Gramsci Bibliography: 2025

English

Abushama, Hashem. “From the River to the Sea: Gramsci and Palestinian Cultural Politics in the Post-Oslo Conjuncture.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2529227.

Abstract: This essay explores how thinking with Gramsci helps us understand the differentiated forms of settler colonialism with which Palestinian artists have to contend in the current post-Oslo conjuncture in Palestine. This conjuncture refers to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995 and the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority (the PNA) in the Occupied Territories. I begin by highlighting how Gramscian thought can help us foreground, on the one hand, the entanglements between Israeli settler colonialism and its dispossession of the Palestinians , and capital and its shifting articulations with dispossession and racialization on the other. Taking the urban Palestinian cultural scenes in Ramallah (1967 territories) and Haifa (1948 territories) as my vantage points, I rely on twenty in-depth interviews with Palestinian artists as well as archival materials to explore how the interrelations within and between political and civil society are historically and geographically situated. My overall argument is not only that Gramsci reorients our attention to how culture is mediated through political, social, and economic relations, but that culture remains an important sphere of struggle against settler colonialism. Starting with the concrete cultural practices in Palestine keeps in view both the genocidal nature of settler colonial violence as well as its more pernicious and insidious modes of control and erasure that are woven into the fabric of everyday life. The political stakes of such an analysis are front and centre as it refuses, for example, to relegate “settler violence” in the West Bank but approaches it as relationally constitutive to political-civil municipal practices in Haifa. Thinking with Gramsci leaves us with a more intricate analysis of Israeli settler colonialism in its operations across the multiple Palestinian geographies as well as of its vulnerability to Palestinian modes of resistance – from the river to the sea.

Agarwal, Samantha. “Passive Revolution and Fractured Militancy in South Africa and India.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1–10. doi: 10.1080/01419870.2024.2431161.

Abstract: In Fractured Militancy Marcel Paret investigates the puzzling phenomenon of explosive yet fragmented mass protest in postapartheid South Africa. He offers a compelling explanation that centers on the ways in which passive revolution was intertwined with racial incorporation. In this response, I compare South Africa and India, offering insights on the interplay between class, race and/or caste and passive revolution in shaping these two post-colonial societies, while also suggesting ways to refine Gramsci’s concept to better understand hegemony in such contexts. I argue that Chatterjee’s theory of political society is not only inadequate for the Indian case but ultimately unhelpful for understanding South Africa. Finally, I introduce the concept of bivalent hegemony, where ruling groups incorporate racially or ethnically marginalized groups through re/distribution and recognition. I show how this concept helps to understand the persistence of inequality and the challenges in forging broader alliances among subaltern classes in both countries.

Akgüden, Muhterem. “‘Letting Everyone in’? A Gramscian Evaluation of Opposing Responsibility-Sharing Strategies in Hungary.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies, vol. 33, no. 4, 2025, pp. 1172–85. doi: 10.1080/14782804.2025.2496257.

Abstract: Mass migrations from Syria and Ukraine towards Europe are the results of two of the greatest humanitarian tragedies of recent decades. Opinions vary regarding why some European Union (EU) members exhibited differing degrees of responsibility-sharing towards these groups in need. However, few studies in the migration literature have tried to explain their completely opposite discourses or responses theoretically. Besides this theoretical gap, there is also a need to understand the power relations that underlie these responsibility-sharing strategies, which this study seeks to demonstrate. Drawing on a Gramscian perspective on hegemony and subalternity, this study aims to understand the opposing responsibility-sharing strategies of conservative nationalists in Hungary through a discourse analysis of Viktor Orbán’s statements towards the immigrant groups. It concludes by arguing that making a distinction between immigrant groups from Syria and Ukraine ensures the subaltern status of some groups while supporting the identities, interests and hegemonic intentions of conservative nationalists in Hungary.

al Khatib, Islam. “In Search of the Organic Intellectual a Gramscian Reading of Arab Feminist Knowledge Production.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–22. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504927.

Abstract: This essay “sits with” Arab feminist knowledge production mechanisms and processes, tracing its currents as they move through and against structures of power. It takes up Gramsci’s “war of position” as an invitation to consider how grassroots feminists in the Arab region inhabit the role of organic intellectuals, producing knowledge in ways that refuse containment. This knowledge does not sit comfortably within institutions, even as it is co-opted by NGOs and academia, translated into frameworks that often betray its intent. By exploring new ways of identifying “organic knowledge production” in oral histories, in the labour of translation, and in protest archives, this essay follows the ways in which feminist knowledge undoes dominant narratives, whether those imposed by the state or those tethered to Western epistemic authority. It insists on the force of feminist thought as praxis, as a movement that not only names injustice but acts upon it. Gramsci’s notions of organicity and the war of position find new life in these feminist struggles as tools sharpened by multi-directional organizing experiences. In centreing these modes of knowledge production, the essay unsettles the narrow grammars of civil society, which too often reduce feminist work to NGO-led initiatives, severed from the communities that sustain them. Instead, it returns knowledge to its rightful custodians, to those who shape its meanings in relation to struggle.

Bustani, Hisham. “Preparing for Revolutionary Times? Chronic Crisis of Authority and Constructive Subversion in Contemporary Jordan.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504923.

Abstract: Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach rooted in the methodology of participatory action research, this essay uses the lens of praxis to explore how Gramscian concepts, in conversation with ideas proffered by Alain Badiou, Jodi Dean, and the intellectuals of the Paris Commune, can help us understand, and possibly overcome, the socio-political stalemate characteristic of current polities in the Arab region. As a path to breaking the logjam, this study advances the concept of “constructive subversion”, arguing that politics must be engaged from autonomous liberated political spaces. Such spaces are required for the processes of mass intellectualization, advance preparation, theoretical and practical experimentation, political creativity and dynamism, and the deepening of the chronic crisis of authority necessary to the revolutionary moment to increase the likelihood of its transformation into a revolutionary movement that is able to effect change. The essay also presents a case study of the National Jordanian Campaign for the Abrogation of the Gas Deal with Israel as a model of such a liberated space, elaborating on the campaign’s mechanisms of action and organization, the challenges it faces, and some of the techniques it utilizes to minimize the effects of authoritarian intervention and fragmentation.

Camp, Jordan T. “The Southern Question and Subaltern Social Groups and Classes.” Rethinking Marxism, vol. 37, no. 2, 2025, pp. 170–78. doi: 10.1080/08935696.2025.2475870.

Abstract: This essay reflects on Antonio Gramsci’s Subaltern Social Groups: A Critical Edition of Prison Notebook 25 (Columbia University Press, 2021), edited and translated by the late Joseph A. Buttigieg and Marcus E. Green. While Gramsci’s concept of subaltern groups has long inspired scholars of cultural studies, geography, subaltern studies, and political theory, this work has drawn on a relatively small selection of Gramsci’s prison writings. This first complete English translation of Gramsci’s writings on subaltern groups and classes represents a major turning point in Gramscian studies, showing how Gramsci provided important “methodological criteria” for analyzing race and class in specific conjunctures. Gramsci’s insights about subaltern groups and classes as well as the southern question can be “translated” to confront the current conjuncture.

Carley, Robert F., et al., editors. Cultural Studies in the Interregnum. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2025. (ISBN 978-1-4399-2437-2).

