Global Governance in the Making: Prospects for a New World Order in Tackling Economic Injustice

One of the proposed solutions to economic justice is the concept of global governance, a world order wherein nations, formerly self-seeking and sovereign, would unselfishly cooperate towards solving problems with worldwide repercussions. Is this a utopian ideal or is this an immediate reality? To what extent is this possible, much less achievable?     

Influencing economic change: Government interventions, disputes between sectors, and public relations campaigns in Israel

As with the earlier downturn of the Great Depression, the current global economic crisis has revived direct government intervention in the marketplace. It has also stimulated wider contemporary debates on the role of government in financial markets that feature not just funding issues, but questions of regulation and social legitimacy, and a greater acknowledgement of distinctive national–international tensions rather than a converging consensus around continuing to deregulate a global market. This article seeks to provide historical perspectives to these debates by considering the role of government, with the involvement of public relations, during economic changes in Israel. It focuses on major campaigns in Israel around the roles, and inter-sector disputes, of three major sectors: agriculture during the first half of the 20th century; industrialization from the 1960s to the 1990s; and commerce and competition from the 1990s into the 21st century. The article tracks these three historical transformations as part of Israel's gradual shifting from a nation economy toward a global economy. It concludes that, in the present downturn, the Israeli experiences offer a reminder of the impact of communication campaigns, interwoven with national identity, on economic changes, and the potential for public relations strategies and tactics to have long-term effects.     

Innovation, workers skills and industrial relations: Empirical evidence from firm-level Italian data

The shifting of labour demand toward relatively more skilled workers has been a hot issue in the economic field for many years. A consolidated explanation for the upskilling phenomenon is that technological–organisational changes have driven the labour demand with detrimental consequences for less skilled workers (skill-biased technological–organisational change). In order to upgrade the skill workforce the firm has at least two main channels at its disposal: the external labour market strategy, mainly based on hiring and firing mechanisms; the internal labour market strategies, which improve the skill base of the employees through training activities.The main objective of the present work is to verify the relations between innovative strategies and both the workforce composition and the training activities, within an integrated framework that also leads us to consider the role of specific aspects of the industrial relations system.The firm level analysis is based on original datasets which include data on manufacturing firms for two Italian local production systems, located in the Emilia-Romagna region.The results suggest that the firms use both the two channels to improve their skill base, which is actually related to the innovation activities, although there is weak supporting evidence of the use of external labour markets to upgrade the workforce skills: the upskilling phenomenon seems to be associated to specific innovative activities in the technological sphere, while specific organisational aspects emerge as detrimental for blue collars. On the side of internal labour market strategies the evidence supports the hypothesis that innovation intensity induces the firms to implement internal procedures in order to upskill the workforce, confirming the importance of internal labour market strategies. Moreover, we have recognized the important role of firm level industrial relations in determining the training activities for the blue collar workers.     

State of international public relations research: Narrowing the knowledge gap about the practice across borders

This study examined the state of international public relations research to identify prominent trends, themes, and theoretical paradigms in the field. A content analysis of 200 articles from 12 peer reviewed journals shows that international public relations scholarship has increased steadily in the last four years. Likewise, the areas being studied by academics in the field have also diversified. The findings point to areas and regions that remain understudied and should be explored to continue building knowledge in the field in general, and more specifically, in theory development.     

Return on investment (ROI) of international public relations: A country-level analysis

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between economic outcome and international public relations investment by other countries in the U.S. Based on country-level data analysis, this study found that the number of international public relations contracts by other countries in the U.S. was positively related to (1) U.S. imports from those countries, (2) U.S. direct investment to those countries, and (3) the number of U.S. tourists visiting those countries, after controlling for economic size.     

Teaching international public relations: An examination of individual and institutional attributes of public relations educators in the U.S.

The study reported here provides an examination of the attributes of selected public relation educators and their institutions in relation to the teaching of international public relations as a course or as a part of a course.     

