Public Relations From the Margins: A Special Issue of the Journal of Public Relations Research in Bloomington, MN

The articles in this special issue address some of the key issues facing research and practice of public relations today. These studies acknowledge the traditional, mainstream public relations research arguments for excellence in public relations according to the symmetry model, and to considerations of the dominant coalition controlling the organization. What are proposed in this issue are responses to these assumptions and suggestions that what might be important to consider are the socio-political context that surrounds the organization, and the notion that power exists in other sites besides the dominant coalition. These articles are—in essence—a conversation or give-and-take between established beliefs and new possibilities for understanding public relations. Further, these studies' important theoretical contribution is their expression in real life situations and case study applications.