Concept Of Hegemony Research Articles

Ruptures in hegemonic masculinity: the dialectic between ideology and utopia

In the 1990s, Raewyn Connell published her groundbreaking study on the transformation of masculinity. In Masculinities, the concept of hegemonic masculinity was put forward as a key concept in gender studies. Originally applied in Marxian studies to power and class, the concept of hegemony was now used to analyse a historically mobile and dynamic power structure and hierarchical relation between different groups of men and women. Although using the concept of hegemonic masculinity is considered a powerful way of approaching and analysing gender relations, the main question is whether this conceptual turn, in fact, leads to a more dynamic theory of masculinity and gender. The main objective of this article is to contribute to conceptual clarifications and to the theorizing on gender, hegemony and masculinity. The conceptual and theoretical exploration aims at opening up ways of redefining and reconceptualizing hegemonic masculinity. Using Ricoeur's and Laclau and Mouffe's theorizations of hegemony, the concept of hegemonic masculinity is expanded and reformulated. A short case study of contemporary Scandinavian fatherhood is used to discuss the empirical implications of this theoretical effort.

Hegemonia, consenso e coerção e os beneficiários do Programa Bolsa Família

Este artigo investiga as razões da desobediência a regras impostas pelo Estado pelos beneficiários de políticas sociais, especificamente os do Programa Bolsa Família, instituído pelo Governo Federal em 2003. A investigação é feita a partir dos dados coletados em uma pesquisa qualitativa que entrevistou titulares legais de famílias que recebiam o benefício, mas que estavam em situação de descumprimento das condicionalidades. Procura compreender os elementos intrínsecos à ideologia de grupos ou indivíduos que descumprem normas sociais, mesmo sujeitos a penalidades. Problematiza a perspectiva hegemônica do Programa, baseando-se nos conceitos de hegemonia, consenso e coerção de Antonio Gramsci: o alcance e os limites das penalidades - a coerção - e o reconhecimento e a aceitação das regras - o consenso.

Normative power as hegemony

This article identifies four key problems in the debate about normative power Europe that may be fruitfully tackled when linking it to the concept of hegemony: the debate about whether EU foreign and external policy is driven by norms or interests; the problem of inconsistent behaviour as a result of competing and contested norms; the question of the role of state and non-state actors in EU foreign and external policy; and the problematic standing of normative power as an academic engagement, in particular in regard to whether the theory is of primarily explanatory, descriptive or normative value. The author suggests that the concept of hegemony may address these problems. First, it combines norms and interests, thus transcending the divide that has resulted in endless debates about the EU’s standing as a normative power. Second, hegemony does not start from a pre-given set of norms with fixed meanings, but rather puts the struggles about these norms at centre stage, thus seeing inconsistencies not as undermining but as part and parcel of normative power. Third, hegemony expands our understanding of the actors involved in the construction and exercise of normative power, thus bringing not only Member States but also social forces in a much broader sense into the picture. Finally, hegemony reorientates the debate about normative power so as to reinstate the critical purpose that the concept was supposed to have from the start.

From “boys” to “men”? African and black masculinities, triangular desire, race, and subalternity in Charles Mungoshi’s short stories

This article looks at African and black men and masculinities, triangulated desire, race, and subalternity in Charles Mungoshi’s short story collections. It examines the negotiation of desire, and its interface and interplay with power relations and their negotiation in the colonial and postcolonial economies of domination and gender as depicted in the short stories. It uses the Gramscian concept of hegemony, Girard’s mimetic theory of triangular desire, and Sedgwick’s theory of gendered triangular desire, to examine these dynamics. It argues that colonial and postcolonial power and gender relations are negotiated through a complex interplay of desire that cannot all be accounted for by both Girard and Sedgwick’s models, necessitating their modification to deal with the complexity of desire in a colonial and postcolonial context. The short story collections examined span the colonial and postcolonial eras and these are Coming of the Dry Season (1981), Some Kinds of Wounds (1980), and Walking Still (1997).

Exploring hegemonic change in China: a case of accounting evolution

PurposeThis paper aims to provide an understanding of how accounting systems have changed across four distinct periods of hegemonic leadership in China.Design/methodology/approachUsing Gramsci's concept of hegemony, periods of leadership and accounting change throughout Chinese history are examined, including the Confucian tradition, the rise of the socialist system followed by the Cultural Revolution in the Maoist era, and the move towards the socialist‐market system in the Dengist era.FindingsThis paper shows how political leaders in these different time periods effectively achieved leadership by destroying an existing hegemony, creating a new ideology, and implanting this into people's daily lives in order to successfully mobilise their ideological systems. Consistent with changes in leadership, Chinese accounting systems are shown to have responded to hegemonic shifts across these periods.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to understandings of Gramsci's concept of hegemony, explanations of, and motivations for, accounting change, and provides an insight into the evolution of accounting systems throughout time in the context of China.

