Networks of social capital: Extending a public relations model of civil society in Peru

Scholars have argued that public relations can and indeed must be used to improve society. This article builds on the work of Taylor and Doerfel (2005), who advocated for the continued study of civil society through the lens of public relations theory. This study contributes to a normative public relations model of civil society by examining how interorganizational relationships, which may initially be established for purposes of resource exchange, benefit civil society through the creation and maintenance of social capital. The study examined a segment of Peruvian civil society dedicated to media development, as media is a key partner in building civil society (Taylor, 2009). The results of the study help to explain how interorganizational relationships contribute to the creation of social capital in a civil society network, and how certain network positions are integral to maintaining the social capital of a community of actors. Implications for the role of public relations in building and maintaining networks of interorganizational communities are discussed.     

The civility of social capital: Public relations in the public sphere,civil society,and democracy

Scholars have analyzed public relations’ role in democracy via proxy concepts like the public sphere and civil society. However, some have critiqued the public sphere on grounds of equal access and portrayed civil society as a guise for first-world imperialism. These critiques have implications for the role of public relations in the public sphere and civil society. This article suggests the normative role of public relations in democracy is best perceived as creating the social capital that facilitates access to spheres of public discussion and in maintaining relationships among those organizations that check state power. To that end, the paper argues that social capital does much to advance public relations theory and prescribe the role of public relations in democracy. Several implications for public relations from a social capital perspective are offered, including the creation of generalized societal trust, the building of cross-cutting or “weak” ties, the engagement of media on behalf of subaltern counterpublics, and the (re)creation of community or a fully functioning society.     

Track three diplomacy and human rights in Southeast Asia: the Asia Pacific Coalition for East Timor

Transnational networks of non‐government organizations are increasingly becoming a fixture in international relations, particularly their contribution to traditional notions of diplomacy and its objectives. Less noticed, however, is the involvement of transnational NGO networks in alternative channels for diplomatic exchange, which have been referred to as ‘track three diplomacy’. Described as a form of civil society that transcends borders and nationalities, track three networks and activities involve NGO networks that are movement based, and concerned primarily with raising public consciousness over issues. While their direct influence on formal processes of foreign policy‐making has been limited, they have contributed to expanding both the scope of debate in international relations and the breadth of participation in those debates. Track three networks provide a forum for those communities marginalized by an international system that gives primacy of place to states and their officially‐declared concerns. Their impact is limited, however, by their lack of institutionalization and their reluctance to cooperate with government agencies – an issue that goes towards both their effectiveness and their identity in the long‐term.     

Social capital and the added value of social relations

Almost all empirical research reveals that social capital is a factor that enhances public goods, but scholars are divided into two strands of thought. According to the first strand, the enhancement of public goods does not need any network of social relations, while, according to the second, enhancement depends on the existence and good functioning of relational networks, to the point that it consists in the creation of social networks. Which one is right? In order to clarify the issue, one should ask: can a social relation have any added social value? If so, how can we conceive of the added social value of social relations, and how can we measure it? The author claims that the added social value of social relations can be observed in those processes through which social capital and public (relational) goods (re)generate or elide each other. These processes can be analyzed as morphogenetic cycles that work in temporal sequences and are not circular or recursive. By adopting this perspective, we can see and measure the added social value of social relations in primary and secondary networks, leading to the emergence of public goods. The relational approach can give abundant evidence as to how and why different public goods are produced and/or enhanced depending on the different added social value of the social relations that constitute them.     

Key issue operatives in an issue-driven network: Public relations as a “pocket of strength” in campus sexual assault awareness and prevention

Within public relations, little research has been conducted on the relationship between networks and social issues management, particularly issues that are gendered and emotional. Through a social network analysis and in-depth interviews with individuals involved in a public university’s sexual assault prevention and awareness work, this study demonstrates a missed opportunity for public relations experts to serve as key issue operatives in an issue-driven network. Specifically, public relations issue operatives can bridge network structural holes in the development and dissemination of comprehensive sexual assault awareness and prevention communication at universities.     

Communicating on Behalf of Global Civil Society: Management and Coordination of Public Relations in International Nongovernmental Organizations

In the last few decades, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become influential actors in creating awareness of international social, political, environmental and economic causes in global society. However, NGOs have not received much attention in research on international public relations. This study contributes to filling that gap by analyzing how NGOs manage public relations according to the generic principles of excellence in global public relations and how they coordinate strategic communication between headquarters and local units. An online survey of 440 practitioners revealed 2 excellence clusters and 4 clusters of organizations with differing degrees of centralization. Excellent NGOs were found to assign more resources to public relations and more frequently considered cultural context in their communication programs. Thus, the study gives significant insights into international public relations practice in the global civil society sector and reveals further need for modifying and extending public relations theory in that respect.     