Abstract: The editors and contributors to Cultural Studies in the Interregnum mobilize transnational cultural studies as a tool for politically engaged intellectual critique. Alongside the work of emerging and established scholars and activists, they think through massive cultural shifts and explore the possibilities of the in-between. Covering queer and feminist studies, critical disability studies, and critical race and ethnic studies, the essays in Cultural Studies in the Interregnum reflect on our shared political pasts and futures. Using examples ranging from media and literature to sex work, policing, and university systems, this exciting volume probes what cultural studies means in moments of social transformation.  Contributors include: Sean Johnson Andrews, C.M. Kaliko Baker, Mary Tuti Baker, James Bliss, Jorge E. Cuéllar, John R. Decker, Brian Dolber, Candace Fujikane, Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, Chris Hall, Rachel Lim, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Anna Karthika, Manu Karuka, Najwa Mayer, Kyle Mays, Andrew Ó Baoill, Yumi Pak, Therí A. Pickens, Sami Schalk, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Tia Trafford, and the editors.

Chadha, Nishant, and Tanvi Jha. “Power Dynamics in Healthcare: A Critical Analysis through the Lenses of Foucault, Camus and Gramsci.” International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, vol. 12, no. 8, 2025, pp. 3827–30. doi: 10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20252499.

Abstract: Modern healthcare, despite its advancements, is shaped by complex power structures that often sideline patient voices and reinforce systemic inequalities. This article critically explores these dynamics through the theoretical insights of Michel Foucault, Albert Camus, and Antonio Gramsci. Foucault’s concept of the “medical gaze” shows how biomedical frameworks tend to privilege clinical interpretation over patient experience, sometimes leading to depersonalization and unintended harm. Camus’s philosophy of the absurd highlights the existential dimensions of illness-often overlooked in the healthcare system. Gramsci’s theory of hegemony reveals how dominant ideologies shape healthcare norms, worsening disparities and limiting alternative approaches. By weaving together these perspectives, this article proposes solutions that include interdisciplinary education, shared decision-making, psychological support, and policy reforms aimed at disrupting existing power structures. A truly patient-centered and equitable healthcare system demands critical reflection, structural change, and a deeper understanding of how medical authority, existential meaning, and social power intersect.

Chalcraft, John. From Subordination to Revolution: A Gramscian Theory of Popular Mobilization. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2025. (ISBN 978-0-520-41682-6).

Abstract: At a time of mass discontent, revolutionary weakness, and right-wing ascendancy, John Chalcraft presents a new theory of popular mobilization. From Subordination to Revolution is based on an innovative reading of the living Gramscian tradition, and it offers an alternative to conservative, liberal, Marxist, and poststructuralist theory. Drawing on examples from across the globe, Chalcraft defines popular mobilization as the many ways in which subordinated groups rearrange their relationships to challenge and overcome domination. The theory sets out a fertile constellation of concepts encompassing the many faces and phases of the long journey from subordination to revolution. This approach breaks ground in connecting the social, structural, spatio-temporal, strategic, and transnational elements of popular mobilization. It also enables Chalcraft to situate anew the fundamental issues of domination, autonomy, consent, and leadership and put forward new arguments about party and bloc. The point is to link together diverse popular struggles in the contemporary world.

Challand, Benoit, and Ester Sigillò. “Rethinking Social Research in the Context of a Thermidorian Arab Middle East: For a Gramscian Methodology.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2529220.

Abstract: How can Gramsci help twenty-first-century researchers conduct field research in the contemporary Arab Middle East when academics and activists are increasingly intimidated, detained, or even killed? Drawing on Gramsci’s 1926 The Southern Question, we illustrate how scholarly and activist communities can continue to critically learn and study in repressive environments while considering the complex geographies of knowledge production and preserving a commitment to egalitarian emancipatory politics. By reviewing key steps in the field research cycle – research design, data collection, and dissemination/restitution of analyses – we rethink the role of scholars as intellectuals, or conscious subjects, embedded in contexts that often transcend national boundaries. Reflexive methodology, with lessons drawn from Gramsci, can help tackle the problem of uneven levels of repression in the current Thermidorian climate that characterizes the Arab Middle East.

Chevée, Adélie. “A Professor in Power? Thinking about Organic Intellectual(s) with Burhan Ghalioun.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–24. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504938.

Abstract: One reason for the disappointing results of the 2010–2011 Arab revolts may be the lack of organic articulation between intellectuals and the people. Without leader and ideology to coalesce the masses, the revolutions could mobilize a large number of people, but they could not translate this energy into tangible political outcomes. This essay intervenes in this debate by exploring Gramsci’s concept of the organic intellectual to study the revolutionary activism of Burhan Ghalioun (b. 1945) in the Syrian Uprising. A notorious public intellectual and professor of sociology at the Sorbonne University, Ghalioun became the first chairman of the Syrian opposition Transitional National Council (SNC) between 2011 and 2012. The argument developed in this essay is twofold. A Gramscian approach to the Syrian Uprising confirms that organic intellectuals were difficult to find. Activists and analysts alike acknowledged a crying need for public intellectuals to be more visibly involved in the revolutionary process. In reverse, studying the Syrian Uprising teaches us that we might not so much think of Gramsci’s original concept in the singular, but rather in the plural. Contrary to the figure of a vanguard ideologue leading the masses, an analysis of Burgan Ghalioun’s activism interrogates the existence and role of a group of organic intellectuals in the Syrian Uprising.

Crehan, Kate. “Comment on Buttigieg and Green’s Edition of Gramsci’s Notebook 25.” Rethinking Marxism, vol. 37, no. 2, 2025, pp. 179–85. doi: 10.1080/08935696.2025.2475871.

Abstract: Anglophone readers of Gramsci are still awaiting a complete English translation of the prison notebooks. While we wait, a new translation of Notebook 25, translated and edited by Joseph Buttigieg and Marcus Green, offers a valuable opportunity to understand how the rich but complex thinking of one of the most innovative Marxist theorists of the twentieth century evolved over the course of his incarceration, an opportunity made possible by the editors’ decision to include earlier versions of the notes included in Notebook 25, later versions written by Gramsci in his final years, and relevant notes from other notebooks. This comment on the new translation focuses on the shift in terminology between the early and late versions, particularly the replacement of the term “class” by “group” in most (but not all) instances in the revised notes, and how this might be seen as an at least implicit challenge to the notion of “class-in-itself.”

Davidson, Alastair. Alastair Davidson: Gramsci in Australia. Edited by Peter Beilharz, Leiden: Brill, 2025. url: https://brill.com/display/title/33430. (ISBN 978-90-04-71271-3).

Abstract: Alastair Davidson is a pioneer of global Gramsci studies, beginning with his first essays from 1968 through to the present.This volume collects his work from various difficult to access sources covering such diverse topics as the sources: Marx, Lenin, Machiavelli, Labriola and Croce; the party and workers councils, through to the question of what is living and what is dead in the legacy of Gramsci, cultural studies and subalternality, uneven development and globalization, human rights and the peasantry, literature and culture.

Del Panta, Gianni. “Studying Revolutions Through Antonio Gramsci’s Concept of Historical Bloc: Insights from Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504924.

