(P)Rebels Needed! Transformative Potential of Problematization for Social Change

Abstract

Recognizing the existence of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and more precisely a social impact related to diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI), organizations today are confronted with the question of what is considered as good. How is the good life created and communicatively constructed inside an organization? Who (agent) is responsible to realize, secure, and manage the process of value creation and social change, or moral agency? I offer a new perspective on the ethical duty of public relations (PR) practitioners to be revolutionary, to be communicative rebels. I conceptualize PR from a critical theoretical perspective as process of problematization, as process of cracking open common sense and underlying systems of power and norms in an organization. Then I offer strategies for creating shared (communication) spaces in which to imagine and experience transformation and social change. In these spaces (huddles), good life is courageously problematized to offer a new narrative of sustainability including DEI as communicatively codesigned. The aim is to highlight opportunities and tools for PR practitioners and PR scholars to be revolutionary – more than an organization's conscience, but an agent of change for exciting, innovative, and transformative communication practices at the core of the discipline.

Citation

Weder, F. (2021), "(P)Rebels Needed! Transformative Potential of Problematization for Social Change", Pompper, D. (Ed.) Public Relations for Social Responsibility (Communicating Responsible Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 191-206. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-167-620211014