Les Relations Publiques au carrefour des tensions démocratiques de reconnaissance et justice

Abstract

The objective of this article is to take up Lee Edwards’ (2016) approach on politics and organizations, and to reflect on democratic processes guided by deliberative procedures and their interfaces with the tensions related to public relations. By conceiving public relations as a network of activities that span a plurality of environments and communication situations, Edwards seeks to emphasize that the creation of mediations, translations and interfaces between several social actors is a task skillfully developed by public relations professionals in a deliberative system based on Habermas’ normative perspective. However, we argue that even a systematic conception of deliberation fails to reduce the incidence of forms of violence and power flows that cross the networks built between scholars, media actors, organizations, civil society and other institutions. This text seeks, in dialogue with Edwards (2016), to highlight the contributions made by public relations to deliberative democracy, evidencing the crossroads, tensions and challenges to be met during the Covid-19 pandemic context.