Abstract: Scholars of the Middle East have questioned whether, and to what extent, the waves of mass mobilizations that swept the region in the 2010s can be considered revolutions. The article seeks to contribute to this debate by adopting what György Lukács terms the Marxist standpoint of concrete totality. This allows for a dialectic understanding of reality in which the whole ceaselessly reinvents itself in relation to its parts. In analytical terms, concrete totality is understood through Antonio Gramsci’s concept of historical bloc, which represents the moment of unity in a society, when multiple factors create and in turn are shaped by an unstable and changing whole. The article argues that it is by exploring the hegemonic contraction of the historical bloc, the outbreak of a revolutionary situation, and the subsequent struggle to reshape society among various and unstable networks, that revolutions can be understood. The cases of Tunisia (2010–2014), Egypt (2011–2013), and Algeria (2019–2021) are selectively used to show how this approach works empirically.

Di Blasio, Federico. “L’oeuvre-Vie d’Antonio Gramsci, Written by Romain Descendre and Jean-Claude Zancarini.” Notebooks: The Journal for Studies on Power, vol. 4, no. 2, 2025, pp. 266–70. doi: 10.1163/26667185-bja10062.

Abstract: Review of Romain Descendre and Jean-Claude Zancarini, L’oeuvre-vie d’Antonio Gramsci. Paris: La Découverte, 2023. isbn 9782348044809, 568 pp. €27 (paperback).

Fantauzzi, Joseph. “Intellectuals and Crisis: Lessons from Fromm and Gramsci.” Erich Fromm and Left Strategy: New Paths Toward Radical Transformation, edited by Joseph Fantauzzi et al., Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025, pp. 229–53. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-81473-0_11. (ISBN 978-3-031-81473-0).

Abstract: Humanity stands at a crossroad. One path leads toward barbarism: it is an existence within a predatory financialized capitalism with widened class divisions, crushing debt, and exacerbated social oppressions.

Green, Marcus E. “Gramscian Philology and Subaltern Social Groups.” Rethinking Marxism, vol. 37, no. 2, 2025, pp. 198–205. doi: 10.1080/08935696.2025.2475873.

Abstract: Antonio Gramsci’s prison notebooks, in their integral critical edition, are a fragmentary, intricate, and unfinished record of his philological method of investigation. They weave together multiple fragments and threads of inquiry that intersect and overlap, making it difficult to examine one concept or motif without examining others. As Joseph A. Buttigieg argued in several of his essays, Gramsci’s enduring relevance lies not in isolated ideas or concepts but in his distinctive method of inquiry, which one can grasp only by engaging with a complete edition of the notebooks. Yet anthologies of notebooks are useful entry points into Gramsci’s writings, as average readers will unlikely become interested in his work solely through a complete critical edition. The anthology Subaltern Social Groups provides a translation of Notebook 25, “On the Margins of History: History of Subaltern Groups,” and a thematic selection of notes pertaining to the topic. As the commentators in this symposium demonstrate, Notebook 25 provides several entry points into the major themes of the prison notebooks.

Green, Marcus E. “The Philological Turn in Gramsci’s Laboratory.” Radical Philosophy Review, vol. 28, no. 2, 2025, pp. 329–34. doi: 10.5840/radphilrev2025282168.

Abstract: Review of Alvaro Bianchi. Gramsci’s Laboratory: Philosophy, History and Politics. Trans. Sean Purdy. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021.

Gutiérrez, Juan José Gómez, Carlo Verri, and Tommaso Baris, eds. Gramsci and the Southern Question: Global Readings, Interpretations and Uses. New York: Routledge, 2025 (ISBN 978-1-03-295873-6).

Contents

Introduction
Tommaso Baris, Juan Jóse Gómez Gutiėrrez and Carlo Verri

PART ONE
The Southern Question in Gramsci between History and Theory

1. The Southern Question in Gramsci, Between Salvemini and Lenin
Guido Liguori

2. Gramsci’s Southern Question, Between Hegemony and Revolution in the West: The Debate in Italy
Tommaso Baris

3. Antonio Gramsci: The Southern Question, Americanism and ‘National Life’
Adelina Bisignani

4. Plan and Autonomy: The Southern Question From Gramsci to Italian Workerism
Federico Di Blasio

PART TWO
From the Southern Question to Subaltern Studies. Interdisciplinary Approaches

5. Postcolonial Gramsci? From the Southern Question to Postcolonial Studies
Salvatore Muscolino

6. Subalternity, Privatisation and Passive Revolution: A Proposal for Reading the ‘Creative Popular Spirit’
Anxo Garrido Fernandéz

7. Schooling in Gramsci’s Political Thought: Merit and Inequality. Foreword: The Problem of Merit Today and in the History of Political Thought
Salvatore Cingari

8. Dialect, Grammar and Antithetical Function of the Philosophy of Praxis in the Prison Notebooks
Pietro Maltese

9. Subalternity and Southern Folklore
Juan José Gómez Gutiérrez

10. Gramsci in the Andes. Notes on Representation and Baroque Culture
Francesco Maniglio and Francisco Sierra Caballero

11. The Southern Question and Subalternisation: A Gramscian Analysis of Power Asymmetries in the European Union
Alejandro Sánchez Berrocal

PART THREE
Some Case Studies: The “Southern Question” in Europe, the Arab World and Latin America

12. Gramsci’s Southern Question in Spain
Carlo Verri

13. The ‘Southern Question’ in Latin America: Receptions, Interpretations and Translations
Agustín Artese and Hernán Ouviña

14. A Man From the South: Antonio Gramsci, the Southern Question and the Arab World
Patrizia Manduchi and Alessandra Marchi

15. Before the Southern Question: Gramsci, Socialist Lebanon, and the Militant Intellectual
Rossana Tufaro

Heflin, Kristen. “Toward an Historical Organic Ideology: Thatcherism, Trumpism, and Stuart Hall’s Engagement with Organic Ideology.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 42, nos. 3–4, 2025, pp. 177–89. doi: 10.1080/15295036.2025.2548344.

Abstract: In the 1970s and 1980s, Stuart Hall struggled to make sense of Thatcherism, an ideology that was incoherent, brought together seemingly opposed viewpoints, and embraced contradiction. Ultimately, Hall drew from Gramsci’s concepts of organic ideology and organic intellectuals to help make sense of this ideology full of contradictions. This paper examines the theoretical roots of the concepts of organic ideology and organic intellectuals using examples from Thatcherism and Trumpism to illustrate the terms. This paper ends with a discussion of the utility of these concepts and the possibilities of an historical organic ideology, an ideology rooted in historical context.

Hoare, George, and Nathan Sperber. An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His Life, Thought and Legacy. 2nd edition, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. (ISBN 978-1-350-42317-6).

Abstract: This book examines the life, major ideas and lasting influence of the Italian militant and political thinker Antonio Gramsci. Author of the famous Prison Notebooks – over 2,000 pages of profound and influential reflections on history, culture, politics, philosophy and revolution – and head of Italy’s Communist Party in the 1920s, Antonio Gramsci is one of the most important European political thinkers of the 20th century. An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci provides an accessible overview of Gramsci’s thought and analyses how Gramsci’s theories can be applied to 21st-century politics in the age of Brexit, Covid, the rise of populism and the Ukraine crisis.This edition includes:· A brand new chapter that considers Gramsci’s relevance to contemporary politics and events· Expanded and updated sections applying Gramsci to contemporary political theory and political economy· An exploration of the most recent Gramsci scholarship· A new section on Gramsci’s influence on the New Right.