LANGUAGE, experience and history: 'What happened' in World War II

Sociolinguistics can contribute to our understanding of history by showing how language helps to develop and maintain a sense of a communal past. This paper focuses on the referring terms for the World War II experiences of European Jews and of Japanese Americans, as evinced through various sources of public discourse (newspapers, library cataloguing systems, book titles). The analysis of linguistic form and function combines with discussion of the social and cultural history of Holocaust awareness in the U.S. to show how the word Holocaust (as a referring term for the experience of European Jews) became part of an American lexicon. A comparison of this stable term with the variety of nouns and verbal expressions used to index the Japanese American experience allows us to more fully consider how language helps to create and preserve collective memory.     

Telling the American story to the world: The purpose of U.S. public diplomacy in historical perspective

This paper seeks to provide an historical reflection on the central purpose of U.S. public diplomacy through an examination of the manifest mandate of the three major institutional settings for such international communication programs, i.e., the Committee on Public Information, the Office of War Information, and the United States Information Agency, and to shed light on the current public diplomacy endeavor spearheaded by the Department of State. The review demonstrates that U.S. public diplomacy has been principally an ad hoc instrument of American foreign policy to meet wartime exigencies and has been underscored by the promotion of American values of democracy and freedom. Over the years, it has expanded to encompass multiple modes of engagement, while at the same time there has been constant tension concerning the role of public diplomacy as a strategic, policy function versus merely as a “mouthpiece” within the foreign affairs apparatus. All of these themes continue to reverberate in the contemporary practice of public diplomacy.     

Perceptions of economic globalization,emerging influence,and international organizations in India

This article presents an exploratory study—based on the emerging economy context of India—which examines the relationships among citizens’ perceptions of economic globalization, their country's “emerging influence”, other key nations, and large international organizations. Demographic and socioeconomic factors influenced respondents’ perceptions of economic globalization and emerging influence. Perceptions of economic globalization influenced emerging influence. Perceptions of international organizations were influenced by views of emerging influence, key nations, and economic globalization. Perceptions of key nations were influenced by views of emerging influence and international organizations. The findings are relevant for extended engagement in global public relations and public diplomacy.     

Government Social Responsibility in Public Diplomacy: Russia's strategic use of advertorials

The current study analyzes Russia's use of the advertorial as a tool of direct communication with readers of the Washington Post and The Times of India. The study introduces the concept of government social responsibility (GSR) and discusses its role in government to foreign citizen public diplomacy.     

Acceptance of democracy and public relations: Attitudes in a transitional country

The study explores the relationship between acceptance of democracy and opinions about public communication used by the private sector in television newscasts in Croatia, a country transitioning to democracy. A survey administered to students at a large University in Zagreb found inconsistent responses to the items that measured acceptance of democracy, indicating that young Croatians in the study may still be in a political “gray zone” and may not have a full understanding of the precepts of democracy. However, there was a positive correlation between opinions about public relations media practices and acceptance of democracy. The study suggests that it is not enough to use a theoretical framework of global public relations that characterizes a country as a democracy or not, but rather to recognize that democratization is a process. Many people in transitional societies may be closer on the continuum to traditional communist points of view than to newer democratic views; such understanding can help provide a theoretical understanding of transitional public relations.     

Beyond excellence: Extending the generic approach to international public relations: The case of Bosnia

This article extends the generic approach to international public relations research. The current generic approach, based on the Excellence theory of public relations, suggests a normative framework to study and evaluate international public relations practices. This generic approach has great potential for focusing international research and clarifying infrastructure, geopolitical, legal, cultural, media, and other important variables. Unfortunately, this generic approach has been mainly used to confirm the Excellence model of public relations. Thus, it falls short of providing scholars and practitioners the tools they need to conduct and study global public relations. This paper seeks to clarify international public relations research by explicating rhetorical generic theory (RGT).     

The rise and fall of the Institute for Government Public Information Research, 1978–1981

This historical case study recounts the short life of the Institute for Government Public Information Research at American University in Washington, DC. It was established in 1978 and was largely defunct by 1981. The significance of this brief event is that it helps illuminate the status of the subject of the Institute's attentions, namely the practice and study of government public relations. The somewhat shaky status of public information officers in the federal executive branch partly explains the fate of the Institute. It could not thrive in a field that itself was not thriving. The case study serves as an historical documentation of this (failed) effort to elevate the practice and study of public relations in the American national government in face of the second class status that Congress has relegated the profession to.     

