'...L'Etang reinvents the textbook genre in form and content while simultaneously investing it with elan and serious fun in a reflective and theoretically informed fashion. Extending beyond the usual bounds of insularity, this text is designed to encourage critical thought in students and improve practice in workplaces. A refreshing read that is consistently inventive enough to attain both aims' - Dr David McKie, Professor of Management Communication, Waikato Management School 'Jacquie L'Etang's Public Relations: Theories, Practices and Critiques at long last fills a void in the landscape of text books on public relations theory and practice. This book is of immense value for students embarking on a public relations programme of study at the undergraduate or postgraduate level...The book's core strength is that it develops critical thinking skills while exposing interdisciplinary approaches and providing a very solid foundation for lively debate and further study' - Julia Jahansoozi, Lancashire Business School, University of Central Lancashire This book introduces students to key concepts in public relations, using a wide range of interdisciplinary sources, as well as teaching students how to think critically about public relations. It is designed to help readers understand the paradigms which have shaped the discipline and the practice. The 12 chapters provide careful clear explanations of concepts and discuss competing definitions. Each chapter reviews a number of related themes from a variety of perspectives. Topics covered include: - Reputation - Risk - Impression management - Celebrity - Ethics - Persuasion and propaganda - Emotional and spiritual dimensions of management - Promotional culture and globalization The book helps students engage with big philosophical questions about the occupation and its concepts and to think about their own relationship with the occupation. It achieves this through student exercises at the beginning and end of chapters, 'critical reflections' questions and exercises, 'questions for discussion' and vignettes. Students are helped to widen their intellectual perspective on the subject of public relations through 'discipline boxes' which explain source domains, their origins and approaches and connections to public relations. This book works well on under- as well as postgraduate conversion courses.