Howson, Richard, et al. “Gramsci and ‘The Voice’: Closing the Gap Between ‘The Social’ and ‘The Political’ in Australia’s Failed 2023 Referendum on Indigenous Representation.” International Gramsci Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2025, pp. 217–41. doi: 10.14276/igj.v6i1.4805.

Abstract: On 14 October 2023, Australians voted down a referendum proposal that would have acknowledged the place of Indigenous Peoples as First Peoples in the Australian Constitution, and which would have provided Indigenous Peoples with a “Voice” to the Australian Parliament. While some commentators chose to label the defeat as proof of Australia’s inherent racism, in this article we argue the failure of the referendum on the Voice was ultimately a lost opportunity for the Australian government which organised the vote but then refused to provide the moral and intellectual leadership to educate the public as to exactly why the Voice was required. As such it failed to demonstrate the leadership required of an stato integrale (integral state), in particular its educative functions. In this article we first outline the origins and evolution of the Voice referendum proposal before then explaining our methodology, method and positionality in writing about this topic. Thirdly, we subject the central texts of the referendum to a Gramscian analysis before finally we detail the referendum result and position the vote within Australia’s changing demographic structure. Throughout the article, we argue a Gramscian analysis of the Voice referendum demonstrates the reality of a gap between what we describe as the social (the people) and the political (the state), one that is more complex than accusations of racism.

Hrnjez, Saša. “Translation as Historical Praxis. On the Political Conception of Translatability in Gramsci.” Philosophy of Translation, vol. 1, nos. 1–2, 2025, pp. 38–55. doi: 10.1080/29984750.2025.2547060.

Abstract: The aim of this article is to examine Antonio Gramsci’s reflections on translation and translatability in view of his insufficiently acknowledged contribution to the philosophy of translation. The first part of the paper focuses on Notebook 29 from the Prison Notebooks, in which Gramsci puts forward his theory of grammar – analysed here as a potential critique of homolinguality. In the second part, the key textual passages dedicated to the notion of translatability are revisited to demonstrate the variety and complexity of the notion’s context and to extrapolate the common thread running through its various usages: the problem of hegemony and its intrinsic relation to language.

Huberman, Bruno, and Rodrigo Augusto Duarte Amaral. “Hegemony and Resistance: US Imperial Strategies in Latin America and the Middle East After the Cold War.” Middle East Critique, vol. 34, no. 4, 2025, pp. 581–606. doi: 10.1080/19436149.2025.2578046.

Abstract: This article offers a comparative analysis of US imperialist strategies in Latin America and the Middle East from the nineteenth century to the post-Cold War era, drawing on a Gramscian understanding of hegemony. It examines how the US has attempted to establish and maintain hegemonic order in both regions, and how various regional sociopolitical formations have resisted these efforts. Although since the 1980s the war on drugs is used to justify coercive US actions in Latin America, the regional hegemony consolidated through early-twentieth-century military interventions have allowed US imperialism to operate primarily through economic dependence, sustained by the support of local elites. In contrast, the failure to consolidate long-term hegemony in the Middle East has led to a persistent reliance on military force and regime change, particularly in response to Islamic and Pan-Arab counterhegemonic movements and resistance to Israeli settler colonialism. The article highlights how imperialism adapts to regional conditions, shaping distinct forms of domination and resistance across the Global South. It concludes by introducing the various contributions to this Special Issue titled ‘US Imperialism After the Cold War in the Middle East and Latin America’.

Hussein, Cherine. “On Reading Antonio Gramsci and Counterhegemony through Edward Said: Material Resonances for One Democratic State Praxis in/on Palestine.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–20. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504925.

Abstract: In this essay, I attempt to bring Antonio Gramsci and Edward Said together in conversation – a conversation that seeks to re-centre both the anti-colonial, materialist roots of an insurrectionary postcolonialism and the (at times muted) praxis-centred core of a situated empowering Marxism. In parallel, I strive to highlight the significance these aspects of Gramsci’s writings had on Said’s oppositional praxis – a material significance that Said contended had been obscured by an over-magnification of the influence of Michel Foucault in Orientalism (1978). In doing so, my aim is to recover images of a Saidian-inflected Gramsci that speak to, and have been informed with, the self-understandings and strategies of resistance of activists in the Arab world – and in this case specifically, in/on Palestine. In bringing these two intellectuals and activists together, it is my intention to highlight some of these points of resonance, and explore what this kind of critical, oppositional energy may be able to inform us about building a situated, counterhegemonic and expansive conception of the world. These points of resonance stem from the praxis of one democratic state advocates – whose worldviews were influenced by the ideas of Edward Said, and by how Gramsci’s writings travelled to them through him. This praxis is excavated through the analysis of primary sourced material and interviews with diverse influential one democratic state intellectuals and activists, and is reconstructed by centring their own self-understandings, strategies and maps to power.

Jackson, Robert P. “Edward Said and Antonio Gramsci in Counterpoint.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1–21. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2544117.

Abstract: Edward Said’s thought continues to shape analysis of the legacies of colonialism. Among the diverse inspirations for Said’s “secular” and, later, “democratic criticism” is the work of Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and subalternity, his reflections on the role of intellectuals in society, and his discussions of the spatial relationship between culture and power, inform Said’s “contrapuntal” approach, which reads the cultural archive as a polyphony of “intertwined and overlapping histories”. While Said’s regard for Gramsci’s writings is well known, the precise nature of this theoretical encounter has been less frequently illuminated. This essay investigates Said’s sustained engagement with the ideas of Gramsci and their multi-faceted influence on his work. Reciprocally, it suggests that Said’s problematic uncovers critical aspects of Gramsci’s thought. It hypothesizes that Said’s “troubling” contrapuntal reading of the multiple discrepant historical experiences of empire implies an integral approach understood such that it prefigures the recent season of Gramsci studies. The latter has been marked by a historical-philological method, which treats hegemony within Gramsci’s thought as one pole in a hegemonic-subaltern axis and is attentive to the concerns of a “living philology” resonant with Said’s unorthodox humanist affiliations. Working towards a reconstruction of the encounter between Said and Gramsci across texts, this essay gleans Said’s entanglement with this inter-war Marxist thinker as it is diffused across his body of writings, decoding the relation of “critical consciousness” to Said’s “contrapuntal” approach. It places Said’s generative framework in conversation with Gramsci’s conception of the “philosophy of praxis”, cross-pollinating insights from recent Gramsci studies with scholarship addressing Said’s unresolved, dramatic methodology. Conversely, it aims to clarify the discontinuities between Said’s thought and Gramsci’s, discussing underexplored turns in this “travelling theory” that contribute to non-eurocentric frameworks for addressing present “worldly” challenges facing postcolonial and critical thought.

Jones, Robin. “Syria’s ‘Southern Question’? Class, Geography and Organization in the 2011 Syrian Revolution and War.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–21. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504929.

