Socio-cultural "turn" in public relations science: critics of functionalism, postmodern influences and cultural appropriation

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider and reveal the peculiarities of socio-cultural “turn” in public relations science on the example of functionalism critics, postmodern influences, and cultural appropriation in the XXI century. The research methodology is based on a paradigmatic approach in science that helps to reveal the context and dynamics of the transition from the functional paradigm, whose representatives reduce public relations to a “management function” and level the potential of the “cultural function” of the industry, till sociocultural in the measures of which public relations are an influential social and cultural practice in the modern world. Besides, in the article the Cultural Studies methodological tool kit was applied that helped to reveal the problem of cultural approbation in the way of post-colonialism and the role of PR campaigns in the (re)production of a postmodern understanding of consumption. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the article reveals the peculiarities of the cultural or socio-cultural “turn” in the science of public relations in the context of criticising the functional approach. Conclusions. It was found that the sociocultural “turn” and the related criticism of the epistemological and ideological foundations of the functional approach, which reduces PR to the organisational function of companies in order to increase their efficiency and attractiveness on the market, drew the attention of researchers in the field to the methodological potential anthropology, sociology, post-colonialism, cultural studies, feminism, political economy, among others, as well as scholars from other disciplinary fields to the problem of testing their own tools in PR theory and practice. It was proved that the socio-cultural “turn” is a movement of thought from understanding public relations as a functional process in an organisational context to its perception as a cultural practice and “intermediary” in cultural appropriation, in the creation of meanings and constitution of a hyper-real environment.