Public relations instructors can begin to develop an appreciation of the social, political and economic (S-P-E) contexts on the part of their students by beginning to integrate this thinking into existing courses and curricula. Social contexts deal with cultural and subcultural beliefs, contacts within a community or organization, and frames of reference and standards of comparisons. Political contexts include activities and strategies of political actors and role and power relationships. Economic contexts include availability of resources to client organizations and publics and coping with and cutting costs. During the term students can be expected to do several things that help enhance sensitivity to the S-P-E contexts: (1) draw on a range of S-P-E social science and humanities concepts while critically and comprehensively defining public relations goals; (2) read several case reports and define the three overlapping contexts; (3) confront ethical situations that cannot be examined apart from the social-political contexts; (4) prepare a paper which looks at an actual client's role, public relations problems, key publics, and services to those publics; and (5) hold a series of panel discussions on timely cases. Following these and other exercises, most students seem to see public relations as a dynamic, exciting process central to the client organization's basic function, a process that entails far more than promotion and publicity when placed in a larger context. Selected findings from three public relations research projects illustrate the use of the S-P-E concepts. (Twenty-six references are attached.) (MG)