Abstract: This essay analyzes the geo-social dynamics of the 2011 Syrian revolution and the ensuing war, in conversation with Gramsci’s 1926 essay “The Southern Question.” Gramsci’s theorization of uneven geographical development between Italy’s North and South is situated as relevant to the divide between urban cores and peripheral/provincial regions in contemporary Syria. Reversing the pro-rural, pro-poor policies of 1960s Ba’athist regimes, the neoliberal reforms of the 2000s devastated Syria’s countryside and spurred widespread rural migration to informal neighborhoods on the outskirts of cities. Subsequently, the 2011 revolution found a social base in the impoverished peripheries and downtrodden provincial regions, while wealthier urban populations remained largely quiescent. With militarization and repression, hardline Islamist groups were able to gain support among segments of the rural and peripheral popular classes, as the essay illustrates through a case study of the town of Manbij. Due to their relative lack of organizational ties prior to the revolution, these classes exhibited a potential for volatility between political projects of various orientations, in this regard resembling the Southern peasantry in Gramsci’s analysis. Yet whereas Gramsci draws a stark distinction between two alliances that Southern peasants might pursue – a reactionary bloc with the Southern bourgeoisie, or an emancipatory alliance with Northern urban workers – the Syrian war saw the emergence of a more complicated set of political tendencies. Hardline Islamists did assemble a regional bloc between a fraction of the provincial bourgeoisie and informal workers, but did so by channeling mass discontent with elite-led mainstream opposition institutions toward a regressive alternative. The essay briefly seeks to rectify Gramsci’s potentially paternalistic contention that rural subaltern classes must be led by an external force, turning to Fanon’s writings on rural revolutionary subjectivity, as well as Gramsci’s own conception of the articulating role of the revolutionary party in a subaltern alliance.

Keil, A. Katharina. “Labour Strategies in the German Automotive Industry: Limits and Potentials of Conversion from a Gramscian Perspective.” Environmental Politics, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–23. doi: 10.1080/09644016.2024.2387456.

Abstract: The automotive industry’s transition toward electric vehicles is a key challenge for organised labour in the sector. In this context, shifting production towards socially and ecologically useful products through democratic decision-making, democratic conversion, can be a proactive just transition strategy for workers and contribute to the ecological reorganisation of production. This paper investigates the limits and potentials for this endeavour in the context of the German automotive industry by conducting a multi-level analysis of (1) the sectoral union IG Metall’s (IGM) strategies and its interrelation with (2) works council strategies at a major supplier utilising a Gramscian theoretical framework. I identify the main limitations and potentials for both realms, which interact with (3) the dominant understanding of the transition and (4) internal conditions for labour organising. I show that democratic conversion is a challenging proposal questioning key tenets of German industrial relations yet can provide innovative solutions addressing labour’s contemporary challenges.

Kiely, Keith Peter. “Wearing Gramsci’s Glasses: Transition, Conspiracy and Disinformation in Bulgaria through the Lens of Hegemony.” Journal of Political Ideologies, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–20. doi: 10.1080/13569317.2025.2519735.

Abstract: This paper examines Bulgaria’s post-communist political landscape through the lens of Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony. It explores how the country’s transition from communism has increased susceptibility to false and misleading information. The study posits that the failure to establish a cohesive hegemonic order has led to a fragmented ideological landscape where competing narratives vie for dominance. This landscape facilitates the erosion of trust in democratic and political institutions and significant contamination of the informational environment. By analyzing key political moments from 1997 to 2020, the paper outlines indicators of weak hegemony, including fragmented consensus, counter-hegemonic forces, recurring crises of authority, reliance on coercion rather than consent and, in the absence of moral and intellectual leadership, the paper explains how false and misleading information exploits these societal antagonisms, further undermining democratic institutions, entrenching public disillusionment and perpetuating elite control. The paper concludes that Bulgaria’s political trajectory reflects a prolonged ‘war of position’, where ideological struggles and external pressures complicate the path to genuine democratic reform.

Lacouture, Matthew T. “Spatio-Temporal Dimensions of Hegemony and Resistance in Neoliberal Jordan.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–20. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504928.

Abstract: This essay argues that the uneven breakdown of hegemony in Jordan across economic, institutional, and ideological dimensions was the terrain upon which social resistance – first from within the public sector – emerged in the mid-2000s. Drawing on interview evidence, archival and secondary sources, I explain the timing (mid-2000s) and composition (a subset of public sector workers) of social mobilization in Jordan by making three interrelated claims: (1) Jordan’s first and only hegemonic bloc coalesced relatively late, in the 1970s; (2) when this nascent hegemony began to break down in the early 2000s, it occurred slowly (at first) and unevenly, leading to uneven spatial and temporal patterns of grievance formation; (3) in parallel, uneven hegemonic contraction, coupled with increased state repression, served to preclude or contain social mobilization from much of the popular sector and working class – with the exception of a subset of public sector workers. Finally, I argue that the study of protest dynamics in the case of Jordan advances the use of Gramscian concepts in contentious politics by demonstrating the importance of taking into consideration the unevenness of hegemonic contraction as well as the reflexive relationship between hegemonic articulation and resistance.

Mayo, Peter. Culture, Power and Education. Oxford: Routledge, 2025. (ISBN 978-1-032-89847-6).

Abstract: Employing Gramscian conceptions of hegemony, this book demonstrates the inextricable links between politics, education, culture and power.Based upon in-depth analyses of the theories of Antonio Gramsci, Lorenzo Milani, Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, and bell hooks among others, this book shows how many hegemonic social relationships are fundamentally educational relationships. In doing so, Mayo demonstrates how popular culture, education, museums, and fine art are both sites of hegemony and contestation.This thought-provoking work will be of interest to students and scholars with an interest in sociology of art and culture, sociology of education, critical pedagogy, cultural studies, museum studies and social theory.

Merone, Fabio. Rethinking Islamic Politics in Tunisia: A Gramscian Analysis. London ; New York: I.B. Tauris, 2025. (ISBN 978-0-7556-5638-7).

Abstract: The emergence of Islamist and Salafi movements – the actors of Islamist Politics – has been a critical area of scholarship on the Middle East and North Africa. But there is no theoretical framework to understand political Islam as a phenomenon that includes both Islamic ideology and modern activism. This book uses the Gramscian concept of political activism to provide this much-needed perspective. As Arab societies have had a similar historical development and trajectory to the society Gramsci was analyzing, his ideas are shown to be particularly relevant for understanding the post-2011 democratization and politicization of Islamist and Salafi movements. Based on the case study of the Tunisian Islamist movement, al-Nahda, and the Tunisian Salafi movement, Ansar al-Sharia, political Islam is given a useful explanatory framework to explain how the ideological/theological side of Islamic activism realizes itself into practical political action. The book establishes the term ‘Islamic politics’ to describe this combination of socio-religious mobilization - commonly defined as dawa - and political organization, including party or revolutionary organizations. Furthermore, the authors show that Islamists and Salafists can be described as ‘post-Islamist’ in the same way communist parties became ‘post-communist’ and ‘post-ideological’. Written by two renowned experts on political Islam, the innovative theoretical framework used here can explain the development and behaviour of Islamist groups in other contexts, moving scholarship beyond traditional approaches.

Merrifield, Andy. Roses for Gramsci. Monthly Review Press, 2025. (ISBN 978-1-68590-104-2).

