Clea Bourne | Goldsmiths, University of London (original) (raw)
Papers by Clea Bourne
Communicating in Professions and Organizations, 2022
This groundbreaking series is edited by Jonathan Crichton, Associate Professor in Applied Linguis... more This groundbreaking series is edited by Jonathan Crichton, Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of South Australia. It provides a venue for research on issues of language and communication that matter to professionals, their clients and stakeholders. Books in the series explore the relevance and real world impact of communication research in professional practice and forge reciprocal links between researchers in applied linguistics/discourse analysis and practitioners from numerous professions, including healthcare, education, business and trade, law, media, science and technology. Central to this agenda, the series responds to contemporary challenges to professional practice that are bringing issues of language and communication to the fore. These include: • The growing importance of communication as a form of professional expertise that needs to be made visible and developed as a resource for professionals • Political, economic, technological and social changes that are transforming communicative practices in professions and organisations • Increasing mobility and diversity (geographical, technological, cultural, linguistic) of organisations, professionals and clients Books in the series combine up to date overviews of issues of language and communication relevant to the particular professional domain with original research that addresses these issues at relevant sites. The authors also explore the practical implications of this research for the professions/organisations in question. We are actively commissioning projects for this series and welcome proposals from authors whose experience combines linguistic and professional expertise, from those who have long-standing knowledge of the professional and organisational settings in which their books are located and joint editing/authorship by language researchers and professional practitioners. The series is designed for both academic and professional readers, for scholars and students in Applied Linguistics, Communication Studies and related fields, and for members of the professions and organisations whose practice is the focus of the series.
Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies, 2016
In this chapter, we argue that the effect of public relations on society merits further attention... more In this chapter, we argue that the effect of public relations on society merits further attention from scholars and practitioners. In particular, the advent of digitisation, algorithmic technologies and AI more generally, have been under-examined. In these areas, greater reflexivity and scrutiny of how such tools are used in the industry, and the ways it might perpetuate or challenge their in-built biases, is sorely needed. In a communications landscape characterised by the co-existence of digital utopias, post-truth politics and fake news, we suggest that the challenges raised by these new technologies relate to two key issues: voice and diversity, both of which are deeply affected by digital technologies. The industry’s capacity to adequately reflect on its role in enhancing or limiting these inequalities depends on adopting a renewed ethics in pedagogy and practice that adequately equips practitioners with the reflective and analytical skills to not only use digital technologies,...
This special section of Discover Society emerges from a two-day gathering of scholars, activists ... more This special section of Discover Society emerges from a two-day gathering of scholars, activists and artists dedicated to the theme at Goldsmiths, University of London, in September of 2017. Its inspiration comes from a certain frustration with the emergent interdisciplinary field of critical finance studies, which, regrettably (and with some noble exceptions), has not yet elected to enter into a vibrant dialogue with fields such as post-colonial criticism, critical race studies and settler-colonial studies. We believe such an avoidance is tragic, given not only the vibrancy of all of these fields but also the reality that many of the phenomena associated with finance, finance capital and financialization cannot be fully understood without reference to imperial, colonial and racialized realities, past and present.
The marketing of countries as streams of income for global investment funds has become an accepte... more The marketing of countries as streams of income for global investment funds has become an accepted part of ‘financialisation’, the new reconfigurations of capitalism which have emerged to manage money’s ebbs and flows (Martin 2002, p. 3). Trust production is among those new practices which have evolved as modern financial capitalism forced by a ‘certain kind of desperation’, seeks out new forms of profit (Thrift 2006, p. 280). Trust has always been fundamental to finance, but in modern financial markets, trust has become a requisite driver of new profit and growth (Knights et al. 2001; Tyler & Stanley 2007).
