1. Øyvind Ihlen, Prof.Dr.
PR and Disruptive Society:
Perspectives from Social Theory
PR and Disruption: Embracing and Surviving Change
10 July, 2013, the London College of Communication (LCC),
University of the Arts, London

3. 3/10
The rest
of us….
Functionalists
The PR research map of the 1990s, early 2000s

4. Dozier, David M., & Lauzen, Martha M. (2000). Liberating the intellectual domain from
the practice: Public relations, activism, and the role of the scholar. Journal of Public
Relations Research, 12(1), 3-22.

5. A quest for a (new) identity for PR research
Premise: Need to demonstrate academic value

6. 1. A new compass …
2. … a new focus on context …
What?
3. … new concepts …
4. … critical issues …
5. … (c)empirical avenues …
Conclusion

8. 1. A new compass …
… a key aim of public relations is to
achieve or resist change by persuasively
advancing and potentially privileging
particular meanings and actions
(Leitch & Motion, 2010)

9. 1. A new compass …
• research domain: consequences,
not only effectiveness
• key goal: to answer how PR work
and what it does in, to, and for
organizations, and the society as a
whole

10. 2. … a new focus on context …
diagnosis of society and remedies…
… a need to engage with social theory in a
broader and deeper sense

11. 2. … a new focus on context …
[A]n organization may be seen as located
within one or several fields, in which they
compete to position themselves in the
social order. The actors seek to get their
issues discussed, defined, and settled
[with the help of public relations]
(Ihlen, 2009)

12. 12/11

13. 3. … new concepts …
• trust and legitimacy
• understanding and reflection

14. 3. … new concepts …
In order to handle the complexity and
challenges created by public pressure,
modernization, rationalization and social
change, communicators need to approach
their tasks in a reflective manner
(Holmström, 2004; van Ruler & Verčič, 2005)

15. 3. … new concepts …
three functions of reflection:
•self understanding
•sensitivity in external observation
•own presentation
(Holmström, 2009)

17. 4. … critical issues …
• power
• behavior
• language and communication

18. 4. … critical issues …
constitutive effect: elements of
communication, rather than being fixed in
advance, are reflexively constituted within the
act of communication itself (Craig, 2000)

19. 5. … (c)empirical avenues …
• building from social theory…
• … and a constructivist perspective

20. Conclusion
polyphony

21. Conclusion
[Organizations need] to embrace diversity
and variety and to balance the wisdom of
its many voices with the effort to secure
clarity and consistency in its overall
expression
(Christensen, Fuat Firat, & Torp, 2008)

22. 1. Compass: non-instrumental
2. Context: social perspective
Recap
3. Concepts: trust, reflection
4. Crit. issues: power, behavior, comm.
5. (C)empirical av.: soc. constr.
Conclusion

23. Ihlen, Ø., & Verhoeven, P. (2012). A public relations identity for the 2010s.
Public Relations Inquiry, 1(2), 159-176.