Betteke van Ruler, Dejan Verčicč, Bertil Flodin and Gerhard Buetschi
This paper is a second report on a Delphi study, which is part of the European Public Relations Body of Knowledge project (EBOK; see also Vol. 4, No. 4 of this journal). The EBOK…
Abstract
This paper is a second report on a Delphi study, which is part of the European Public Relations Body of Knowledge project (EBOK; see also Vol. 4, No. 4 of this journal). The EBOK project is led by a European project team. The Delphi research project questions the existence of a European authenticity of public relations. The project suggests that the present state of public relations professionalisation in Europe is far from complete. Nevertheless, the study reviews an enormous diversity of “schools of thought” and possible dimensions of a European approach to public relations. The paper also stresses the need for a European research agenda to learn more about the European identity of the subject internationally known as public relations.
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The paper reports on the European Public Relations Body of Knowledge project (coordinated by the author for the European Association for Public Relations Research and Education…
Abstract
The paper reports on the European Public Relations Body of Knowledge project (coordinated by the author for the European Association for Public Relations Research and Education, CERP Education & Research) that investigates the present state of public relations knowledge in Europe. The project consists of two components: an all‐European bibliography of public relations literature published in Europe in the 1990s and a Delphi study of an all‐European group of academics and practitioners on the specifics of public relations in Europe vis‐à‐vis the USA. Since public relations is predominantly a US academic discipline and business practice and it has come from there to Europe, a question arises as to the authenticity of public relations in Europe: are Europeans merely copying and repeating American public relations practice or has anything original developed in Europe? Relying on a multi‐country and multi‐language overview of European public relations, the paper also explores some localised processes within different European countries that could have implications for further development of the public relations profession in Europe