Paradygmat public relations jako dyscypliny naukowej

Last years of XX century and the beginning of XXI century have been the era of public relations. Although this discipline is almost 100 year old, and its roots are in the ancient times, the dynamic development has happened in recent years. Globalisation, new technology, new form of communication, better educated people and the development of free market economy in the global world are conditions which foster expansion of public relations practice. All of above make public relations a crucial subject which should be placed in the scientific field. One of the questions which have been raised in recent times is a question about a PR paradigm. This is why, the main objective of the presented paper is to present some conclusions around scientific quality of public relations. The main assumption of the paper is the Jacquie L'Etang's thesis about few different approaches to PR both in practice and theory. The paper tries to answer the following research questions: 1. How do social sciences participate in the theory of public relations? 2. How does economics participate in the theory of public relations? 3. Does public relations theory exist? The authors of the paper make conclusions referring to the recent literature in this field considering as the methodological basis the PR family tree prepared by Jacquie L'Etang.