Public Relations in a Global Context: The Relevance of Critical Modernism as a Theoretical Lens

This article aims to interrupt the modernist goals of public relations research that predominantly privileges a management discourse. The emergence of the intertwined nature of cultural phenomena in the context of globalization necessitates alternative ways of thinking about public relations. This article explores the possibilities of postmodernism to disrupt the accepted norms of the dominant discourse of public relations. However, given the fragmented nature of the discursive space in postmodernism, this article advances the argument that critical modernism provides a relevant alternative to the modernist paradigm of public relations research by utilizing globalization theories. It suggests a space for articulating the roles of power and structure situated within the constitutive spaces of discourse.     

全球经济危机中我国公共行政发展模式初探

21世纪初的两场全球经济危机,充分暴露了西方传统公共行政学中所存在的问题和不足。而在应对这两次危机的过程中,我国的公共行政研究得以不断地完善、发展,并对解决经济危机发挥了积极的作用,也使我国公共行政学重回到世界公共行政学界的中心。文章从我国现代公共行政学发展历程入手,以资本主义国家重大经济危机为鉴,提出了我国公共行政学发展的理论基础、发展特点及实践价值,以期为推进我国公共行政学的国际化做出贡献。     

Global Public Relations: A Cross-Cultural Study of the Excellence Theory in South Korea

This study applies the global theory of generic principles and specific applications, based on the excellence study, to South Korea. Data were collected using the International Association of Business Communicators's excellence questionnaire and Hofstede's cultural values questionnaire. Results show that the excellence theory could be used to explain South Korean public relations practice. In addition, findings on influence of societal culture show that excellent public relations practice in South Korea may be enhanced by collectivism and dynamic elements of Confucianism.     

The Government Communication Decision Wheel: Toward a Public Relations Model for the Public Sector

We argue that the existing public relations and communication models do not adequately account for the unique environmental characteristics of the public sector. By reviewing the public sector environment literature, we identify 8 attributes that affect government public relations: politics, focus on serving the public, legal constraints, extreme media and public scrutiny, lack of managerial support for public relations practitioners, poor public perception of government communication, lagging professional development, and federalism. We then review 5 existing public relations models, arguing that none of these models fully incorporates the unique environmental characteristics of the public sector. We conclude by proposing a new model: the government communication decision wheel.     

Public Support for American Presidents: A Cyclical Model

The approval accorded to Presidents by the American public isfound to follow a cyclical pattern over time. All Presidentsbegin their terms with great popularity, experience parabolicdeclines, steadily lose popular support for about three years,and then recover some at the ends of their terms. These distinctivecycles, it is argued, reflect regular expectation/disillusionmentcycles among the less well-informed segments of the public andare tied to the four-year election calendar. The extraordinaryfit of parabolic curves to actual presidential approval leadsto the suspicion that presidential approval may be almost whollyindependent of the President's behavior in office, a functionlargely of inevitable forces associated with time.     

中国当下新启蒙语境中的“广州再前沿”问题——文化广州的历史铭刻、文化基因与当代使命

关于广州历史,人们通常用“四地说”予以概括,但这应当说主要是事实性表述,而不是更具价值性的表述。如果要对广州进行更具价值性的表述,只需要两句话：千年绵延的世界性滨海商都;中国现代化的前沿。准确而透彻认知广州的历史铭刻,以及由此历史铭刻而酿就的城市历史文化基因,对于面临新拐点的今日中华文明转型中“广州再前沿”问题具有特别重要的意义,文章着重对此进行了分析。     

A Model of Choice for Public Policy

Punctuated equilibrium is supposed to be a viable alternativeto incrementalism, and, indeed, the authors of the model havesometimes made such claims. But punctuated equilibrium was developedto explain change in policy subsystems and does not serve asa complete model of policy choice in the same way that incrementalismhas served. This article develops a full-blown and viable modelof choice for public policy based on disproportionate informationprocessing. Its dynamics are based in the allocation of politicalattention to policy topics and the manner in which politicalsystems process information. The model leads directly to outcomesthat are consistent with punctuated equilibrium and are notgenerally consistent with incrementalism. Incrementalism, however,may be deduced from the model as a special case. The model isbest tested using stochastic process approaches. Incrementalismlogically must yield a normal distribution of outcomes, butdisproportionate information processing yields leptokurtic outcomes.Adding institutional constraints only makes the stochastic processimplications more severe. To support our arguments, we presentboth static and dynamic simulations of these processes. We alsoshow that these simulations are consistent with observationsof U.S. government budgets.     

A Hypothetical Model of a New Business System Responsive to the Global Environment: A Connected Model

Within developing economies, in particular, but also in underdeveloped economies, current business priorities and practices have appeared to be incongruent with the general discourse of environmental sustainability. It is clear that the different players within the economic framework: government, education system, producers, and consumers—appear to hold differing interests, none of which places any meaningful emphasis on environmental sustainability. Following this observation, this paper seeks to argue for a change of tactics within which current players are treated as stakeholders and co-opted into a new business model that is fundamentally sensitive to the promotion and development of environmental sustainability. This approach is intended to interconnect the key market players’ interests and systematically weave them into a modern environmentally sustainable compliant business ethos.      