Echo chambers and social mediators in public advocacy issue networks

The growing trend of politically motivated consumer boycotts and buycotts on social media not only impacts a company’s financial bottom line, but more fundamentally disrupts relationships between the firm and its publics, the cornerstone of public relations (Ferguson, 1984; Sommerfeldt, & Kent, 2015). On a broader level, such politically motivated advocacy is a critical facet of civil society with important implications on the societal role of public relations (Taylor, 2010). In light of the significance of politically motivated consumer advocacy to public relations, a multi-phase, exploratory study was conducted. Study 1 applies content analysis and social network analysis to examine how different interactive mechanisms on social media—retweet, mention, and reply—may affect communication within and between communities of different ideological views surrounding the boycott and buycott issues. Study 2 further explores the challenges and opportunities of fostering exchange of diverse viewpoints by identifying new social mediators—the “echoers” who propel information flow among in-group members, and the “bridgers” who initiate communication with political out-group members—and assess the key network characteristics of these social mediators. The findings of these two studies advance public relations theories on networks, intergroup communication, and civil society by illustrating how social media structure and social mediators shape the networked public discourse to facilitate or inhibit conversations between publics of different ideological orientations.     

Civil Society Networks: Options for Network Design

Civil society networks are critical actors in international development and social change, even as they are organizationally complex and challenging to design and manage. Network forms of organization may be “neither markets nor hierarchies,” but there is little shared understanding globally about the options that exist for designing interorganizational network structures or the conditions under which different options may be selected. This empirical study of thirty networks across eleven sectors and five global regions contributes a new conceptual framework for categorizing different types of network structures based on the level of interdependence among network members. Findings reveal three distinct network design options, indicate patterns of network development, and suggest several conditions that may influence the design of civil society networks.     

Transnational social capital: the socio‐spatialities of civil society

Civil society remains a contested concept, but one that is widely embedded in global development processes. Transnationalism within civil society scholarship is often described dichotomously, either through hierarchical dependency relations or as a more amorphous networked global civil society. These two contrasting spatial imaginaries produce very particular ideas about how transnational relations contribute to civil society. Drawing on empirical material from research with civil society organizations in Barbados and Grenada, in this article I contend that civil society groups use forms of transnational social capital in their work. This does not, however, resonate with the horizontal relations associated with grassroots globalization or vertical chains of dependence. These social relations are imbued with power and agency and are entangled in situated historical, geographical and personal contexts. I conclude that the diverse transnational social relations that are part of civil society activity offer hope and possibilities for continued civil society action in these unexpected spatial arrangements.     

Social Influences and Aggregated Immigration Dynamics: The Case of Spain 1999–2009

This research aims at broadening the applicability and scope of network‐based explanations of international migration to include explanations of aggregated immigration dynamics for multiple immigrant collectives. Using a unique dataset that contains data on approximately 4.5 million international immigration events from 180 different origin countries in Spain between 1999 and 2009, my analysis shows conclusively that information about changes in the supply of immigrant social capital between past and potential immigrants explains the variation in local immigration rates in the destination society. It also show that incorporating information about such social network influences is very informative when the goal is to explain (1) temporal variation in intra‐collective international immigration flows across different locations in the destination, (2) temporal variation in inter‐collective international immigration flows within a specific location in the destination, (3) intra‐collective differences in international immigration across locations in the destination, and finally (4) inter‐collective differences in local international immigration within the same geographical location in the destination.     

A social capital approach to improving public relations’ efficacy: Diagnosing internal constraints on external communication

This article extends Heath's (2006) concept of fully functioning society theory (FFS) and argues that public relations can be used as a force to enhance collective social capital in communities. To serve this purpose, however, the effectiveness of an organization to serve its external publics is often dependent on the status and relationships the public relations function has developed within the organization. This paper provides a network analysis of a government agency in Jordan that illustrates the relationship between internal organizational social capital and the potential problems for establishing external relationships with publics. Implications for public relations research methods and theory are also discussed.     

The relationship between the professionalization of public relations,societal social capital and democracy: Evidence from a cross-national study

What does public relations contribute to society? This research study examined how public relations professionalism is related to social capital and democracy. The relationships between public relations professionalization, social capital and democracy were studied through the public relations professionalization index (PRPI). The PRPI examined a cross-national dataset that pools information from 36 countries and the results of the regression analyses suggest that the PRPI is a reliable measure of public relations professionalization. Overall, the analyses suggest that public relations contributes to societies by building relationships that create social capital and enhance the development of democracy. The findings inform a model that begins to explain the relationship between the professionalization of public relations, social capital and democracy.     

Networks of international public relations production: The case of Latin American organizations’ connections to U.S. agents

Traditionally, international public relations studies have assumed that a foreign organization, namely a foreign government, is the primary influence on how its home country is portrayed to audiences abroad. This study challenges such assumption of independence by revealing how foreign organizations are connected in ways previous works have not considered. Using Foreign Agents Registration Act data, we reveal the direct and indirect connections that form when foreign organizations hire U.S. agencies to produce their international public relations work. Our network analysis of foreign organizations from Latin American and their U.S. agents documents the network structures that emerge for each country and identifies the types of organizations that are positioned advantageously in the networks. We use these findings to theorize how foreign organizations’ connections and their key positions in networks may influence the production of international public relations efforts for their home country. We at a macro-level, public relations effects depend on the structure of the networks, the overlapping sites where communication content is produced, and who is positioned as key players in the production networks.     

