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Preface
Public relations as a domain of practice is hard to define. Consequently, the realm of public relations scholarship covers diffuse bodies of literature. In turn, globalization forms a broad arena of practice and scholarship, both of which encompass highly contested grounds. In 2007 we wrote a book that brought together the two in theoretical terms. We outlined the cultural-economic model of public relations as an alternative to normative models underlying public relations theory and as a lens for challenging the assumptions that guide international public relations practice and scholarship. The underpinnings of the cultural-economic model are found in the circuit of culture and its given moments, which form a dynamic framework for viewing meaning making as a nonlinear communications process.
The circuit comprises five moments or sites of meaning construction—representation, production, consumption, identity, and regulation—that coexist and overlap, resulting in a continuous set of negotiations and renegotiations of meanings. The articulations, or points of overlap, are the contested sites of meaning negotiation. In public relations practices, the articulations encompass relationships—the heart of public relations process and practice. Relationships, then, are partially determined