Unfreezing ethnicity as culture in public relations
Immigrant image and static categories in an age of liquid fear
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4000/cp.433Keywords:
race, immigration, liquid society, public relations, culture, Zygmunt BaumanAbstract
The most cited theory in mainstream public relations relevant to ethnicity and race is Geert Hofstede’s concept of culture. In this article, we argue for augmenting Hofstede’s work for three reasons: to go beyond the limitations of his relatively static theorization; to engage with the reality of rapid social movement around ethnicity and race; and to take account of racism. To expand public relations theory around these issues, we work with Zygmunt Bauman’s theorization that fluid boundaries, including swift-shifting emotions, are what characterize contemporary societies. We also deploy Bauman’s ideas in the context of media representations of relations with immigrants in Catalonia. In particular, we explore how these representations may help public relations not only to identify, but to realize, its symbolic power in reducing fear and tension by improving relations between dominant, or host, cultures and their ethnically different minorities.
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