‘PRi special edition: The intersections between public relations and neoliberalism’ – The road to nowhere: Re-examining activists’ role in civil societies

Abstract

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1977) argued that the presence of critical countervoices and powers is a fundamental element of any genuine democracy. However, in Australia these counter-voices are increasingly marginalized and threatened by controversial laws that would limit the legal standing of conservation groups and the use of overseas donations for advocacy purposes based on the argument that "systematic, well-funded" environmental campaigns are threatening the nation's economic prosperity. Drawing on social movement theory and Bourdieu's theory of practice, this case study details the final months of the Save Beeliar Wetlands campaign in the lead up to the 2017 West Australian state election. The author challenges three common assumptions in the extant PR activism literature: The existence of activists in opposition to organizations and governments, the presence of a 'zone of compromise' between activists and the organizations or governments whose actions they are opposing and the conceptualization of activists as homogenous entity. Evolving into a colorful collective of over 35 local groups, five local councils and thousands of individuals, Beeliar Wetland Defenders successfully created an alternative narrative to the State and Federal Governments' neoliberal agenda. Activists thereby contributed significantly to a change in leadership and the termination of a $1.9billion infrastructure project. This paper argues that activist groups' interventions in public debate perform a valuable societal voice as critical counter-voices in challenging established hierarchies and power relationships. However, in mounting and framing their arguments within the neoliberal framework, activist groups may also inadvertently reinforce this worldview.

Social movement organizations agency for sustainable organizing

“…While we have noted that it is difficult to attribute success to SMO activities, another promising research area is how sustainability SMOs may counter the dominant neoliberal paradigm to push sustainability to the center of political agendas (Wolf, 2019). We have discussed the emerging ecology of transnational sustainability SMOs.…”

Revisiting The Oxymoron: A Theoretical Discussion On Public Interest And Public Relations

“…The discussions on the relation between public interest and public relations has a close link to the discussions of activist public relations, which can be defined as the activist use of public relations by the activist organizations or activist publics. The literature on activist public relations claims that activists also use public relations to bring up public issues (Heath & Waymer, 2009;Moloney et al, 2013;L'Etang, 2016;Toledano, 2016;Thompson, 2016;Wolf, 2019;Ciszek et al, 2021). For example, Thompson (2016, p. 213) differentiates activist public relations from corporate public relations in terms of benefiting society by providing dialogue rather than "corporate promotion".…”