Masculinidade hegemônica: repensando o conceito

O conceito de masculinidade hegemônica tem influenciado os estudos de gênero em vários campos acadêmicos, mas ao mesmo tempo tem atraído um sério criticismo. Os autores traçam a origem do conceito a uma convergência de ideias no início dos anos 1980 e mapeiam as formas através das quais o conceito foi aplicado quando os estudos sobre homens e masculinidades se expandiram. Avaliando as principais críticas, os autores defendem o conceito de masculinidade como fundamental, uma vez que, na maioria das pesquisas que o opera, seu uso não é reificador nem essencialista. Entretanto, as críticas aos modelos assentados em características de gênero e às tipologias rígidas são sólidas. O tratamento do sujeito em pesquisas sobre masculinidades hegemônicas pode ser melhorado com a ajuda dos recentes modelos psicológicos, mesmo que os limites à flexibilidade discursiva devam ser reconhecidos. O conceito de masculinidade hegemônica não equivale a um modelo de reprodução social; precisam ser reconhecidas as lutas sociais nas quais masculinidades subordinadas influenciam formas dominantes. Por fim, os autores revisam o que foi confirmado por formulações iniciais (a ideia de masculinidades múltiplas, o conceito de hegemonia e a ênfase na transformação) e o que precisa ser descartado (tratamento unidimensional da hierarquia e concepções de características de gênero). Os autores sugerem a reformulação do conceito em quatro áreas: um modelo mais complexo da hierarquia de gênero, enfatizando a agência das mulheres; o reconhecimento explícito da geografia das masculinidades, enfatizando a interseccionalidade entre os níveis local, regional e global; um tratamento mais específico da encorporação¹ em contextos de privilégio e poder; e uma maior ênfase na dinâmica da masculinidade hegemônica, reconhecendo as contradições internas e as possibilidades de movimento em direção à democracia de gênero.

The Arab Revolts: The Old Is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born

The toppling of the Tunisian despot in January 2011 produced a wave of revolts that swept the Arab World and opened the door for counterhegemonic movements in the region. Using the Gramscian concept of hegemony, this paper examines the strategies deployed by subaltern groups in three Arab countries with comparable sociopolitical conditions: namely, Egypt, Syria, and Algeria. It contends that Egyptian protesters were successful in toppling their president because they were facing a weak hegemony while in Algeria people were unable to threaten the regime seriously since they confronted a strong hegemonic bloc. Furthermore, on a continuum from the most to the least hegemonic, the Syrian regime is situated midway between the two. The Syrian elite were not strong enough to implement a passive revolution comparable to the Algerian one, but they had sufficient cohesion to prevent a quick fragmentation similar to the one that the Egyptian ruling class experienced.

O VALOR DO CONCEITO DE HEGEMONIA PARA AS RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS

The article details the concept of hegemony, with special attention to its historical evolution, and its present use in the study of International Relations.

Nationalist Hegemony Over Islamist Dreams in Iran and Pakistan: Who Were Shariati and Maududi?

This article examines two prominent ideologues, Ali Shariati of Iran and Maulana Maududi of Pakistan, in order to determine their influence on national politics in the second half of the 20th century. Were they only fundamental actors of political Islam in their societies, or did they also have a significant impact on the reformation of Iranian and Pakistani nationalism? If they did, who exactly were Shariati and Maududi, and what are their legacies? In order to answer these questions, this article focuses on the Iranian experience with nationalism before and after the Iranian Revolution (1979) and Pakistani nationalism embedded with Islamism from independence (1947) until the end of the 1980s. In light of Ranajit Guha's concept of hegemony, this article brings to the foreground the possibility of alternative ways of thinking and belonging.

Consent and Submission

This article examines the concept of civil society as developed in the Gramscian theory under the prism of its ideological correlations, that is, as the field of development and reproduction of consent and submission to the political. It is in the framework of this analysis that the question of whether the Gramscian theory can become a modern instrument of theoretical elaboration of the forms that civil society is taking today is raised. Moreover, the concept of the state and the role the concept of hegemony has in the analysis of the class struggle which takes on the character of “intellectual struggle” is considered. Furthermore the relationship between the meaning of hegemony and that of ideology is developed as well as that between consent and submission. Within the aforementioned analysis, the article attempts among other things to bring forward the multiple antinomies Gramsci faces and which extend throughout his theory. Finally, it is argued that the validity of Gramscian theory, in connection to the questions raised in the present article, is limited only to the interwar period and has little analytical value for contemporary sociopolitical reality.

