ABSTRACT
Relationships are pivotal in public relations, shaping the ways in which organizations connect with their key publics. Whereas relationship management has been traditionally been conceptualized from the standpoint of the organization, in this chapter we put forward the concept of relationship as resistance, drawing upon the culture-centered approach to public relations. Conceptualization of relationships as resistance draws on the growing body of public relations work that documents the participation of activist groups in processes of social change and structural transformation, defining relationships in antagonism, and working through relationships to shift organizational agendas. In the backdrop of the growing concentration of power in the hands of transnational corporations (TNC), communities at the margins have been increasingly disenfranchised from participatory spaces. The opportunities for participation and voice have been limited through the consolidation of the mainstream public sphere in the hands of the status quo. What then are the opportunities for transformative processes for social change, especially in the context of activist politics? For these activist groups, public relations is understood in the relationship of activist politics with dominant stakeholders within social, political, and economic configurations, seeking to transform unequal policies that constrain the realm, scope, and possibilities of communication and communicative participation. Resistance offers a framework for understanding the role played by activist communication in challenging the status quo, in shaping organizational agendas, and in building organizational processes that are responsive to the voices of communities at the margins that remain disenfranchised by organizational practices. Resistance also offers a framework for fundamentally transforming the constraining nature of communication by interrogating the rules, roles, and guidelines that determine the possibilities for communicative participation.