A message-focused measurement of the communication dimension of social capital: Revealing shared meaning in a network of relationships

This study integrates two theoretically driven methods—network analysis and fantasy theme analysis—to present a message-focused operationalization for the communication dimension of social capital. The results find empirical support for scholars’ theorizing that public relations-facilitated messages cultivate shared meaning and foster social capital. The relationship between shared meaning and social capital was especially evident in network subgroups (cliques). This article contributes to social capital theory building by focusing on the meaning making process that strengthens social capital in networks. Public relations practitioners’ communicative roles in social capital cultivation are made evident with a message-focused measurement.     

American Network for Intervention in Situations of Social Suffering (RAISSS): A Case Study of a Civil Society Organization Network

The civil society organizations networks in the Latin American region are increasingly participating in the public policy advocacy. There are many studies that address them, but they do it through more in qualitative methodological approaches but there are few analyzed from a social network analysis approach. We present a case study that analyzes the American Network for Intervention in Situations of Social Suffering (Red Americana de Intervención en Situaciones de Sufrimiento Social, RAISSS), a transnational network of civil society networks from 15 Latin American countries that work with the same meta-model, called ECO², to promote social inclusion and public policy advocacy.     

Growth of public relations research networks: a bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT

This research reported and expanded on a 6-year citation study of published scholarly research in public relations that occurred between 2010 and 2015. This analysis built on the work of Pasadeos and his collaborators, who examined the literature’s most-cited works from the 2000s and 1990s, respectively, and studied the field’s research network. Moreover, this study expanded the scope of coverage by adding three international journals. Overall, this study found that public relations scholarship experienced quantitative and qualitative leaps during the last decade, and the areas of excellence theory, relationship management, and crisis communication were heavily researched across the journals examined, whereas stakeholder and corporate communication are major study areas in the international journals.     

Cultivating listening spaces for civil society: Reorienting public relations amid Hannah Arendt’s urgent pluralism

The article explores how the ideas of Hannah Arendt can further public relations’ understanding of organizational listening and its role in civil society. We draw on three major theoretical concepts from Arendt and scholars studying her work—plurality, interspaces, and lamp holders—and contextualize them within existing civil society research in public relations. Reading Arendt into organizational listening and civil society literature yields insights for how public relations contributes to the maintenance of structures and spaces for deliberation and civil society. Her theory points toward the concepts of bracketing and unbracketing as ways to enter civic spaces with an awareness of power and identity. As research on organizational listening has yet to fully identify how listening can contribute to supporting representative deliberation in polarized societies, this paper helps to theoretically position listening within civil society and provides initial suggestions as to how civic-minded listening can be incorporated into public relations practices aimed at building community.     

Protocol journalism as a framework for understanding public relations–media relationships in Kosovo

There is growing interest about the ways in which the public relations field can contribute to democratization and civil society initiatives. Some scholars see enormous potential for public relations by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help get important social issues on the public agenda in transitional nations while other scholars have critiqued the practice of public relations in newly formed nations as a form of hegemony that privileges Western ideas, values, and standards of practice. One thing is certain: more scholarly attention is required if the field of public relations is to truly understand its evolving role in civil society. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the public relations–media relationship contributes to civil society development in Kosovo. The researcher interviewed media professionals, public relations/organizational spokespersons, and civil society experts about the opportunities and challenges of the public relations function in building civil society in Kosovo. The findings suggest that “protocol journalism” is the guiding metaphor for explaining and critiquing the public relations–media relationship in Kosovo. The implications of protocol journalism for media development and public relations credibility are discussed.     

Cross‐cultural civility in global civil society: transnational cooperation in Chinese NGOs

Transnational networks and organizations are often hailed as embodiments and carriers of global civil society, yet these assessments remain incomplete due to a lack of empirical research on their internal dynamics. In this article, I investigate whether or not transnational NGOs embody the cooperation across multiple social, cultural and political cleavages central to definitions of global civil society by exploring how multiple memberships are negotiated in the context of their everyday tasks. Using organizational documents and interview data with staff of two Protestant Christian development NGOs in China, I analyse how actors within these transnational organizations successfully manage their multiple memberships in national polities, national cultures, religious communities and a world culture. While multiple memberships exhibit the potential both to enable and to constrain an NGO's organizational tasks, the key to making such ties enabling are staff who act as skilful cross‐cultural brokers. Thus, the type of social capital required to render multiple memberships beneficial and not harmful to the organizations also makes these organizations true indicators of a developing global civil society.     

Another dimension to explicating relationships: measuring inter-organizational linkages

This paper introduces network analysis as a way to theorize about another dimension of relationships: inter-organizational relationships. Through a case study of inter-organizational relationships in the civil society movement in Croatia, this paper outlines the various ways public relations serves a relationship building function. Through the use of network analysis, we propose a model of how organizations should work together to successfully achieve their common goal to build and maintain civil society. The model proposes a public relations approach to understanding inter-organizational relationships in civil society.