Building Consent: Hegemony, ‘Conceptions of the World’ and the Role of Evangelicals in Global Politics

Since Robert Cox's early interventions in the 1980s, the work of Gramsci has been openly applied to the arena of international politics, often superimposed on to the wider concepts of ‘world order’ and ‘transnational class’ formation. While this has produced a great deal of commendable scholarly work, it has equally produced a growing number of critics who have voiced concerns over the viability and feasibility of applying Gramsci's key concepts to the realm of the international. Rather than revisiting these charges, we argue that one of the main problems associated with the ‘neo-Gramscian’ interpretations of international relations (IR) is that they have tended to develop an ontology of their own and have not pursued a re-reading of Gramsci's actual work to explore a fresh opening towards applying Gramsci to the international. We argue that by re-exploring Gramsci's understanding of ‘conceptions of the world’ and by re-examining Gramsci's concept of hegemony, a greater scope can be achieved for understanding power relations within global politics. We demonstrate the potential for this by tentatively looking at the role of increasingly popular global evangelical religious groups in the fashioning of hegemonic consent across diverse parts of civil society, arguing that it is such bottom-up studies of societal consent that are required in order for Gramscian theory and research to move beyond their current ontological applications.

Colombia, from failing state to a second independence: The politics and the price

Amid social and political conditions that could well lead to Colombia being described in the terms of a failed state, the country’s electorate chose Álvaro Uribe as its thirty-ninth president in 2002, and again in 2006, preferring to keep in office a man who seemed to be putting the country together again, rather than respecting the constitutional prohibition against consecutive presidential terms. Though his presidency was marked by scandals and irregularities – most notably, the falsos positivos (false positives: young, poor Colombian civilians, assassinated in cold blood by the zealous armed forces and listed as guerrilla kills) – Uribe enjoyed approval ratings previously unknown in Colombian history. He is in fact credited with giving Colombia its ‘second independence’, and his leaving office was, for many, tragic. Here, I present an explanation for this paradox, analysing an aspect of Uribe’s discourse for the way it contributed to producing a shared national sentiment by articulating a social imaginary with limited possibilities for making sense of Colombia. Drawing on Geertz, Durkheim and Brubaker and the concepts of hegemony and identification, I elucidate the effectiveness of Uribe’s discourse of the nation in a context of a long experience of frustration and decadence, and show why and how so many Colombians could, at least for a time, give their overwhelming support to a regime wherein murder was authorized, unacknowledged as anything more significant than the price to be paid for that second independence.

Harm Reduction Policy, Political Economy, and Insite

Abstract: This paper seeks to answer why Insite, Vancouver's safe injection facility, continues to be a controversial issue, given that empirical investigations of the facility have demonstrated that the site improves health and saves health care dollars. As Insite represented a shift to harm reduction policy, from historically dominant drug control policy, it has drawn opposition from local, national and international players. Using a political economy framework, this paper looks at the population around Insite, examining who the clients are and whether the facility is beneficial to them. The Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, where Insite is located, is known to be one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada, and as such the population is extremely marginalized (The Globe and Mail, 2008). This paper argues that the attempts by the federal Conservative Party to shut down Insite are based on ideology rather than the effectiveness of the facility. Using the Gramscian concept of hegemony, this paper argues that the federal Conservative Party attempted to use its hegemonic dominance to close down Insite. This paper will also briefly discuss the legal history of Insite, and the empirical literature, briefly summarizing the evidence researchers have found.

Dangerously empty? Hegemony and the construction of the Irish entrepreneur

In this article we build on Jones and Spicer’s (2009) conceptualization of the entrepreneur as an empty signifier. We explore the function of the signifier ‘entrepreneurship’ within a social context marked by crisis: Ireland 2007–2010. In doing so, we show how its articulation by government acted to legitimize the continuation of market logics and, relatedly, the existing political status quo. Theoretically, we demonstrate the usefulness of Laclau and Mouffe’s conception of hegemony, which shares a Lacanian legacy with Jones and Spicer. This helps us to understand the contradictory nature of the signifier of the entrepreneur in Irish political and social discourse, along with its relationship to the reproduction of political hegemony.

