Dr Clea Bourne
Staff details

I am the convenor of the MA Promotional Media: Public Relations, Advertising & Marketing. I also convene the Heretical Finance Reading Group, which meets first Mondays of the month at Goldsmiths’ Political Economy Research Centre.
Research Interests
My broad research interests lie in the different ways that 21st century economies are strategically communicated and mediatised through various actors, practices and discourses. This research interest has translated into the following themes:
- Naturalising Artificial Intelligence in everyday life: Situating Artificial Intelligence as a ‘re-boot’ to neoliberal narratives, naturalised as ‘common sense’ through visuals and texts.
- Communicating Trust in Financial Markets: Locating wholesale, retail and state financial markets in the context of globalisation and critical discourse.
- Promotional professions as discursive boundary work: Applying sociological approaches to explore professional identity and boundary work at the intersection of the PR, Advertising and Marketing professions.
Areas of supervision
I am interested in supervising doctoral work which explores strategic efforts to communicate economic, financial and market developments. I am also interested in supervising research exploring the effect of media convergence and digital technologies on the PR, advertising and marketing sectors.
Publications and research outputs
Book
Bourne, Clea D.. 2022. Public Relations and the Digital: Professional Discourse and Change. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783031139550
Bourne, Clea D.. 2016. Trust, Power and Public Relations in Financial Markets. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9780415719216
Edited Book
Gilbert, Paul Robert; Bourne, Clea D.; Haiven, Max and Montgomerie, Johnna, eds. 2023. The entangled legacies of empire: Race, finance and inequality. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526163448
Edited Journal
Bourne, Clea D.; Haiven, Max; Montgomerie, Johnna and Gilbert, Paul Robert, eds. 2022. Financial Capital and Ghosts of Empire: Editorial, Journal of Cultural Economy, . 1753-0350
Book Section
Bourne, Clea D.. 2022. Our Platformised Future. In: Joanna Zylinska, ed. The Future of Media. London: Goldsmiths Press, pp. 99-110. ISBN 9781913380144
Bourne, Clea D. and Edwards, Lee. 2021. Critical Reflections on the Field. In: Chiara Valentini, ed. Public Relations. 27 Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 601-614. ISBN 9783110552294
Bourne, Clea D.. 2020. 'Public Relations and Finance'. In: Ralph Tench and Stephen Waddington, eds. Exploring Public Relations and Management Communication, Fifth Edition. United Kingdom: Pearson, pp. 570-588. ISBN 9781292321745
Bourne, Clea D.. 2017. 'Public Relations in the World of Finance'. In: Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans, eds. Exploring Public Relations: Global Strategic Communication - Fourth Edition. Harlow, United Kingdom: Pearson, pp. 412-425. ISBN 978-1-292-11218-3
Bourne, Clea D.. 2016. Central banking in risk discourses: ‘Remaking’ the economy after crisis. In: J. Crichton; C.N. Candlin and A.S. Firkins, eds. Communicating Risk. Palgrave-Macmillan, pp. 307-322. ISBN 978-1-137-47878-8
Bourne, Clea D.. 2015. Extending PR’s critical conversations with advertising and marketing. In: Jacquie L'Etang; David McKie; Nancy Snow and Jordi Xifra, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Critical Public Relations. Routledge, pp. 119-129. ISBN 9780415727334
Bourne, Clea D.. 2013. Public Relations in the World of Finance. In: Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans, eds. Exploring Public Relations, 3rd Edition. Harlow: Pearson United Kingdom, pp. 381-394. ISBN 9780273757771
Bourne, Clea D.. 2013. 'Globalize' AND 'Power/knowledge and Public Relations’. In: Robert L. Heath, ed. The Encyclopaedia of Public Relations (Second Edition). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. ISBN 9781452240794
Bourne, Clea D.. 2012. Producing trust in country financial narratives. In: Christopher Candlin and Jonathan Crichton, eds. Discourses of Trust. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230308497
Bourne, Clea D.. 2012. 'Rating agencies as a corporate governance mechanism: Power and trust production in debt capital markets’. In: Ralph Tench; Brian Jones and William Sun, eds. Corporate Social Irresponsibility: Issues, Debates and Case Studies. 4 Bingley: Emerald Books, pp. 135-156. ISBN 978-1-78052-998-1
Article
Bourne, Clea D.; Mumby, Dennis; Munshi, Debashish; Das, Arindam; Chaudhuri, Himadri Roy and Edwards, Lee. 2023. Narrating the anxious market: in search of alternatives during global crises. Consumption Markets & Culture, 26(3), pp. 233-244. ISSN 1025-3866
Bourne, Clea D.. 2020. Fintech’s transparency-publicity nexus: Value co-creation through transparency discourses in business-to-business digital marketing. American Behavioural Scientist, 64(11), pp. 1607-1626. ISSN 0002-7642
Bourne, Clea D.. 2019. The Public Relations Profession as Discursive Boundary Work. Public Relations Review, 45(5), 101789. ISSN 0363-8111
Bourne, Clea D.. 2019. AI cheerleaders: Public relations, neoliberalism and artificial intelligence. Public Relations Inquiry, 8(2), pp. 109-125. ISSN 2046-147X
Bourne, Clea D.. 2017. Sensemaking in an online community after financial loss: Enterprising Jamaican investors and the fall of a financial messiah. New Media & Society, 19(6), pp. 843-860. ISSN 1461-4448
Bourne, Clea D.. 2015. Thought Leadership as a trust strategy in global markets: Goldman Sachs’ promotion of the ‘BRICs’ in the marketplace of ideas. Journal of Public Relations Research, 27(4), pp. 322-336. ISSN 1062-726X
Bourne, Clea D.. 2013. Reframing trust, power and public relations in global financial discourses: Experts and the production of mistrust in life insurance. Public Relations Inquiry, 2(1), pp. 51-77. ISSN 2046-147X
Bourne, Clea D.. 2012. Producing trust, knowledge and expertise in financial markets: The global hedge fund industry ‘represents’ itself. Culture & Organization, 18(2), pp. 107-122. ISSN 1475-9551