American Behavioral Scientist, 2020
This article engages with the critical study of contemporary publicity by examining transparency ... more This article engages with the critical study of contemporary publicity by examining transparency as a strategic project to platformize financial services. The article contributes to understandings of transparency as value cocreation in business-to-business markets. Through field-level discourse analysis, the article shows that transparency is contingent primarily on the nature of the market, in this case, a platformized industry, which valorizes transparency as part of a regime of data sharing and open access. Transparency is further contingent on the market actor: actors with lesser status and market legitimacy are more likely to seek to cocreate transparency with market actors of greater or similar status and legitimacy. The article concludes that in commercial spaces, publicity’s relationship to transparency is not only determined by market logic, but that all market logics are being drawn further toward a technological definition of transparency as “shareveillance,” as more segm...
Public Relations Inquiry, 2019
Public relations’ (PR) professional habitus is defined by a relentless focus on optimism and futu... more Public relations’ (PR) professional habitus is defined by a relentless focus on optimism and futurity. This professional habitus renders PR indispensable to the corporate world after crisis, when new, potentially controversial, growth strategies must be sold-in to stakeholders. This article argues that PR’s professional habitus is heavily influenced by neoliberalism, an ideology which ‘confidently identifies itself with the future’. The discussion is timely, as 21st-century neoliberal capitalism becomes redefined by artificial intelligence (AI). The article combines PR theory, communications theory and political economy to consider the changing shape of neoliberal capitalism, as AI becomes naturalised as ‘common sense’ and a ‘public good’. The article explores how PR supports AI discourses, including promoting AI in national competitiveness and promoting ‘friendly’ AI to consumers, while promoting Internet inequalities. The article concludes that the PR profession’s myopia regarding...
Public Relations Review, 2019
Journal of Public Relations Research, 2015
ABSTRACT
New Media & Society, 2015
Online communities are popular sites for collective sensemaking. This study explores sensemaking ... more Online communities are popular sites for collective sensemaking. This study explores sensemaking in one such community following the closure of Olint Corp, a highly successful Jamaican investment club. After Olint’s disbanding, Jamaicans reconnected through online communities to make sense of their financial losses, to make sense of Olint – seen variously as an altruistic endeavour, a global currency trader, or Ponzi scheme – and to make sense of themselves as enterprising investors. This narrative inquiry unveils their rich, multi-voiced, fragmented storying of Olint and its founder, once praised as a ‘financial messiah’.
Public Relations Inquiry, 2013
This study challenges the validity of a role for public relations (PR) as ‘trust strategist’ in g... more This study challenges the validity of a role for public relations (PR) as ‘trust strategist’ in global financial markets, by reframing trust, power and PR. The reframing takes place in three stages: First, by shifting the trajectory of PR research to focus on Giddens’s system trust theory, which, until now, has received little prominence in PR scholarship. Second, by drawing on Foucauldian perspectives to link system trust relations and power relations through discourse; revealing the strategies and practices used to produce trust in global discourses. Third, by locating PR activity within discursive moments of trust/ mistrust production, repositioning PR as a ‘trust intermediary’ in global discourses.
Comunicação Mídia e Consumo, 2016
The purpose of this paper is to consider a less visible form of trust production which led to the... more The purpose of this paper is to consider a less visible form of trust production which led to the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. In many ways, the financial crisis was the first to result from a breakdown of assurance mechanisms, or generators of trust (Yandle, 2008). In other words, this particular global crisis was, at its core, a crisis of trust. What is also unique, though less adequately discussed, is that the global financial crisis was initially triggered not by a loss of public trust, but by an internal loss of trust between actors within the financial system itself. I refer specifically to the breakdown of trust between visible financial system and the ‘shadow’ financial system, the latter representing a sizeable portion of the system that is largely invisible to the public eye. For the purpose of this paper, I define organisations as “sites where members subject themselves and one another to various practices, where discourse sustains mutually reinforcing patterns of power and powerlessness” (Conrad and Haynes, 2001; 65). Power resides in these discursive practices, including the organisational knowledge formation and claims about it. In his discussion of trust in trans-organisational relations, Bachmann (2001), looks at the complex social processes involved in inter-firm relationships, and finds that firms operating within national boundaries have a shared world of institutional arrangements which govern the forms of trust relevant when engaging in specific relationships with each other.
