Work

Envisioning PR research without taking organizations as collective actors for granted: A rejoinder and extension to Hou

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: In a recent article in Public Relations Inquiry, Jenny Hou has fittingly argued for a stronger focus on agency and actorhood in PR research. We point to two crucial aspects in which we think her arguments need to be extended, namely: (a) embracing the constitutive role of communication for organizational actorhood and agency, and (b) rethinking the role of PR in the constitution of organizational actors. We argue that such extension would allow for an important and radical twist in perspective that highlights a widely neglected question in PR research: What if the collective actorhood status of organizations is not treated as a given but rather arises from communicative attributions of such actorhood status to social entities? Finally, we develop key implications from this shift in perspective for PR scholarship, education, and practice.

Source: Public Relations Inquiry

DOI: 10.1177/2046147x20987337

Authors: Alexander Buhmann, Dennis Schoeneborn

Institutions: BI Norwegian Business School, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Copenhagen Business School

Language: English

Topic: Public Relations and Crisis Communication

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,000

OpenAlex ID: W3125821001

FWCI: 5.624

Cites: 38

Cited by: 26

Related to: 10