Abstract: A remarkable personal journey through the life and writings of the great Sardinian Marxist, Antonio GramsciIn June 2023, author Andy Merrifield and his partner and their daughter moved from the UK to Rome, she to take a new job, he to get his creative juices flowing again, and both to begin a new life. A short time later, he visited Gramsci’s grave at the Non-Catholic Cemetery, home as well to the great Romantics, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. Soon he took a volunteer position helping to maintain the cemetery and as it turned out, to keep a watchful eye on Gramsci’s tombstone, admiring the roses and notes that visitors left, talking to some of them and communing with the sentinel cat that kept watch near the gravesite. Thus began Merrifield’s deep dive into Gramsci’s life. The result is a stunning portrait that offers fresh insights into nearly every aspect of Gramsci’s often tortured existence: a childhood scarred by severe health problems; his growing understanding of political economy; his generosity and kindness; his grasp of the culture of workers and peasants; his friendship with the economist Piero Sraffa; and his frustration trying to communicate with and be father to the son he never saw. Above all, Merrifield illuminates how Gramsci kept his humanity, suffering horribly in prison while writing a revolutionary classic, The Prison Notebooks.Personal, compassionate, moving―and illustrated with the author’s photographs ―Merrifield revives both the legacy and meaning of Gramsci’s work and the dying art of belles lettres. Roses for Gramsci is an evocative and indelible book.

Modonesi, Massimo. “Subalternity and Beyond.” Rethinking Marxism, vol. 37, no. 2, 2025, pp. 186–97. doi: 10.1080/08935696.2025.2475872.

Abstract: This essay argues that the concept of the subaltern, developed by Gramsci in prison, is a fundamental piece of a specific and original Marxist conception of the process of constitution of the political subject. In particular, the place and role occupied by the concept of subalternity in Gramsci’s thought can only be fully appreciated if it is placed in close relation to the concepts of autonomy and hegemony. Stated simply and at the same time controversially regarding certain interpretations that can be defined as subalternist, Gramsci is not a theoretician of subalternity; on the contrary, he is a theoretician of the exit from subalternity, of the historical construction of a postsubaltern social and political subject, an autonomous subject who is therefore enabled and capable of disputing hegemony.

Nilsen, Alf Gunvald. “Emerging Powers and the Political Economy of the Southern Interregnum.” Forum for Development Studies, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–24. doi: 10.1080/08039410.2025.2460557.

Abstract: How do we best conceptualize the global South and its role in the rapidly changing world system of the early twenty-first century? This article approaches this question through a critical engagement with narratives centred on the idea of a rising South, and especially of claims that emerging powers across Asia, Latin America and Africa are spearheading progressive transformations across the contemporary world system. Against such claims, the article argues that whereas emerging powers have been instrumental in driving a reconfiguration of global wealth hierarchies, governing elites in the global South confront deep disjunctures between accumulation and legitimation. These disjunctures, I argue, originate in processes of neoliberalization that have deepened inequality and precarity and manifest in widespread political unrest. Rather than a simple story of a rising South, I argue that the current conjuncture is best understood as a Southern interregnum – that is, as a protracted moment of crisis in which governing elites in emerging powers mobilize new hegemonic projects to achieve legitimacy. I then discuss what the character and trajectory of these hegemonic projects – and the wider political economy of the southern interregnum – entail for the future of fracturing and turbulent world order and popular classes in the global South. Specifically, I focus on southern authoritarian populism as a distinctive type of right-wing hegemonic project, and how such projects attempt to reconcile accumulation and legitimation.

Ó Rálaigh, Chris. “The North of Ireland during the Interregnum: A Gramscian Analysis of Power and Crisis.” Journal of Political Power, vol. 18, no. 1, 2025, pp. 93–111. doi: 10.1080/2158379X.2024.2426102.

Abstract: The North of Ireland was induced in to existence over a century ago, yet the polity lacked societal-wide legitimacy. The outbreak of conflict in 1968 signalled the beginning of an interregnal period in which the old order was substantially challenged. Whilst the Good Friday Agreement was idealised as an end to this interregnum, Brexit has re-opened the battle for politico-ideological supremacy. This paper traces the contours of the hegemony-seeking strategies of the various political actors from 1968-present and assesses whether we are in the crucial and final phase of the organic crisis of the North of Ireland.

Ortu, Claudia, and Francesco Pontarelli. “Traces of Gramscian Theory and Practice in South Africa.” Notebooks: The Journal for Studies on Power, vol. 4, no. 2, 2025, pp. 212–36. doi: 10.1163/26667185-bja10068.

Abstract: Abstract This study explores the reception and development of Antonio Gramsci’s political thought in South Africa, from the apartheid era to the late 2010s. By tracing Gramsci’s influence across academia and working-class organisations, the article argues that his categories emerged in response to intellectuals’ and movements’ needs for transformative praxis in specific historical periods. The paper employs a chronological and thematic framework, tracing how Gramsci’s thought was translated and developed by activist-intellectuals and trade unions during apartheid. It further explores the post-apartheid transition, investigating Gramsci-inspired analysis of neoliberal policies and the use of concepts like hegemony, civil society and, later on, passive revolution to address emerging crises and unmet expectations by the majority of the population. The study underscores Gramsci’s influence and enduring relevance in public debates and in analysing subaltern struggles and transformative potential within South African society.

Patnaik, Arun Kumar. Gramsci and South Asia. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, 2025. (ISBN 978-1-032-26489-9).

Abstract: Gramsci’s theory of common sense is a metanarrative that can be used to explain both religion and political formations. This book examines Gramsci’s perspective and how his theories translate into South Asian society. It explores Gramsci’s historicism, which is sensitive to historical, regional and national differences, and its relevance in post-colonial societies.The volume discusses themes like common sense, religious common sense, folk religion, dialogue and common sense concerning civil/political society through the lens of Gramsci’s historical perspectives. It also looks at Gramscian critique of political secularism, the ideology and politics of Hindutva, civil society in a non-Western context and modes of political society in India.Lucid and topical, this book is a must-read for scholars and researchers of political studies, political philosophy, post-colonial studies, South Asian politics, cultural studies and political sociology.

Prestipino, Giuseppe. “Dizionario Gramsciano / Gramsci Dictionary: Dialectic.” International Gramsci Journal, translated by Derek Boothman, vol. 6, no. 2, 2025, pp. 207–14. doi: 10.14276/igj.v6i2.5510.

Pries, Johan. “Gramsci between the City and Sea.” City, vol. 29, nos. 3–4, 2025, pp. 684–87. doi: 10.1080/13604813.2025.2517484.

Abstract: Review of Gramsci at sea (2023) by Sharad Chari.

Rigg, Joshua E. “Independence Fighters and Flour Sacks: Common Sense, Colonial Subjectivities and Revolutionary Afterlives in Tunisia.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–20. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504931.

Abstract: The concept of “afterlives” has been used to follow the asynchronous temporalities of the Arab uprisings and the traces of colonial, anti-colonial and neo-colonial histories in the present. This essay considers two colonial subjectivities that have haunted Tunisia’s post-overthrow moment. It argues that the contrasting figures of the fellaga, or armed anti-colonial independence fighters, and tahhana, native informants, are forms of popular knowledge that have been used to make moral and political claims regarding Tunisia’s uneven and unfinished revolutionary process. To help outline these two subjectivities and their political articulation, the essay draws on Antonio Gramsci’s dialectic of common and good sense, stretching his thinking to the Tunisian context. The essay argues Gramsci allows us to stay with the socio-historical effects of popular thinking, and the strategies that turn inchoate, fragmentary knowledge into “good” sense.

Salloukh, Bassel F. “The Anatomy of Lebanon’s Postwar Integral State: The Political Economy of Cartels and Consent.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504922.

