the historical discourses that have governed institutions by establishing new communicative possibilities.

scholarly journals Challenging hegemony and power in the sixteenth century: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude as antecedent of critical public relations theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
César García
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Early History ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Passive Resistance ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Books ◽  
Public Relations Theory ◽  
Voluntary Servitude

This article applies La Boétie’s concept of voluntary servitude to public relations historiography through a historic-critical analysis. Written in the same Renaissance era than other early history books of the history of public relations such as Machiavelli’s The Prince, The discourse of voluntary servitude (1552-1553) reveals to the publics the power that would lie in their refusal to engage with the authority (or in other words, the state, the prince or the monarch). The result is that, through a postmodern approach of emphasizing dissensus, the concept of voluntary servitude and its encouragement of activism and passive resistance can be considered an early precedent of critical public relations theory. Furthermore, without being judgmental, La Boétie invites us to a reflection on the role of self-responsibility of the publics in their power relationships with organizations.

Bernays, Edward (1891–1995)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Beard
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Way ◽  
Public Relations Theory

Edward Louis Bernays retains a place in the history of modernity for synthesizing Freudian psychology, political communication (or propaganda) and the media. The fruit of that synthesis, modern public relations theory, changed the way governments relate to their citizens and the ways businesses relate to their customers.

scholarly journals Law and Theory: Pre-modern and Contemporary Development of Islamic Discourse on Rebellion

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Tasha Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sunni Islam ◽  
Historical Discourses ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Obedience To Authority

Scholars have argued that the early theoretical and historical discourses concerning concepts of rebellion and political violence within Islam, specifically Sunni Islam, developed during a time of conflict within the early Islamic Community.  In their quest for stability and desire for the preservation of order, early Muslim jurists used key moments in the history of the early Community, as well as doctrinal sources, in order to construct a theoretical discourse addressing rebellion and obedience to authority.  Similar to the methods of the early jurists, the construction of contemporary discourses concerning obedience and rebellion have been used by modern Islamic scholars in order to confront issues involving protesting and political violence, especially as they relate to contemporary events such as socio-political movements, dissent, and notably, the Arab Uprisings. The purpose of this paper is to provide a survey of these pre-modern and contemporary discourses and how their contexts influence Islamic legal approaches.

scholarly journals JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, STANDARD OIL, AND THE RISE OF CORPORATE PUBLIC RELATIONS IN PROGRESSIVE AMERICA, 1902–1908

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-263
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Leccese
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Progressive Reform ◽  
The Public ◽  
Corporate Public Relations ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
History Of ◽  
Standard Oil Company ◽  
Oil Company

When the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil in 1911, it marked the end of an unsuccessful campaign by the company to improve its public standing. Standard Oil's failure to mollify public opinion in the aftermath of Ida Tarbell's muckraking masterpiece, “The History of the Standard Oil Company,” has resulted in a historiographical record that negatively assesses the company's response. This article reassesses the company response by placing it within the wider context of business history in the early twentieth century. It offers a detailed exploration of the public relations initiatives of Standard Oil from 1902 to 1908. Additionally, the article views the affair through the lens of standard corporate practices of the early Progressive Era, when large businesses had only begun to promote favorable public images. It argues that progressive reform inadvertently aided the rise of big business by teaching corporations the importance of promoting favorable public images. This wider context reveals that Standard Oil's public relations response, if unsuccessful, was not as aloof as others have argued. In fact, the company made a concerted effort to change public opinion about its business practices.

HISTORICAL FEATURES OF CORPORATE MEDIA FORMATION IN UKRAINE AND IN THE WORLD

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmytro Oltarzhevskyi
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Corporate Communications ◽  
Consumer Market ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Significance ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
External Connections

The article examines the world and Ukrainian history of corporate periodicals. The main purpose of this study is to reproduce an objective global picture of the emergence and formation of corporate periodicals, taking into account the business and socio-economic context. Accordingly, its tasks are to compare the conditions and features of corporate media genesis in different countries, to determine the main factors of their development, as well as to clarify the transformations of the terminological apparatus. The research is based on mostly foreign secondary scientific works published from 1915 to the present time. The literature was studied using methods such as overview, historical, functional and thematic analysis, description, and generalization. A systematic approach was used to determine the role and place of each element in the system, as well as to comprehensively consider the object in the general historical context and within the current scientific discourse. The method of systematization made it possible to establish internal and external connections, patterns and contradictions in the development of the object of study. The main historical milestones on this path are identified, examples of the first successful corporate publications and their contribution to business development, public relations, and corporate communications are considered. It was found that corporate media emerged in the mid-nineteenth century spontaneously, on the wave of practical business needs in response to industrialization, company increase, staff growth, and consumer market development. Their appearance preceded the formation of the public relations industry and changed the structure of the information space. The scientific significance of this research is that the historical look at the evolution of corporate media provides an understanding of their place, influence, capabilities, and growing communicative role in the digital age.

Life

2020 ◽  
pp. 8-32
Author(s):  
Benjamin Wiggins
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Insurance Company ◽  
Company Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Company ◽  
History Of Race

Chapter 1 focuses on the early history of race-based insurance. When the Newark-based Prudential Insurance Company of America incorporated in 1875, it revolutionized the American insurance industry by offering policies to the working class for an affordable three cents per week. What made the Prudential doubly unique was that the company insured not simply industrial laborers, but also African American laborers. The company was not in the progressive vanguard, though. Rather, the Northern upstart, in contrast to its Southern competitors, simply had not thought to craft a company policy to explicitly ban African Americans from purchasing life insurance. Just five years after becoming the first insurer to cover black lives, the Prudential began to charge differential, race-based premiums and commenced a public relations effort to defend its discriminatory practices. This foundational chapter traces how the theoretical work of scientific racism became embedded in the business practices of American insurers.

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