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Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci

TL;DR: The first selection published from Gramsci's Prison Notebooks to be made available in Britain, and was originally published in the early 1970s as discussed by the authors, was the first publication of the Notebooks in the UK.
Abstract: Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, written between 1929 and 1935, are the work of one of the most original thinkers in twentieth century Europe. Gramsci has had a profound influence on debates about the relationship between politics and culture. His complex and fruitful approach to questions of ideology, power and change remains crucial for critical theory. This volume was the first selection published from the Notebooks to be made available in Britain, and was originally published in the early 1970s. It contains the most important of Gramsci's notebooks, including the texts of The Modern Prince, and Americanism and Fordism, and extensive notes on the state and civil society, Italian history and the role of intellectuals. 'Far the best informative apparatus available to any foreign language readership of Gramsci.' Perry Anderson, New Left Review 'A model of scholarship' New Statesman
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TL;DR: In light of events at the Daiichi nuclear plant, the authors discusses the origins of nuclear power in Japan and discusses the confluence of forces: strategic, economic, and cultural.
Abstract: In light of events at the Daiichi nuclear plant, this article discusses the origins of nuclear power in Japan. These origins lie in a confluence of forces: strategic, economic, and cultural. Drawin...

24 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare the modus operandi of two non-EU actors in the region: Russia and the United Arab Emirates, and argue that nontransparent business deals can stimulate a normative shift in the Western Balkans' political leadership away from pursuing the rule of law, and towards an authoritarian turn, while strengthening small circles of self-serving elites, at the expense of the citizenry at large.
Abstract: The presence of 'non-Western actors' in the Western Balkans has recently attracted the attention of policy-makers and academics alike, with the rise in prominence of non-EU countries coinciding with the weakening power of accession conditionality. While this trend was initially discussed in the context of a 'new Cold War' narrative, evidence-based research soon showed that this engagement is underpinned by particularistic interests at the top and 'corrosive capital'. The governance dimension is therefore essential in understanding the ties existing between the Balkan countries and the non-Western actors. Making use of primary and secondary data, this article compares the modus operandi of two non-EU actors in the region: Russia and the United Arab Emirates. It is argued that non-transparent business deals can stimulate a normative shift in the Western Balkans' political leadership away from pursuing the rule of law, and towards an authoritarian turn, while strengthening small circles of self-serving elites, at the expense of the citizenry at large. This is conceptualised as a 'vicious circle' of illiberalism and state capture, as viewed through the lens of corrosive capital.

24 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the validity of such critiques of "neo-Gramscian IPE" which rely on problematic characterisations and little evidence from Gramsci's writings, and provide an exegesis of the role of the international dimension in the construction of central categories of Gramschi's thought and his approach to nation state formation and international organisations such as the Catholic Church and the Rotary Club.
Abstract: Antonio Gramsci's thought has strongly influenced the fields of IR and IPE through the work of Robert Cox, Stephen Gill, Kees van der Pijl and others, engagements often gathered (not uncontroversially) under the rubric of an ostensibly unified ‘neo-Gramscian’ position or ‘the Italian School’. The emergence of such interventions into IR/IPE has sparked controversy regarding whether Gramsci's work can be legitimately applied to ‘the international’, both from within IR and in other fields. This article examines the validity of such critiques of ‘neo-Gramscian IPE’, which we argue rely on problematic characterisations and little evidence from Gramsci's writings. More substantively, we provide an exegesis of the role of the international dimension in the construction of central categories of Gramsci's thought and his approach to nation-state formation and international organisations such as the Catholic Church and the Rotary Club, which have been regrettably neglected by all facets of these discussions. We demonstrate that Gramsci can indeed be understood as a theorist of the international, whose approach is particularly salient for the present historical conjuncture.

24 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper argued that despite the well-documented discursive tensions that appear to exist between neo-liberalism and socioeconomic rights, the latter have been reconceptualized in a manner that is congruent with the hegemonic framework of the former in a number of international institutional settings.
Abstract: This article draws upon a neo-Gramscian analysis of world order to critically assess the relationship between neo-liberal globalization and socioeconomic rights. It argues that, notwithstanding the well-documented discursive tensions that appear to exist between neo-liberalism and socioeconomic rights, the latter have been reconceptualized in a manner that is congruent with the hegemonic framework of the former in a number of international institutional settings. This has been achieved in part through three discursive framing devices which will be termed ‘socioeconomic rights as aspirations’, ‘socioeconomic rights as compensation’, and ‘socioeconomic rights as market outcomes’. The article will conclude by arguing that, despite such appropriation, there are still fruitful possibilities for counterhegemonic articulations of socioeconomic rights to contest neo-liberal globalization.

24 citations

01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: This paper examined the effects of the post-Fordist approach upon power relations in four work places in the machining industry and found that machinists exercise greater skills in the work place, but they have less power to determine the pace and pay of their work.
Abstract: American industry is shifting to a "post-Fordist" approach to production. The post-Fordist approach includes expanding use of advanced manufacturing technologies, decreasing organizational sizes, decreasing bureaucratization of the work place, and the abandonment of Tayloristic managerial practices in favor of increasing worker participation in decision making processes. This study examines the effects of the post-Fordist approach upon power relations in four work places in the machining industry. Interviews with 44 machinists, employers and community leaders in the case study site "Machinist Valley" show that the shift to post-Fordism is accompanied by declining incomes, fewer employment opportunities, lower benefits, and less job security in comparison to machining work during the Fordist era. While machinists exercise greater skills in the work place, they have less power to determine the pace and pay of their work. Declining worker power primarily results from owners' abilities in Machinist Valley to instill and take advantage of the feeling of individual and collective job insecurity that pervades workers' consciousness. These findings point to the need for further evaluation of the shift to "flexible specialization." Findings of this study suggest that the optimistic scenario of craft control theory (Piore & Sable 1984), which asserts that increasing craft skills enhance worker power in the work place, is unlikely to be born out of post-Fordism in the current market conditions. The experiences of workers in Machinist Valley are more consistent with the projections of fragmentation theory (Lash & Urry 1987), which projects decreasing worker power due to declines in workers' class capacities.

24 citations