Abstract: This essay stretches Antonio Gramsci’s core concept of the integral state to explain an enigma in contemporary Lebanon: why the massive collapse after the October 2019 protests failed to generate commensurate political, ideological, and organizational responses. It retheorizes the post-civil war state in Lebanon as a different kind of integral state, one that reflects an alternative process of state formation and historical trajectory in the Global South producing different state forms, class fractions, and social formations than those in Europe. In this case, private elite interests expressing different class fractions operate not by defining the ethical content of the state in civil society, nor by organizing consent on the cultural front of civil society, but overlap directly with state structures. Stretching Gramsci’s conceptual toolkit dissolves the differences between the state and society, and captures analytically how the postwar political economic elite representing an alliance of class fractions placed the state’s fiscal and monetary policies at the service of capital accumulation, but also to integrate substantial social constituencies into the postwar order along strictly sectarian clientelist incentives. This disaggregated cross-sectarian class interests and provided the material conditions to secure a level of sectarian ideological consent that precluded the emergence of viable political alternatives in the postwar era. The operations of the postwar integral state also truncated the terrain of civil society on which alternative organizational formations could organize in the long war of position to subvert the ideological hold of the sectarian system. The anatomy of this postwar integral state is examined as expressed in the political economy of cartels.

Santolalla, Alfonsina. “Redescubriendo a Mariátegui. El Coloquio de México (1980): Textos, Discusiones y Documentos, Edited by Martín Cortés and Diego García.” Notebooks: The Journal for Studies on Power, vol. 4, no. 2, 2025, pp. 259–65. doi: 10.1163/26667185-bja10063.

Abstract: Review of Martín Cortés and Diego García, eds., Redescubriendo a Mariátegui. El Coloquio de México (1980): Textos, discusiones y documentos. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2023. isbn 978-99-72-46726-4, 335 pp (open access ebook).

Scott, Alexander. “‘Neoliberalism, Far-Right Politics, and the Shrinking White Middle Class in Southern California’s Inland Empire.’” Globalizations, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1–20. doi: 10.1080/14747731.2024.2424068.

Abstract: This article examines far-right, authoritarian politics among middle-class White communities of the Inland Empire region of Southern California. Grounded in a materialist theoretical framework and an analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews and the recent political-economic history of the region, I interrogate the political and social attitudes of study participants in relation to their experiences and perceptions of changing political-economic and sociocultural conditions in Southern California in the twenty-first century. Drawing upon Gramsci and the critical theoretical literature on authoritarian populism and neoliberalism, I consider how study participants’ authoritarian politics and ideologies reflect a reactionary political response to processes associated with the reorganization of racialized capital accumulation under neoliberalism. I argue that the appeal of these movements is, in part, how they provide commonsense (hegemonic) explanations for economic precarity, demographic shifts, and immigration, among other issues, while at the same time normalizing this increasingly exploitative and brutal regime of capital accumulation.

Secci, Marco. “Antonio Gramsci’s ‘Felix Error.’” International Gramsci Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2025, pp. 243–60. doi: 10.14276/igj.v6i2.5034.

Abstract: This paper re-examines Antonio Gramsci’s rejection of Raffaele Corso’s definition of folklore as “contemporary prehistory” and argues that the concept can be reconsidered in light of Gramsci’s critique. Gramsci opposed Corso’s positivist, evolutionary view, emphasizing instead the complexity, instability, and fragmentary nature of folklore. In the Quaderni del carcere, he framed folklore as a by-product of the dialectical relationship between hegemonic and subaltern classes, where elements of dominant culture “fall” into subaltern traditions and are recombined into contradictory worldviews. The paper suggests that folklore may indeed be understood as “contemporary prehistory,” not as a stage to be overcome, but as an unofficial, unwritten, and persistent cultural process that preserves what official history excludes. Folklore functions both conservatively, maintaining repressed social elements, and subversively, offering resources for cultural resistance. Gramsci’s background in linguistics shaped his recognition of folklore as a dynamic system akin to language—stratified, fossil-like, yet continually alive. By situating Gramsci’s contributions within broader cultural theory, the study highlights both the strength and the limits of his Marxist approach. It concludes that engaging critically with folklore remains crucial today, especially in the face of conspiracy theories and misinformation, which demonstrate its enduring social power.

Sopgui, Romuald Valentin Nkouda. “On the Body as a Site of Inscription of Colonial Domination: A Visualisation of Colonial Hierarchy in Labour and Porter Scenes in German Cameroon.” Notebooks: The Journal for Studies on Power, vol. 4, no. 2, 2025, pp. 187–211. doi: 10.1163/26667185-bja10065.

Abstract: Abstract The main argument underpinning this reflection is that the German colonies were increasingly present in the media, photographically, during the Empire. Pictures showed what they looked like, what was growing there, what the living conditions were like and what the colonial administration seemed to be achieving. The aim of this article is to examine the visual mediatisation of colonial relations of domination. My interest is to examine colonial practices of domination as they can be seen in colonial images. Using the example of German colonial images in Cameroon that have labour and porter scenes as their motif, the article shows that the body of the colonised was a place where colonial power was expressed or inscribed. In so doing, colonial labour and porter scenes locate colonialism as hegemonic inscription of Foucauldian power/knowledge on the colonised body.

Staub, Martial. “Hegemony and Subalternity.” The Oxford Handbook of Universal History Writing, edited by Daniele Miano et al., Oxford University Press, 2025, p. 0. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198915560.013.0005. (ISBN 978-0-19-891556-0).

Abstract: This chapter examines the relationships between ‘hegemony’ (and its opposite ‘subalternity’) and universal history. It critically engages with assumptions in modern historiography about the close relationship between empire and universal history. It clarifies the notions of hegemony and subalternity in Antonio Gramsci’s work, which has served as a starting point for recent reflections on hegemony and subalternity. Importantly, Gramsci’s notions have been developed against the background of his elaborate reflection on intellectuals (organic and traditional) and, specifically, on ancient and modern historiographies. The chapter offers a first contextualization of Gramsci’s thought on these subjects, and proposes a typology of universal histories in antiquity, the Latin Middle Ages, Byzantium, the early Islamicate world, and Song China based on the dynamics between hegemony and subalternity and their influence on universal history.

Suliman, Shahenda. “Subaltern Formations and Sudan’s 2018–2019 Uprising.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–22. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504930.

Abstract: This essay explores the role of subaltern groups in Sudan’s 2018–2019 uprising and the immediate aftermath of Bashir’s overthrow, with a specific focus on relations between various subaltern groups and the middle classes. It begins by briefly mapping out some of the social, political, and economic transformations during the National Islamic Front’s (NIF) reign that gave rise to new subaltern formations, before focusing on the uprising itself. Drawing primarily on recent translations of Gramsci’s writings on subaltern groups and research in Sudan during and after the uprising, it then aims to shed light on shifting solidarities, tensions, and divisions between subaltern groups and the middle class in particular, with a focus on the role of nationalism(s) in unifying and fragmenting social groups at different periods. It illustrates how these groups mobilized and articulated their opposition to the regime through multiple and at times divergent appeals to nationalism, memories of past resistance, and labour revolt harking back to the colonial period, before exploring some of the tensions and contradictions brought to the fore in the post-Bashir period and emergence of organizations representing subaltern groups. In doing so, it interrogates the possibility and challenges of building subaltern hegemony in contexts such as Sudan in the present conjuncture, with particular attention to the regional and international.

