Morton, Adam David
Social Forces in the Struggle Over Hegemony: Neo-Gramscian Perspectives in International Political Economy
Rethinking Marxism
Editor's introduction: Adam Morton engages in a wide-ranging and engaging survey of what he calls the neo-Gramscian theory of hegemony, which emerges in the seminal work of Robert Cox as a break from and alternative to mainstream neorealist understandings of international relations. Morton explains how Cox borrows key concepts from Antonio Gramsci’s distinctive approach to Marxian theory—especially the notions of hegemony, historical bloc, the state, and civil society—in order to fashion a “critical theory of hegemony,” one that “directs attention to questioning the prevailing order of the world.” Among the distinctive features of Cox’s framework are a focus on an expanded conception of hegemony (which represents a form of class rule, and thus includes but is not reduced to state dominance), the coalescing of historical blocs of social forces at a national level (as a condition for world hegemony), and a nonbourgeois view of the state (which is closely related to the work of Gramsci in that it encompasses institutions of political society and civil society). Morton then explains how this framework can be and has been creatively used (by Cox and other neo-Gramscians) to analyze various global configurations, including the post-World War II Pax Americana, the erosion of that order in the 1970s, and the emergence of a new global order (based on the internationalization of production and the state). Finally, he takes up some of the valuable criticisms of the neo-Gramscian approach from within the Left and puts forth an agenda for further research. What is particularly important, Morton argues, is for neo-Gramscian scholars to engage directly with the writings of Gramsci (instead of relying on secondhand accounts or non-Gramscian understandings of key concepts) and, especially, to consider systematically the forms of resistance (on the part of organized labor, landlesspeasants, and many others) to contemporary global hegemony. (IGS News, n. 14)
| Lingua | eng |
| Nomi |
[author] Morton, Adam David |
| Soggetti |
Relazioni Internazionali
Neogramscismo
Neo Gramscism
International relations |