Communicating in Professions and Organizations, 2022
This groundbreaking series is edited by Jonathan Crichton, Associate Professor in Applied Linguis... more This groundbreaking series is edited by Jonathan Crichton, Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of South Australia. It provides a venue for research on issues of language and communication that matter to professionals, their clients and stakeholders. Books in the series explore the relevance and real world impact of communication research in professional practice and forge reciprocal links between researchers in applied linguistics/discourse analysis and practitioners from numerous professions, including healthcare, education, business and trade, law, media, science and technology. Central to this agenda, the series responds to contemporary challenges to professional practice that are bringing issues of language and communication to the fore. These include: • The growing importance of communication as a form of professional expertise that needs to be made visible and developed as a resource for professionals • Political, economic, technological and social changes that are transforming communicative practices in professions and organisations • Increasing mobility and diversity (geographical, technological, cultural, linguistic) of organisations, professionals and clients Books in the series combine up to date overviews of issues of language and communication relevant to the particular professional domain with original research that addresses these issues at relevant sites. The authors also explore the practical implications of this research for the professions/organisations in question. We are actively commissioning projects for this series and welcome proposals from authors whose experience combines linguistic and professional expertise, from those who have long-standing knowledge of the professional and organisational settings in which their books are located and joint editing/authorship by language researchers and professional practitioners. The series is designed for both academic and professional readers, for scholars and students in Applied Linguistics, Communication Studies and related fields, and for members of the professions and organisations whose practice is the focus of the series.
Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies, 2016
In this chapter, we argue that the effect of public relations on society merits further attention... more In this chapter, we argue that the effect of public relations on society merits further attention from scholars and practitioners. In particular, the advent of digitisation, algorithmic technologies and AI more generally, have been under-examined. In these areas, greater reflexivity and scrutiny of how such tools are used in the industry, and the ways it might perpetuate or challenge their in-built biases, is sorely needed. In a communications landscape characterised by the co-existence of digital utopias, post-truth politics and fake news, we suggest that the challenges raised by these new technologies relate to two key issues: voice and diversity, both of which are deeply affected by digital technologies. The industry’s capacity to adequately reflect on its role in enhancing or limiting these inequalities depends on adopting a renewed ethics in pedagogy and practice that adequately equips practitioners with the reflective and analytical skills to not only use digital technologies,...
This special section of Discover Society emerges from a two-day gathering of scholars, activists ... more This special section of Discover Society emerges from a two-day gathering of scholars, activists and artists dedicated to the theme at Goldsmiths, University of London, in September of 2017. Its inspiration comes from a certain frustration with the emergent interdisciplinary field of critical finance studies, which, regrettably (and with some noble exceptions), has not yet elected to enter into a vibrant dialogue with fields such as post-colonial criticism, critical race studies and settler-colonial studies. We believe such an avoidance is tragic, given not only the vibrancy of all of these fields but also the reality that many of the phenomena associated with finance, finance capital and financialization cannot be fully understood without reference to imperial, colonial and racialized realities, past and present.
The marketing of countries as streams of income for global investment funds has become an accepte... more The marketing of countries as streams of income for global investment funds has become an accepted part of ‘financialisation’, the new reconfigurations of capitalism which have emerged to manage money’s ebbs and flows (Martin 2002, p. 3). Trust production is among those new practices which have evolved as modern financial capitalism forced by a ‘certain kind of desperation’, seeks out new forms of profit (Thrift 2006, p. 280). Trust has always been fundamental to finance, but in modern financial markets, trust has become a requisite driver of new profit and growth (Knights et al. 2001; Tyler & Stanley 2007).