A burguesia enquadrada: Mafalda e sua turma criticam elementos da sociedade burguesa (a naturalização das diferenças, a desumanização e a competição) na aula de História

Este trabalho objetiva, a partir de uma perspectiva marxista, refletir sobre a possibilidade de, em se criticando a sociedade burguesa na aula de História, se construir coletivamente, no limite, leituras contrahegemônicas da realidade. Alicerçados no conceito gramsciano de hegemonia e na noção de contrahegemonia, analisamos as histórias em quadrinhos não no intuito de instrumentalizar esta linguagem cada vez mais presente na sala de aula, mas no esforço de compreendê-la como um elemento que pode contribuir bastante para a crítica do real, para a explicitação do momento histórico em que foi produzida, para um ensino de História mais lúdico e crítico ao mesmo tempo. Em termos metodológicos, foram selecionadas três tiras de Mafalda (intituladas “A naturalização das diferenças”, “A desumanização” e “A competição”), presentes na obra Toda Mafalda (2002), no intuito de subsidiar as reflexões aqui esboçadas. Este trabalho representa um recorte da dissertação de mestrado defendida no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da UERJ (ProPEd), em março de 2011, sob o título: Mafalda na aula de História: a crítica aos elementos característicos da sociedade burguesa e a construção coletiva de sentidos contra-hegemônicos.

‘Hell Is the Other’: Conceptualising Hegemony and Identity through Discourse Theory

The concept of hegemony has regained attention from various theoretical perspectives in International Relations. This article argues that IR-poststructuralism can offer an independent perspective on the production of hegemonies in international politics. Based on IR-poststructuralism and poststructuralist discourse theory, it develops a conceptual framework and an associated methodological approach for the analysis of international hegemonies in concrete discourses. Thereby, the article conceptualises international hegemonies as the creation of a specific type of collective identity while arguing that for hegemonies to emerge, both the creation of an antagonistic Other and a vision of the opposed Self are necessary. The workings of the conceptual framework are illustrated with a comparative reconstruction of United Nations discourses on international terrorism and drug prohibition from 1961 to 2011.

The unintended hegemonic effects of a limited concession: institutional incorporation of Chinese schools in post-war Hong Kong

Using the case of Chinese schools in post-Second World War Hong Kong, this paper explores the unintended consequences of an incomplete hegemonic project. After World War II, anti-imperialist pressures and rising educational demands in the local setting propelled the colonial authorities to be more active in providing and funding Chinese schools. This development created a considerable number of vernacular institutions that were either directly state-run or generously government-financed. Nevertheless, this concession was circumscribed because the regime eschewed universal and compulsory education, and many Chinese schools remained private and unaided. Producing three different types of vernacular institutions, the state’s partial incorporation of these institutions unwittingly divided these schools and pre-empted them from forming a united, antagonistic identity. These findings urge us to examine carefully, when using Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, the extent of compromise the powerful have actually conceded. They also hint that hegemony should not be conceived only as a conscious, conspiratorial project, for state practices occasioned by conjunctural forces may produce unintended consequences that have profound repercussions on political power.

The search for Hegemony: Ordering Power after the formation of the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe

This article analyses Nyatsoteerera (Listen Carefully) (2010), a music album composed by a Zimbabwean music group called Mbare Chimurenga Choir. The article argues that the album is a pro-ZANU PF composition, which articulates political discourses and ideologies that seek to establish and promote the dominance of ZANU PF – one of the ruling parties in the current Government of National Unity (GNU) – over both government and the wider national space. In its quest to establish and promote this dominance, the article further contends, the album undermines the principles behind the formation of the GNU and that its insistence that ZANU PF and its leader Robert Mugabe are the legitimate and authorised leaders of the country takes a hegemonic thrust. To engage with the vision(s) espoused in the album, the article applies the concept of hegemony and the theoretical debates that underlie it.

Analyzing the state-accounting profession dynamic: Some insights from the professionalization experience in China

The dynamic nature of the state-accounting profession relationship has been mostly explored within a western democratic and capitalist context. Taking into account the unique culture and the system of power in China, this paper contributes by examining the influence of the state over the Chinese public accounting profession during the 1990s. Utilizing a corporatist framework and combined with Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, this paper provides insights into the power relation between the state and the accounting profession, as well as illuminates the ideological influence of the state in the development of the profession. The empirical investigation also pays particular attention to the intra-professional conflicts that took place in the 1990s and provides further insights into the dynamic of the state-accounting profession relationship in that era.

Multiple layers of hegemony: post-apartheid South Africa and the South African Communist Party (SACP)

This article explores the neo-Gramscian concept of hegemony by investigating what the author refers to as multiple layers of hegemony existing and interacting with one another. Moreover, an empirical analysis of the South African Communist Party's (SACP's) role in the post-apartheid political landscape will be conducted in order to elucidate the key theoretical points under consideration. The article suggests that there are at least three relatively distinct layers, or forms, of hegemony that influence the post-apartheid political struggles of the SACP: global, national, and organizational. Engaging with the notion of hegemony in this manner, the author seeks to more clearly understand and explain the case study at hand, and also begins a conversation regarding the theoretical implications of engaging with the concept of hegemony in this manner.