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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 this paper, the authors argue that economic and political ideologies permeate and shape thought, text and action, and academic knowledge production is no exception, and they propose a method to identify the influence of these ideologies in knowledge production.
Abstract: Decades of critical research have established that economic and political ideologies permeate and shape thought, text and action, and academic knowledge production is no exception. This article exa...

102 citations

DOI
01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: The anti-cultural turn of Western Political Thought that has emerged out of Enlightenment thinking and was first turned into a comprehensive political idea by Thomas Hobbes is discussed in this paper. But it is the emotional part of the human psyche that enables us to create family like bonds based on culture.
Abstract: OF DISSERTATION FROM HOBBES TO HABERMAS: THE ANTI-CULTURAL TURN IN WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT The theme of this dissertation is the anti-cultural turn of Western Political Thought that has emerged out of Enlightenment thinking and was first turned into a comprehensive political idea by Thomas Hobbes. The Hobbesian worldview makes the case that human sociability and ultimately culture are the main drivers of conflict, and that the prescriptions of any political philosophy should aim to replace sociability with individuality. Beginning with an overview of psychological research into the phenomenon of culture I put forward the argument that human beings are by nature social and individualistic, but that they oscillate between their ability to put group-interests before individual interests and vice versa. Culture is the main mechanism that influences which interest we give priority. This mechanism work through emotional attachments that create intuitions about what is morally right and wrong, thereby influencing final behavioral outcomes. The Enlightenment and Thomas Hobbes viewed these emotional attachments as an insufficient or dangerous fundament for social action, leading to a philosophical approach that put rational individualism at the center of its moral matrix, diminishing the importance of the emotional attachments created by culture. These attachments are crucial for the emergence of communities and the ability to engage in collective action. Contrary to the idea of a community formation driven purely by rationality, I propose that it is the emotional part of the human psyche that enables us to create family like bonds based onb culture. In my dissertation I investigate the consequences of this reductionist view on culture, and what it can mean for societies and institutions.

101 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, three social movement organizations (SMOs) active in Vancouver, British Columbia, are taken to exemplify three distinguishable types of social movement politics: recognition (Gay-Lesbian Centre), redistribution (End Legislated Poverty), and salvation (Greenpeace).
Abstract: This paper analyses the relationship between social movements and the media strategies that they invoke to pursue their respective goals. Three social movement organizations (SMOs) active in Vancouver, British Columbia, are taken to exemplify three distinguishable types of social movement politics: "recognition" (Gay-Lesbian Centre), "redistribution" (End Legislated Poverty), and "salvation" (Greenpeace). We employ a qualitative comparative case analysis, based on interviews with activists and on archival documents from each SMO. In tracing the media strategies of these groups, we recount their histories, focusing on the way in which each has framed its project and on the organizational and strategic dimensions of its practice. The varying attempts of these SMOs to cope with the asymmetrical and dependent power relations between movements and mainstream mass media are interpreted with reference to Antonio Gramsci's theoretical perspective on counter-hegemony and Nancy Fraser's conceptual distinction between "affirmative" and "transformative" politics. In exploring how SMOs respond to potential media blockage, distortion, or facilitation of their ideas and actions, we clarify some of the dilemmas that confront critical social movements in a mediatized age.

101 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that any meaningful response to the phenomenon requires a critique of the dehumanizing forces that operate within and outside schools and the development of a renewed project for a critical pedagogy that is more attuned to the influences of globalization and popular culture on young people's lives.
Abstract: Although alienation is widely recognized as a barrier to educational success for many students, prevailing explanations tend to focus on psychological traits and individual deficits, rather than the oppressive economic and social structures bearing down on young people. This paper addresses the issues of youth alienation and student engagement from a critical/sociological perspective. Informed by Paulo Freire's philosophy and praxis, I argue that any meaningful response to the phenomenon requires a critique of the dehumanizing forces that operate within and outside schools and the development of a renewed project for a critical pedagogy that is more attuned to the influences of globalization and popular culture on young people's lives. The practical possibilities, limitations and potential development of such a pedagogy is discussed with reference to a cluster of Australian high schools serving low socioeconomic communities.

101 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored the impact of dual stigmatization on bisexual women, who often see bi identity as disrupting the dominant sexual binary and argued that bisexual women's discourse on sexual subjectivity does not escape the influence of binary structures, although it does at times reconfigure the binary along the queer/nonqueer and bisexual/monosexual axes.
Abstract: This article explores bisexual identity as an ambiguous social category within the dominant dualistic sex/gender structure. The article documents the stigmatization of the bisexual category in the discourse of both the Religious Right and lesbian feminist communities, then examines the impact of dual stigmatization on bisexual women, who often see bi identity as disrupting the dominant sexual binary. Drawing from interviews with bisexual women, the article argues that bisexual women's discourse on sexual subjectivity does not escape the influence of binary structures, although it does at times reconfigure the binary along the queer/nonqueer and bisexual/monosexual axes. While the bisexual identity category may work as a discursive stabilizing device during the sex/gender crisis provoked by the AIDS epidemic, its politicization by bi feminists also allows the category to be strategically deployed for feminist and queer political projects.

100 citations