The social imperative in public relations: Utilities of social impact, social license and engagement

Public relations is recognized as an organizational boundary-spanning function accountable for communication engagement with diverse stakeholders in ways that facilitate social relationships, co-creation, and communication. It is this perspective that underpins the claim that social license and social impact have utility for public relations theory, as organizational decisions have intended and unintended impacts on communities. This perspective also underscores the need for organizations to find better ways to understand and attend to public expectations in an authentic manner. The notion of an organization or industry having a social license to operate and needing to consider their social impact has never been more important. This special section in Public Relations Review on Engagement, Social License to Operate (SLO) and Social Impact responds to the call to articulate the utility of SLO and social impact by situating and conceptually strengthening these concepts within public relations scholarship and outlining future research for public relations theory building. This editorial conceptually situates SLO and social impact for public relations and engagement, and identifies future research opportunities. The papers in this special section are introduced, highlighting the links between the concepts and public relations.