Steel Matters: Communicative Praxis of Community Relations in a Pluralistic Postmodern Society of Information Empowerment

<p>In recent postmodern years, United States Steel Corporation has gained international recognition for successfully pioneering grassroots community relations programs that attain the mutually achievable goals of fiscal, social and ethical accountability. This paper offers two of their praxis-driven recycling and environmental education programs as particular examples of applied communication in an increasingly important marketplace and scholarly area. By examining United States Steel Corporation's community relations programs from multiple theoretical perspectives, insights are drawn about theory and praxis. In the marketplace, this multi-dimensional perspective implies that community relations is impacted by an ensemble of intertwined ethical, technical, intercultural, legislative, economic and social realities that can be interpreted and leveraged through practical wisdom for a hermeneutical renewed understanding of corporate communication that I posit to be the metaphor of ethical corporate community communicative praxis. In terms of implications for higher education, this study sets the stage for academics to walk this metaphor into the marketplace. Finally, this study offers five points of significance that point toward the need for continued scholarly inquiry into corporate community communicative praxis. In postmodern times, being responsive to the communicative demands of the historical moment is a process upon which a company's success or failure depends. Therefore, communicative praxis is particularly fitting for analysis of corporate approaches to community relations.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Only

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication and Rhetorical Studies

Year dc:date.available

2006

Author dc:creator

• Kapusta, Susan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Janie Harden Fritz
• Ronald C. Arnett
• Kathleen Glenister Roberts

• communicative praxis
• community relations
• postmodern society

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/86

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dsc.duq.edu:etd-1086