last conference before completion
just back from Stirling 21, the academic conference for PR and comms people, brilliantly organised by Jaquie L’Etang and team, including glorious weather.
Primary observation is the quality of papers and thought on offer: all the presentations I went to were driven by ideas not data: on the relationship between PR and anthropology, PR in fiction, dialogue and relationship, health sector ethics… much more. Didn’t see a single graph!
I presented two papers, one asking if there can be a psychology of the professions, which looked at sociological approaches to the professions and found a wealth of psychological material, though this is not explicitly identified as a psychology of professions. Then applied Jungian insights to professional development in general and then PR profession in particular. All the pieces seemed to fit, good questions and discussion. This has been useful paper to me, settling some uncertainties about the scope and direction of thesis.
Second paper was on hermeneutics, drawing on the work I did earlier in the year. Treated it as a report from recent adventures into hermeneutics, very open about my ignorance before (and still after) the trawl thru unfamiliar literature. Again, it makes much more sense to me now and was gratified that in later conversation one delegate thought I’d grasped subject well and others found it useful.
This is the last conference before I complete as I now need to put my head down and starting turning these papers into chapters. Looks like the viva will be in April now not June so need a good draft by the new year. Yikes!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )back from Chicago
Successful International communications Association conference in Chicago – excellent range of papers and presentations – including final plenary from Naomi Klein reflecting on post-Obama emotions (the fluctuating hope levels she describes as a ‘hopercoaster’).
My Jung and PR paper went down v well (all the better for not using power point – everyone battered by graphs and models at his stage of events). Fascinating watching the audience responses, from scowling and turning away to nodding and smiling (majority). Ron Arnett of Duquesne U was most enthusiastic and encouraging. Been reading his work on communication (rather than professional) ethics since and found lots of convergence. Can see the post-doc landscape opening up – the priority will be turning thesis into book, though need to find financial support to enable this. Feel v bouyed by positive response from senior PR and ethics scholars…
Launch of new Institute
http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/news/index_spirituality_under_spotlight.htm
Terrific launch event on Dec 5 for Leeds Met’s new Institute for Spirituality, Religion and Public Life. Had thought it would be too long (3.30 – 7.30 ) but it was beautifully planned and executed, with an introductory talk from Stephen Paul on the meanings associated with the Institute’s title which raised a series of questions for discussion among the 120 + guests who then shared their views with a top table panel that included – ME! Was rather nervous in advance, having never spoken publicly about my beliefs or views on spiritual life but just tuned my ego out of the picture and it all went swimmingly. Mostly talked about Jung’s ideas of the religious instinct and working with the shadow to become whole, especially in field of PR. Also my own view that spiritual life does not need Capital Letters, special buildings, rituals or robes – that the challenge is to recognise all life as spiritual, not just approved bits.
Finally, a splendid inaugural lecture from Ian Markham which can be found through the above link on religion and civic engagement which took a sociological approach to faith and communities.
Feels like a great time for such a gathering to take shape – so much change in the air, and the final exhaustion of some of those material dreams……
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Jung & PR – the starting point
The more I wrote about contested versions of public relations:the more it seemed that something deeper than a difference of opinion underlay the division. The first, and most familiar from teaching, was that promoted in core text books as PR ‘servicing society’ ‘in the interests of democracy’ ‘the ethical guardian of corprorations’ etc; the second involved the vilification of the business by writers like Stauber and Rampton, Ewen, Miller & others. Where PR books saw nobility and equality of engagement between organisations and publics, the critics saw sleaze, corruption and propaganda.
I was also writing a lot about propaganda and PR and became increasingly aware that the involvement of key PR players in 20th Century war propaganda was being marginalised or ignored altogether – as highlighted by other writers like Moloney & L’Etang. Not only was historical propaganda involvement edited out, accusations of involvement in contemporary corporate propaganda were often dismissed by leading academics as well as PR organisations.
On the other hand the most virulent critics seemed uable to envisage any kind of legitimate PR – as if the need of organisations – including charities, unions, NGOs – to articulate their case professionaly was meaningless.
So: angels or daemons? I referred to this dynamic in a couple of papers (see links for relevant papers) as the rejection of Shadow material, using a generalised knowledge of Jung’s concept of Persona and Shadow and his insistence that one must confront and accept one’s own Shadow to become whole and fulfill personal and creative potential.
In the process of delivering said papers (eg one on persuasion ethics at the ICA conference in San Francisco, 2007) I realised that it was the tension in the denial and accusation that intrigued me: I couldn’t see how PR could claim to be ethical when its version of itself was so partial. This led to the basic premise of the PhD: that integrity is a precondition for ethics, both personal and professional; and that Jung’s ideas of integration could offer insights into how this might be achieved by professions in general and PR in particular.
To make a start on this I have spent the past year reading a great deal of Jung – often contradictory, elusive, allusive, weird, exciting, humble, arrogant, mystical and mystifying – and have found enough material to support the idea that ethics stem from wholeness not ‘goodness’.
I have also made forays into modern & post-modern ethical thinking, particularly virtue ethics (MacIntyre), Bauman, some feminist ethics, theological ethics and professional ethics generally – as well some reading around the sociology of professionalism.
Most recent reading is Neitzsche’s Beyond Good & Evil – had no idea he was so funny – will write responses shortly.
Early summer was dominated by conferences – subject of next two posts.
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Jung, Ethics & PR 