Sunca, Jan Yasin. “Unpacking Inter-Subaltern Hierarchies: Gramsci, Postcolonial Nationalism, and the Kurdish Third Way.” Ethnopolitics, vol. 24, no. 2, 2025, pp. 179–98. doi: 10.1080/17449057.2023.2265636.

Abstract: This paper reconceptualises the subaltern as a power-position based on Gramsci, countering the postcolonial subject-positioning, to uncover inter-subaltern hierarchies. Postcolonial nationalist discourse perpetuates a static West/non-West dichotomy, obscuring dominations within the ‘non-West’. A Gramscian perspective allows for understanding subalternity as relative power and as an objective condition for undoing subalternity, enabling an examination of hegemony and subalternity beyond the West/non-West dichotomy. The emergence of the Kurdish third way through the Rojava Revolution and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), rooted in Kurdish subaltern consciousness, illustrates this perspective by challenging Arab and Turkish nationalist hegemonies and state dominations in Syria and Turkey.

Tekdemir, Omer. “The Political Economy of Global Unrest: A Double Reading of Polanyi and Gramsci on Populism.” Globalizations, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1–23. doi: 10.1080/14747731.2025.2479342.

Abstract: This article explores the theoretical contributions of Polanyi and Gramsci to understanding potential strategies for social movements in the aftermath of street protests. Globally, underrepresented groups have challenged the neoliberal economic system and the deficiencies of representative democracy. Their practices are intertwined with the legacies of Polanyi and Gramsci. The article highlights the evolving strategies of counter-hegemonic movements and their critical role in shaping the international political economy. It argues that ‘square movements’ benefit from broad coalitions, reminiscent of Laclau and Mouffe’s radical democracy. By mobilizing political passion and aligning with left-wing populist political parties, these new movements may achieve hegemony through electoral power, propelled by the impassioned engagement of the people. Conversely, right-wing populism claims to represent ‘the People’ by purporting to voice societal unrest, cultural grievances, and political-economic insecurity. This stance enables their leaders to pave the way for an authoritarian market economy and an illiberal democratic order.

Torkameh, Aidin, and Arash Torkameh. “Absence of Dialectical Gramsci in Iran: A Critical Analysis of Gramsci’s Reception among Iranian Intellectuals.” Interventions, vol. 0, no. 0, 2025, pp. 1–15. doi: 10.1080/1369801X.2025.2504933.

Abstract: The forced incorporation of Iran into the internationalized capitalist political economy in the late nineteenth century gave rise to multiple waves of social movements and revolutions. In this context, Antonio Gramsci has become a recurring reference in social analyses of Iran. This essay argues, however, that many Iranian engagements with Gramsci are undialectical. These reهadings often draw on post-Marxist, neo-Gramscian, and postcolonial frameworks – often without direct engagement with Gramsci’s own writings. While we acknowledge that some of these approaches are critical of dialectical reasoning itself, we argue that these undialectical readings have contributed to a dilution of the revolutionary thrust of Gramsci’s thought, potentially resulting in partial or distorted interpretations of social transformation in Iran. Through a critical survey of existing literature in both Persian and English, we examine how and why Gramsci has been received in particular ways in Iran. We contend that undialectical readings have contributed to the entrenchment of a dualistic methodology in analyzing Iranian society and revolutions. Specifically, we highlight how ahistorical, and consequently dualistic conceptions of space and linear understanding of time have constrained the analytical scope of these interpretations. Such readings may reinforce and naturalize nation-state-centric methodologies and diminish the transformative potential of Gramsci’s dialectical method.

Tuğal, Cihan. “South Africa’s Passive Revolution and Informal Working-Class Politics in a Global Context.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1–11. doi: 10.1080/01419870.2024.2425416.

Abstract: South African democratization offers a unique opportunity to discuss the persistence of racial and class domination after revolutions. Through a breathtaking ethnography of four residential areas, Paret shows how racial inclusion has empowered the poor but reinforced and stabilized many aspects of racial stigma and economic exclusion. Based on an analysis of these contradictory transformations, Paret challenges existing arguments by stating that a passive revolution can culminate in a hegemonic social order if it also involves “fractured militancy”. I bring in the Turkish case to point out that a passive revolutionary route can lead to hegemony through non-fractured militancy too. I call for additional comparisons to reach conclusive statements about other general characteristics of passive revolutions as well. A similar rethinking of theories of poor people’s politics is also necessary, given unresolved Fanonite questions Paret grapples with throughout the book.

Armenian

None to report.

French

IGS France > Parutions > Livres > Articles

German

None to report.

Greek

None to report.

Italian

Digital Library Antonio Gramsci > Bibliografia gramsciana

Francese, Joseph. “Gramsci, Il Club di vita morale e i Ricordi di Marco Aurelio.” International Gramsci Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 2025. 367-92. doi: 10.14276/igj.v6i1.4946.

Abstract: In what follows I analyse elements of stoicism taken by Gramsci from the Meditations di Marcus Aurelius, a text read by Gramsci as a young man, then conveyed to the members of the “Club of Moral Life”, a small study group of young socialists organized in Turin under his direction in 1917-1918. Gramsci uses the Emperor’s memories to teach how and why the individual must comport themselves as ethical and rational members of society and must strive to improve their community through example and teaching. Gramsci also takes from Marcus Aurelius the need to teach the Other to think independently, engage with the new, and attain a democratic view of life, that is, to see the Other as “another myself” who, like the instructor, finds within themself the truth of their life in society and teaches others to do the same. From such a perspective, this goal of self-education (to know oneself better so as to continually become a better person), teach, and act in the political arena (through propaganda and proselytizing) so as to transform ‘molecularly’ the polis are all one and the same.

Japanese

None to report.

Portuguese

IGS Brasil > Bibliografia Gramsciana

Schneider, Laura, and Leonardo Ramos. “SEMENTES DA TRANSFORMAÇÃO: O BRICS E A GOVERNANÇA AGROALIMENTAR INTERNACIONAL.” Revista Tempo do Mundo, no. 39, 2025, pp. 123–46. url: https://www.ipea.gov.br/revistas/index.php/rtm/article/view/700

Abstract: Just like other arenas of international relations, the global agri-food system has undergone profound transformations in recent years. Understanding these changes under the aegis of capitalism, it is important to highlight their impact beyond the scope of international political economy, extending into various dimensions of social relations. The search for new models of global governance is also situated within this context, increasingly questioning the role of the Global South in the current world order. The formal rise of BRICS in 2009 can be understood as one of the expressions of this need to reassess the direction of the global economy. Bringing together the world’s largest food producers, the bloc holds clear relevance for the agri-food system, accounting for approximately half of the total value of global agricultural production in 2024. Based on this relevance, the present study seeks to investigate how BRICS positions itself within the current internationalagri-food system by analyzing discussions held during its Summits from 2009 to 2024. The objective is to understand how the group engages itself in the global agri-food governance. To this end, a content analysis of the final declarations from these meetings was conducted.

Spanish

None to report.

Thai

None to report.

Turkish

Feyzullah Yilmaz has compiled a list of Turkish Gramsci publications at Neo-Gramsian Portal.