Publications

International Public Relations: Perspectives from deeply divided societies is positioned at the intersection of public relations (PR) practice with socio-political environments in divided, conflict and post-conflict societies. While most studies of PR focus on the activity as it is practiced within stable democratic societies, this book explores perspectives from contexts that have tended to be marginalized or uncharted. 

Presenting research from a diverse range of societies still deeply divided along racial, ethnic, religious or linguistic lines, this collection engages with a variety of questions including how PR practice in these societies may contribute to our understanding of PR theory building. Importantly, it highlights the role of communication strategies for actors that still deploy political violence to achieve their goals, as well as those that use it in building peace, resolving conflict, and assisting in the development of civil society. 

Featuring a uniquely wide range of original empirical research, including studies from Israel/Palestine, Mozambique, Northern Ireland, former Yugoslavia, former Czechoslovakia, Spain, Malaysia and Turkey, this groundbreaking book will be of interest not only to scholars of public relations, but also political communication, international relations, and peace and conflict studies.

Communication in the public sphere as well as within organizational contexts has attracted the interest of researchers over the past century. Current forms of citizen engagement and community development, partly enabled through digital communication, have further enhanced the visibility and relevance of non-profit communication. These are performed by the civil society, which is 'the organized expression of the values and interests of society' (Castells, 2008) in the public sphere. Non-profit communication feeds the public sphere as 'the discursive processes in a complex network of persons, institutionalized associations and organizations,' whereas those 'discourses are a civilized way of disagreeing openly about essential matters of common concern' (Jensen, 2002).
Despite the relevance in the public sphere, non-profit communication was never properly defined within communication research. The aim of the present book is to offer an overview and report on Strategic Communication for Non-Profit-Organisations and the Challenges and Alternative Approaches. Considering the assumption that a key principle of strategic communication is the achievement of organisational goals, the majority of research developed in the field has used business environments to develop theories, models, empirical insights and case studies. Here, we take a step towards new approaches centred on the concept of non-profit in various dimensions and from various perspectives, showing the diversity and complexity around this subject and at the same time the need of further theoretical and empirical work that provides frameworks and also tools for further understanding of the phenomena. 

The diversity represented in this book, not only in respect to author nationality, but also in theoretical and empirical approaches, reflects one of the most salient features of the European Communication Research and Education Association: Organisational and Strategic Communication Section’s identity. The spectrum of themes analysed in this collection – crisis communication, government communication, organisational communication and social media, corporate social responsibility, health media relations – demonstrates the range and vitality of organisational and strategic communication research in Europe.

 

This book aims to analyse how contemporary developments in strategic and organisational communication theory contribute to understanding the dialogic paradigm. Special attention is paid both to theoretical approaches to dialogue and to the new tendencies in strategic and organisational communication by looking at campaigns, instruments, and messages that promote dialogue with different publics.

With the collected articles on this volume we attempt to keep alive the debate initiated at the Organisational and Strategic Communication Section Workshop of ECREA that was hosted by the University of Beira Interior and organised by the Laboratory of Online Communication (LabCom), in Covilhã, Portugal, on 5 and 6 May 2011.