Personal Public Relations as a Cultural, Economic, Political Discourse and Field of Application: A Theoretical Assessment

This work leads from the concept of “Culture Circle” in order to problematize the role of public relations practices in contemporary promotional culture; aims to focus on the role of public relations to the role of people in creating images, discursive practices and subject positions in the cultural scene. The study aims to discuss the debates in the personal public relations literature and to present a theoretical framework. In this framework had been done literature analysis of the personal public relations studies, which appeared in international literature especially in the 2000s, was tried to be supported with a theoretical discussion. The cultural intermediary role of public relations is becoming clear in the use of discursive strategies derived from neoliberal hegemony, consumption ideology, image and demonstration culture, the creation of subjectivities, and the derivation of truth and knowledge. In this sense, there is also an economic rationality for the practice of individual public relations, because it helps those who acquire social and cultural capital; they create identities, symbols and styles demanded through communicative power. The social, cultural and economic dimension of the process is clarified in the context of the postmodernization of culture, the expansion of the promotion culture, the change of subjectivity, the structural transformations of capitalism. In this context, showing how cultural and social context affects public relations practices is also important for demonstrating the functions of public relations practitioners in the cultural field. Personal public relations practices show the public relations outside of the corporate world as a field of cultural, political and economic discourse, and relate to everyday life, micro narratives and cultural area.