Volunteer Reliability in Nonprofit Organizations: A Theoretical Model

The reliability of volunteers is a major concern for many nonprofit organizations. To address this problem in more detail, we develop a theoretical model of volunteer reliability based on psychological contract theory. By taking this perspective as a starting point, we explore how individual volunteer characteristics, organizational factors, and sociological developments shape the exchange of inducements and contributions between volunteers and nonprofit organizations. We discuss how these factors can create tensions in the psychological contract and determine the extent to which volunteers behave reliably. As such, we develop a theoretical framework for addressing the reliability problem in volunteer management.     

Global Capital and Labor Internationalism in Comparative Historical Perspective: A Marxist Analysis

Labor internationalism has historically developed in response to the increasing globalization of capital, but economic factors in themselves do not provide a sufficient explanation for the relative success of international solidarity in specific geographical and historical contexts. In the past, movements of international solidarity have tended to coalesce where inclusive class-based mobilizations in individual countries have polarized local class conflicts in ways that suggest a convergence of working-class interests on the international plane. As an emergent strategy of economistic labor organizations in various sectors of the capitalist world economy, however, internationalism may in fact promote the politicization of economic trade union struggles and thus catalyze broader levels of class solidarity and unity on the national and local planes.     

Reflexive Development: A Model for Helping Social Workers Contribute to a Sustainable Global Future

It is difficult for many social work students to grasp the importance they and their traditional client base play in global environmental issues. International development generally focuses on supporting human development through the development of natural resources. However, increased human consumption everywhere in the world is disrupting the global system upon which all life depends. Continued Western consumption habits are simply unsustainable. It is therefore incumbent that any increase in consumption, even in the ‘developing’ world, be considered in terms of global environmental sustainability; change must also occur within the developed world. To address this problem, reflexive processes that support transnational analysis and action must be developed. This paper suggests classroom activities that help students analyze and problem solve around this process of Reflexive Development.     

Gambling Revenues as a Public Administration Issue: Electronic Gaming Machines in Victoria

Gambling activities and the revenues derived have been seen as a way to increase economic development in deprived areas. There are also, however, concerns about the effects of gambling in general and electronic gaming machines (EGMs) in particular, on the resources available to the localities in which they are situated. This paper focuses on the factors that determine the extent and spending of community benefit-related EGM-generated resources within Victoria, Australia, focusing in particular on the relationships between EGM activity and socio-economic and social capital indicators, and how this relates to the community benefit resources generated by gaming.     

Public Relations and Engagement: Theoretical Imperatives of a Multidimensional Concept

Engagement has emerged as important concept in public relations, as stakeholders challenge the discourse of organizational primacy and organizations prioritize the need for authentic stakeholder involvement. As a multidimensional concept, engagement offers a foundation for building organizational relationships, and provides a means to facilitate community–organization interaction. This special issue on engagement and public relations presents a body of work that both explicates and expands the theoretical foundations of engagement, and contributes to scholarly understanding of its contexts, processes, and outcomes.     

The LivePerson Model for Delivery of Etherapy Services: A Case Study

ABSTRACT

There are several models for the delivery of etherapy on the Internet. This article presents a case study of one model, the LivePerson website. The model is based on a privately owned infrastructure through which etherapy is practiced by licensed counselors using chat or e-mail for service delivery. A content analysis of the website is presented, including policies, number of consumers, consumer ratings, and therapists’ degrees, licensure, age, sex, race, fees, and languages offered. In addition, the experiences of one LivePerson practitioner are presented to highlight methods, processes, and ethical concerns. This case study of the LivePerson model for service delivery highlights many of the benefits and concerns previously discussed in the literature related to etherapy. In addition, concerns are raised that there may be some conflict of interest when ethical standards of practice are delivered within the context of a profit-making company.     

公共行政视角下兰斯塔德区域规划及启示

荷兰兰斯塔德地区是国际多中心城镇群的典范,拥有着丰富的区域协调规划经验。鉴于兰斯塔德的区域规划顶层设计基本架构特征,从公共行政视角分析兰斯塔德的区域规划特征,了解兰斯塔德在区域协调中的现状障碍。文章重点介绍兰斯塔德在面临区域问题中公共行政所进行的改革策略,展现政府为实现区域规划在配置空间资源与分配社会经济资源等过程中所面临的选择与尝试,最后总结了该区域的经验教训并提出了可供参考的借鉴与建议。     

The Polls Trends: Twenty Years of Public Opinion about Global Warming

Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of news organization,academic, and nonpartisan public opinion surveys on global warming,yet there exists no authoritative summary of their collectivefindings. In this article, we provide a systematic review oftrends in public opinion about global warming. We sifted throughhundreds of polling questions culled from more than 70 surveysadministered over the past 20 years. In compiling the availabletrends, we summarize public opinion across several key dimensionsincluding (a) public awareness of the issue of global warming;(b) public understanding of the causes of global warming andthe specifics of the policy debate; (c) public perceptions ofthe certainty of the science and the level of agreement amongexperts; (d) public concern about the impacts of global warming;(e) public support for policy action in light of potential economiccosts; and (f) public support for the Kyoto climate treaty.