ABSTRACT
The eld of public relations is tightly intertwined with society and its functions, yet this connection has often been overlooked by public relations scholars in theory development. Although Robert Putnam’s writings on social capital and community building are well-known, his work has rarely been applied to the study of public relations (Putnam, 1993, 2000; Putnam, Feldstein, & Cohen, 2003; Putnam, Leonardi, & Nanetti, 1993). Accordingly, organizations with reciprocal, trusting stakeholder networks could be understood as having high amounts of social capital
The topic of community building is timely, as corporations struggle to survive in a globalized, unpredictable, and fractured “reputation society” (Luoma-aho, 2005; Pizzorno, 2004). This chapter argues that the aim of public relations should be to create and maintain organizational social capital. The chapter is structured as follows: First, the work and theories as well as the criticism of Robert Putnam are introduced. Second, Putnam’s contributions for public relations theory and practice are discussed through exploring its previous applications and suitability. Third, a model deriving from Putnam’s thinking on social capital
creation is presented and nally conclusions are drawn on the usefulness of his theories for theory and practice of public relations.
