[ecrea] International PR 2011 Conference, Competing Identities: PR in the 2010s

Dear colleagues,



The first wave of applications for the Barcelona 
Meeting Com #1: International PR 2011 Conference, 
Competing Identities: PR in the 2010s  on 28­29th 
June, is in. The organizers are delighted to 
report that it has already attracted major 
speakers and a truly international set of presenters.



Plenary speakers include Professor Bob Heath and 
Professor Krishnamurthy Sriramesh and 
participants, with abstracts accepted to date, 
come from all over the world including Australia, 
Britain, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, 
Switzerland, and the U.S as well as Catalonia and Spain.



Deadlines:

·        First opportunity to submit an abstract: Sunday, October 31, 2010

·        Second and final opportunity to submit 
an abstract: Saturday, January 15, 2011

·        Acceptance notification (by email) will 
be no later than Monday, January 31, 2011

·        Early bird payment: Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

·        Submission of selected papers: Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Details for attending and for paying registration 
(costs included) are now available on the website.



<http://www.uoc.edu/symposia/meetingcom2011/index_eng.html>http://www.uoc.edu/symposia/meetingcom2011/index_eng.html





BARCELONA MEETING COM#1: INTERNATIONAL PR 2011 
CONFERENCE, COMPETING IDENTITIES: PR IN THE 2010s



The end of the first decade of the 21st century 
has been marked by significant shifts in the 
power, practice, and theory of public relations. 
Alongside the continuing global expansion of 
connectivity, ecological degradation, and social 
media, more recent events ? such as the global 
economic downturn and changing public attitudes 
to business ? are creating different operating 
conditions. Academically, the rise of different 
voices in journals, books, and research has been 
paralleled by the declining power of the ruling 
paradigm of late 20th century public relations. 
The old centre has not held and a diversity of 
opinion that is less insular, and more socially 
concerned, continues to emerge. These newer 
voices differ on perceptions of present, past, 
and future ? not only are there disagreements on 
what public relations is now, but on what public 
relations has been, and on what public relations 
might be. In examining public relations and 
identity construction in these more visibly 
competitive, and uncertain, times, this 
conference looks beyond business competition to 
competition between nations and cities, between 
practitioners in different professions, and 
between different academic disciplines.



Accordingly, the conference invites a wide range 
of contributions: that reflect, and that reflect 
on, the spectrum of possibilities of these 
conditions; that address current issues and 
trends; and that speculate on future pathways. 
Proposals addressing ? and even challenging ? the 
overall theme are warmly invited. Please feel 
free to contact the organisers directly if you 
wish to discuss the relevance of any proposal. We 
offer the following questions not as a definitive 
list, but as prompts for a spread of responses:


·        What role does, or might, PR play in 
city, region, and national identity construction?
·        How is the rise of activist, critical, 
and radical PR changing the field?
·        As PR strives for academic recognition, 
how can it become more competitive (e.g., in 
journal rankings, research grants, discipline assessment exercises)?
·        What can PR do to survive and thrive as 
some core business (e.g., CSR, event management, 
reputation) faces encroachment from marketing and other fields?
·        What is the existing, or desired, role 
of PR practitioners in different competitive 
arenas (e.g., organisational leadership, social media development)?
·        Should PR link strategically with other 
knowledge clusters (e.g., anthropology, 
pragmatics, semantics, neuroscience) rather than 
develop its own body of knowledge?
·        What is the state of play with regard to 
the relevance of PR in such areas as arts 
promotion, cultural and public diplomacy, social marketing, sport, and tourism?
·        How might new research in the history of 
PR impact on the field as it goes forward?



---------------------------------------------------------



David McKie

Waikato Management School

The University of Waikato

Private Bag 3105

Hamilton (New Zealand)

(64) 78384197

Email: <mailto:(dmckie /at/ mngt.waikato.ac.nz)>(dmckie /at/ mngt.waikato.ac.nz)



Ferran Lauleza

Open University of Catalonia

Rambla del Poblenou, 156

08018 Barcelona (Spain)

(34)933263600
Email: 
<https://hwebmail.upf.edu/horde/imp/message.php?mailbox=Sent&index=2536>(flalueza /at/ uoc.edu)



Jordi Xifra

Department of Communication

Pompeu Fabra University

Roc Boronat, 138

08018 Barcelona (Spain)

(34)935421484

Email: <mailto:(jordi.xifra /at/ upf.edu)>(jordi.xifra /at/ upf.edu)