American Behavioral Scientist, 2020
This article engages with the critical study of contemporary publicity by examining transparency ... more This article engages with the critical study of contemporary publicity by examining transparency as a strategic project to platformize financial services. The article contributes to understandings of transparency as value cocreation in business-to-business markets. Through field-level discourse analysis, the article shows that transparency is contingent primarily on the nature of the market, in this case, a platformized industry, which valorizes transparency as part of a regime of data sharing and open access. Transparency is further contingent on the market actor: actors with lesser status and market legitimacy are more likely to seek to cocreate transparency with market actors of greater or similar status and legitimacy. The article concludes that in commercial spaces, publicity’s relationship to transparency is not only determined by market logic, but that all market logics are being drawn further toward a technological definition of transparency as “shareveillance,” as more segm...
Public Relations Inquiry, 2019
Public relations’ (PR) professional habitus is defined by a relentless focus on optimism and futu... more Public relations’ (PR) professional habitus is defined by a relentless focus on optimism and futurity. This professional habitus renders PR indispensable to the corporate world after crisis, when new, potentially controversial, growth strategies must be sold-in to stakeholders. This article argues that PR’s professional habitus is heavily influenced by neoliberalism, an ideology which ‘confidently identifies itself with the future’. The discussion is timely, as 21st-century neoliberal capitalism becomes redefined by artificial intelligence (AI). The article combines PR theory, communications theory and political economy to consider the changing shape of neoliberal capitalism, as AI becomes naturalised as ‘common sense’ and a ‘public good’. The article explores how PR supports AI discourses, including promoting AI in national competitiveness and promoting ‘friendly’ AI to consumers, while promoting Internet inequalities. The article concludes that the PR profession’s myopia regarding...
Public Relations Review, 2019
Journal of Public Relations Research, 2015
ABSTRACT
New Media & Society, 2015
Online communities are popular sites for collective sensemaking. This study explores sensemaking ... more Online communities are popular sites for collective sensemaking. This study explores sensemaking in one such community following the closure of Olint Corp, a highly successful Jamaican investment club. After Olint’s disbanding, Jamaicans reconnected through online communities to make sense of their financial losses, to make sense of Olint – seen variously as an altruistic endeavour, a global currency trader, or Ponzi scheme – and to make sense of themselves as enterprising investors. This narrative inquiry unveils their rich, multi-voiced, fragmented storying of Olint and its founder, once praised as a ‘financial messiah’.
Public Relations Inquiry, 2013
This study challenges the validity of a role for public relations (PR) as ‘trust strategist’ in g... more This study challenges the validity of a role for public relations (PR) as ‘trust strategist’ in global financial markets, by reframing trust, power and PR. The reframing takes place in three stages: First, by shifting the trajectory of PR research to focus on Giddens’s system trust theory, which, until now, has received little prominence in PR scholarship. Second, by drawing on Foucauldian perspectives to link system trust relations and power relations through discourse; revealing the strategies and practices used to produce trust in global discourses. Third, by locating PR activity within discursive moments of trust/ mistrust production, repositioning PR as a ‘trust intermediary’ in global discourses.
Comunicação Mídia e Consumo, 2016
The purpose of this paper is to consider a less visible form of trust production which led to the... more The purpose of this paper is to consider a less visible form of trust production which led to the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. In many ways, the financial crisis was the first to result from a breakdown of assurance mechanisms, or generators of trust (Yandle, 2008). In other words, this particular global crisis was, at its core, a crisis of trust. What is also unique, though less adequately discussed, is that the global financial crisis was initially triggered not by a loss of public trust, but by an internal loss of trust between actors within the financial system itself. I refer specifically to the breakdown of trust between visible financial system and the ‘shadow’ financial system, the latter representing a sizeable portion of the system that is largely invisible to the public eye. For the purpose of this paper, I define organisations as “sites where members subject themselves and one another to various practices, where discourse sustains mutually reinforcing patterns of power and powerlessness” (Conrad and Haynes, 2001; 65). Power resides in these discursive practices, including the organisational knowledge formation and claims about it. In his discussion of trust in trans-organisational relations, Bachmann (2001), looks at the complex social processes involved in inter-firm relationships, and finds that firms operating within national boundaries have a shared world of institutional arrangements which govern the forms of trust relevant when engaging in specific relationships with each other.
