Consent and Contestation: A Mini-Symposium on Gramsci's Contemporary Relevance
with
Michael Burawoy, Department of Sociology
Gillian Hart, Department of Geography
Dylan Riley, Department of Sociology
Cihan Tugal, Department of Sociology
This panel brings together four leading scholars of Gramsci who have used his writings to understand everything from the rise of fascism in interwar Europe, the end of apartheid in South Africa and the ANC's subsequent neoliberal turn, to Turkey's passive revolution, and the production of consent in the American factory. In this mini-symposium, these scholars will discuss whether and how Gramsci's concepts of hegemony and counterhegemony are relevant for thinking about (and trying to change) the world today.
The following questions will be addressed: How should we understand Gramsci's concepts of hegemony and counterhegemony (a term Gramsci did not use) and the relationship between the two? From a methodological point of view, what do hegemony/counterhegemony look like and how should we study them? To what extent and how are these concepts useful for understanding and/or trying to effect change in the current historical moment? Finally, What are the weaknesses of these concepts as Gramsci originally formulated them? How might we reconstruct these concepts in light of contemporary historical events/processes?