This text introduces a socio-cultural approach to public relations as a way of analysing the growing importance of public relations in its social, cultural and political contexts and brings theory to life with a range of case studies, including YouTube vlogging, the global fair trade movement and the 2016 EU referendum in the UK.

Chapter 1: Starting points: Defining socio-cultural research in public relations
Chapter 2: Public relations as promotion: The production and circulation of meaning
Chapter 3: Public relations, discourse and power
Chapter 4: A political economy of public relations
Chapter 5: Deliberative democracy and public relations
Chapter 6: Public relations and the public sphere
Chapter 7: Public Relations and globalisation
Chapter 8: Public relations as an occupational field: The professional project
Chapter 9: Race and Class in / and PR
Chapter 10: Feminist public relations: Performativity, Black feminism, postfeminism
Chapter 11: Ethics, Public Relations and Society
Chapter 12: Conclusion: Public relations beyond the organisation

Lee Edwards is Professor of Strategic Communications and Public Engagement in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is particularly interested in the relationship between strategic communications and inequalities, social justice, democracy, and media literacy. She has published a wide range of articles, books, chapters and reports on topics including deliberative engagement in media policymaking, media literacy, public relations as a cultural intermediary, diversity in public relations, and public relations and democracy.