ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the public relation (PR) as a profession, placing it in a sociological context and considering some of the many issues raised in recent years by writers from critical and socio-cultural perspectives. Most approaches to professionalism in PR rely on a very optimistic view of the profession in society, based on Durkheim and Talcott Parsons benign understanding of professionalism, concepts abandoned by the sociology of professionalism in the 1970s. A Kantian perspective may help explain the aversion to persuasion from excellence approach, as this can be seen as using others as a means to an end, rather than treating humans as ends in themselves. However, minimizing the extent of persuasion in PR practice does not make PR more ethical, just the descriptions of it more partial. Rhetorical approaches to PR address the role of persuasion in communication, virtue ethics and ideas of democratic debate. Revisiting PR ethics revealed a reliance on traditional approaches in new thinking on issues.
