Gramsci. Riccardo Cuppini/Flickr. Some rights reserved.Hegemony is a hot concept. The recent political upheavals have had the effect of pushing it towards centre stage. In the pursuit of a terminology for describing what is happening, hegemony is taking quite a bit of weight on its shoulders. It is a concept designed to explain how the powerful exert control and maintain their dominance; this means that it is also useful for understanding how power can be be disrupted or upset. Popular in the present moment, the concept of ‘hegemony’ describes a kind of all consuming power but also crops up where dominant ideas are dented or challenged.
Power can be won through consent rather than force – although force is always in reserve when needed.
Most commonly, hegemony is understood to be based around the idea that certain ideologies – ideas and beliefs about the way the world is – come to dominate. These ideologies become embedded in our culture and shape how we see the world. The result is that power can be won through consent rather than force – although force is always in reserve when needed. This is power through assent or agreement. The reduced need for physical force means that hegemonic power can be achieved and maintained efficiently. The battles over truth, knowledge and media mean that there are few words that evoke the politics of our times more acutely than hegemony.
