Don’t say “the D word”: Exploring death taboo and biopower in pregnancy loss awareness advocacy

IF 2.7 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Public Relations Inquiry Pub Date : 2024-02-16 DOI:10.1177/2046147x241234066

Sarah A. Aghazadeh

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Public relations (PR) has explored a host of taboo and stigma riddled health topics to understand the role of communication and advocacy to improve wellbeing. However, PR scholarship has not sufficiently investigated taboo as a mechanism of social control within sociocultural theory or the role of the discipline in shaping meanings about death and bereavement. As a step in this endeavor, this study explored pregnancy loss through a sociocultural perspective of PR. It employs Foucault’s biopower to tease out how pregnancy loss awareness advocates/activists perceive taboo as regulation and their methods to push back on such constraints through advocacy. Using in-depth interviews with U.S. pregnancy loss awareness advocates/activists (17), findings explicate how participants see taboo as regulating pregnancy loss through isolation, invalidation, erasure, and conflation. Findings also speak to the ways that they resist such regulation by framing pregnancy loss as a public health issue, building community, and reclaiming parental identity. This study offers implications for sociocultural PR by illustrating the complex regulatory functions taboos serve, presenting experience-based community as productive use of power, and considering the nuances of advocacy in the context of death.

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别说 "D字"：探索妊娠损失意识宣传中的死亡禁忌和生物权力

公共关系（PR）探索了一系列禁忌和耻辱化的健康话题，以了解传播和宣传在改善健康方面的作用。然而，在社会文化理论中，公共关系学术还没有充分研究作为社会控制机制的禁忌，也没有充分研究该学科在塑造死亡和丧亲意义中的作用。作为这方面努力的一个步骤，本研究通过社会文化视角的公关来探讨妊娠丧亲。它运用福柯的生物权力理论，揭示了妊娠损失意识倡导者/活动家是如何将禁忌视为规范的，以及他们通过倡导来反击这种限制的方法。通过对美国妊娠损失意识倡导者/活动家（17 位）的深入访谈，研究结果阐述了参与者如何将禁忌视为通过孤立、无效、抹杀和混淆来调节妊娠损失。研究结果还说明了他们是如何通过将妊娠损失视为公共卫生问题、建立社区和恢复父母身份来抵制这种规制的。本研究通过说明禁忌所起到的复杂调节作用、介绍以经验为基础的社区作为权力的有效利用方式，以及考虑在死亡背景下倡导的细微差别，为社会文化研究提供了启示。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Public Relations Inquiry COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

11.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Public Relations Inquiry is an international, peer-reviewed journal for conceptual, reflexive and critical discussion on public relations, supporting debates on new ways of thinking about public relations in social, cultural and political contexts, in order to improve understanding of its work and effects beyond the purely organisational realm. We interpret public relations in a broad sense, recognising the influence of public relations practices on the many forms of contemporary strategic, promotional communication initiated by organisations, institutions and individuals. The practice of public relations arises at points of societal and organisational change and transformation, affecting many aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life. Reflecting this, we aim to mobilize research that speaks to a scholars in diverse fields and welcome submissions from any area that speak to the purpose of the journal, including (but not only) public relations, organizational communication, media and journalism studies, cultural studies, anthropology, political communication, sociology, organizational studies, development communication, migration studies, visual communication, management and marketing, digital media and data studies. We actively seek contributions that can extend the range of perspectives used to understand public relations, its role in societal change and continuity, and its impact on cultural and political life. We particularly welcome multi-disciplinary debate about the communication practices that shape major human concerns, including: globalisation, politics, and public relations in international communication migration, refugees, displaced populations terrorism, public diplomacy public and corporate governance diversity and cultural impacts of PR the natural and built environments Communication, space and place The development and practices of major industries such as health, food, sport, tourism, technology.