Soul searching: Public relations, reputation and social marketing in an age of interdisciplinarity

•We look for ways for PR to adapt to an age of interdisciplinarity.•We reactivate jurisdiction perspectives in relation to PR and marketing imperialism.•We evaluate the evolution of social marking in general and in NZ in particular.•We revisit practical and theoretical intersections between PR and social marketing.•We suggest how PR can improve its social contributions and reputation. Positioning the present as an age of interdisciplinarity, we explore the potential for development through selected intersections, primarily with PR and social marketing. We situate this exploration in the further context of the contemporaneous search for what some management theorists have called soul. In the process, as well as contributing to the PR and social marketing bodies of knowledge, we seek to clarify academic deliberations about selecting productive and prosocial interdisciplinary intersections. To begin to illustrate parallel process in practice, we embed practitioner perspectives in an account of social marketing in Aotearoa New Zealand11We use Aotearoa New Zealand in recognition of the two groups that call these islands home: tangata whenua – the indigenous peoples, commonly referred to as Māori – and tangata tiriti – the peoples for whom Te Tiriti o Waitangi (New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi) established their right to live here. We do this to recognise the two cultures that formed this nation and the challenges and strengths this has created. Any reference to Aotearoa or New Zealand should be seen as a recognition of both. . Our intent is to look for ways in which both scholars and practitioners could get better at it. We conclude by suggesting that intersecting with social marketing can also help PR tackle three major and continuing issues: methods, outcome evaluations, and reputation.