Public relations, futures planning and political talk for addressing wicked problems

• Published in: Public relations review Vol. 45; no. 5; p. 101828
• Main Authors: Roper, Juliet, Hurst, Bree
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Silver Spring Elsevier Inc 01.12.2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Deliberative engagement; Interdisciplinary aspects; Political talk; Public relations; Scenarios; Skills; Stakeholder engagement; Wicked problems; Deliberative engagement; Scenarios; Wicked problems; Political talk; Stakeholder engagement
• ISSN: 0363-8111; 1873-4537
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.101828

•Conceptual paper.•Wicked problems require multi-sectoral engagement.•Interdisciplinary approaches can enhance stakeholder engagement.•Futures planning processes facilitate ‘political talk’. This conceptual article highlights the separate shortcomings of stakeholder engagement broadly, deliberative engagement specifically, and scenario planning in their separate application to address future problems, especially those termed as ‘wicked’ problems. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we combine the most relevant and useful aspects of these concepts and outline how, when taken together, they can be used by public relations (PR) practitioners to open ‘political talk’ in order to address wicked societal problems. In doing so, this article follows Turk’s (1986) call to look to future methodologies as way of expanding PR practice beyond the technical, functional skills that have typically defined the field. It also takes up Willis’ (2016) call for PR to take a wider role in helping governments and society tackle wicked problems.