The never changing story: Eight decades of the government public relations department of Thailand

The Government Public Relations Department (GPRD) of Thailand has existed in various forms since the country’s governing system changed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one in 1932. This study reflects on how the GPRD’s practices have been affected by the country’s governing and political environments over time. It has periodized the eighty-four-years of development of the GPRD into sequential phases based on a continuum approach. The GPRD’s roles and duties are detailed based on four periods: Beginning Period, Growth Period, Full Expansion Period, and Weak Period. The GPRD was firstly positioned to be the primary government tool for introducing the concept of democracy to the Thai populace and disseminating information about government policies, activities and propagandistic campaigns. Through Thailand’s periods of political instability, World War II, the Cold War and rise of communism in Indochina, globalization, and the current digital age, the GPRD has expanded in its role within the government as the center of communication for a wide variety of governmental organizations. However, even as it has expanded and undergone re-organization, it has been criticized for being a government mouthpiece rather that a reliable source of factual information. Working under the direct oversight of the various governments led by the military, as well as both appointed and elected politicians, the GPRD has struggled to maintain a balanced public relations role at the juncture of Thai politics and public interest.     

War mobilization and the life course: A cohort of World War II veterans

Men experience historical events, such as wars, at different times in their lives and are thereby influenced in different ways. Using data on a cohort of veterans from World War II, this study investigates the proposition that entry into the armed forces at a relatively early age maximized discontinuity and facilitated a redirection of the life course through psychological development, a delayed entry into family roles, and greater advancement opportunity. By comparison, later entry into the service favored greater risk of family and career disruption within a pattern of life continuity from adolescence to the middle years. Results from the analysis are consistent with these expectations.     

Public relations and lobbying: New legislation in Slovenia

This article reviews lobbying in the political sciences and public relations literature, and it also provides a conceptualization for the regulatory practices of lobbying around the world. Then, it presents the newest law on lobbying instituted in 2010 in the Republic of Slovenia, the Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act. This Act treats lobbying in two ways: (1) as a communication technique used by interest groups to privately influence government officials and (2) as a process of access to information by the same interest groups. This inconsistency follows the same trend for lobbying regulation in Europe and raises important questions regarding lobbying practice and regulation. Lobbying is fundamentally a public relations practice exercised in private and public sectors, and it uses direct and indirect communication between interest groups and their respective government.     

William Blake and America: Freedom and Violence in the Atlantic World

Abstract

In this article, I consider the absence of a general readership of William Blake's poetry in nineteenth-century Britain and compare that neglect to the American Transcendentalists' reading of Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) in the 1840s. The American interest in Blake's poetry is complemented by his fascination with the events in the Atlantic World in the years culminating in the American War of Independence. I will offer a reading of Blake's America: a Prophecy (1793) showing that the Civil War fulfilled his prophecy of inevitable future conflict. This is developed first by considering Ralph Waldo Emerson's changing responses to slavery and race during the turbulent middle decades of the century, and then by addressing Walt Whitman's attempt to negotiate postbellum America. This negotiation, I argue, results in the emergence of those two powerfully conflicting strains in his mature poetry: emancipatory fervour and simultaneous despair at the violence intrinsic in liberty.     

Teaching Globalization to Social Work Students: In and Out of the Classroom

This paper was part of qualitative research that sought to explore motivations of Masters-level students (n = 53) in taking an elective course in international social work at a large public university in the Southeastern US. A review of the literature includes the foundational aspects of globalization and its relationship with social work education. Through content analysis, results show comportment of students' stated motivations for taking the course and the contemporaneous literature on globalization. Themes expressed are the historical context of globalization, concern about global inequalities, and the varying impacts of globalization around the world. Discussion is directed towards exploring ways of effectively infusing globalization content in the social work curricula.     

Extending cultural horizons: Political economy and public relations

In this article, we aim to offer a conceptual bridge between political economy and the practice of public relations, which should be helpful especially for practitioners and scholars interested in public relations at a global level. The combination of social, political, and economic forces is powerful, pervasive, and highly influential on the public relations activities of organizations, and we assert that these factors must be examined in unison. In turn, we discuss the role of political–economic relationships and the constraints they impart on the goal-seeking behavior of organizations. We conclude by offering suggestions as to how public relations practitioners and scholars can begin to think about their efforts and linkages with political economy.