Call for Interventions Blog posts of between 1,500-3,000 words Scholarly articles of up to 8,00... more Call for Interventions
Blog posts of between 1,500-3,000 words
Scholarly articles of up to 8,000 words
For submissions and inquiries, please use the following form
The Political Economy Research Centre (PERC) at Goldsmiths, University of London and Lakehead University’s ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL) invite submissions for a new series of scholarly, artistic or activist blog posts on the themes of colonial debts, extractive nostalgias, and imperial insolvencies, described below. Additionally, we are soliciting proposals for full-length scholarly essays from a diversity of disciplinary perspectives on these questions. In general, we aim to support a more robust and imaginative conversation about the entanglements of financialization, colonialism, empire, race and power, with an interdisciplinary eye on the past, present and future.
BLOG POSTS: The editors invite concise, pithy and incisive contributions that might arrive in the form of short essays (1,500-3,000 words), extracts from larger works, video-blog- or podcast-style discussions, interviews, image-driven essays or other critical or creative interventions that help expand and sharpen the discourse.
We are initially seeking 1,500 word submissions for a special blog series edited by Max Haiven and Paul Gilbert (deadline of 18 June 2018), to be published in July/August 2018.
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES: The editors also invite proposals for full-length essays (4,000-9,000 words), or shorter review articles and interventions, for publication in a recognized peer-reviewed academic journal, as part of a Special Issues (details to be announced).
In the case of both blog posts and academic essays, we encourage submissions from a wide range of disciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives that address these themes: whether historical, contemporary and/or prospective. Contributions from authors from backgrounds typically marginalized from academic institutions because of racism, sexism or other systemic factors are especially encouraged.
COLONIAL DEBTS: Contemporary discussions of debt, financialization and neoliberal capitalism have often elided the ideological, technical, political and cultural roots of these phenomena in the colonial world order. How can we better understand present-day wealth and power by tracing the entanglements of high finance, the insurance industry and real-estate speculation in the violent flows of empire? How does a robust theorization of race and racism enhance our understanding of financialization, debt and punitive economic power; and, vice-versa: in what ways is the landscape of race and racism changing amidst the set of trends known as financialization?
EXTRACTIVE NOSTALIGIAS: While certain aspects of financialization and ballooning personal and government indebtedness must be acknowledged as emergent tendencies, how and when is the assumption of their “nowness” dependent on the production of a fictitious “before”? By “extractive nostalgia” we aim to name the political and economic mobilization of problematic anachronisms when it comes to narrating the neoliberal present, and therefore in imagining better potential futures. How is this nostalgia for a time “before” debt and austerity haunted by the spectres of slavery, colonialism, empire and racism? From whence, or from whom, did “our” now-vanished wealth spring? What kind of extractive relations – past, present and future – are obscured by attempts to rescue the “real” economy from the vagaries of financialization and speculation?
IMPERIAL INSOLVENCIES: Today, we are told that the political spectrum is monopolized by the struggle between neoliberal globalists and neo-nationalist populism. But what does this often false binary hide about the roots of today’s crisis in the histories and legacies of empire? What can we learn from debates about past and present struggles for reparations, for the repatriation of stolen lands, or for the return of looted cultural treasures? How can an effort to measure the odious or exploitative debts that burden the oppressed with the moral or historical debts owed by the oppressors open new horizons for thinking beyond “the crisis”?
Submissions will be accepted on an ongoing basis. Please supply both inquiries and submissions to the following-link: https://goo.gl/forms/6n4wPSF397MsCJkJ2
SERIES EDITORS:
* Dr. Clea Bourne, Senior Lecturer in Promotional Media, Goldsmiths, University of London
* Dr. Paul Gilbert, Lecturer in International Development, University of Sussex
* Dr. Max Haiven, Canada Research Chair in Culture, Media and Social Justice, Lakehead University
* Dr. Johnna Montgomerie, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Goldsmiths, University of London