Two commissions within the Public Relations Society of America have recently defined courses in case-study analysis, research methods, and behavioral-science theory as central to an acceptable public relations curriculum. To date, these three "streams" within PR education have run independently of each other. The authors produced this volume because they believe that there is a growing demand for an integrative "applied theory" approach to the study of public relations cases.

The need for PR professionals to study the social, political, and economic contexts of public relations carefully had been apparent for some time as issues management and environment scanning emerged as focal points of modern public relations. Yet there was no systematic framework for such study. This volume, however, with its strong foundation in theory, provides just that framework and is highly suitable for graduate-level courses in public relations.