Description:

The aim of this book is to explain and assess the relevance of the ideas of Gramsci to a world fundamentally transformed from that in which his thought was developed. It takes some of Gramsci’s best known concepts – hegemony, civil society, passive revolution, the national-popular, trasformismo, the integral state – and uses them creatively to analyse features of present-day politics, assessing to what extent his ideas can aid our understanding of the contemporary political world. The book contains essays focused on: aspects of global politics (the development of a global civil society, the validity of the knowledge claims of neo- Gramscian International Relations specialists and the politics of the World Trade Organization and the Alternative Globalisation Movement); contemporary feminism and the problem of adjusting Gramsci’s theory of agency to modern conditions; Turkish and Israeli politics; and a series of essays on present-day British politics. The book concludes that while there remain considerable problems in applying Gramsci’s concepts to the contemporary world, his political thought still retains an attraction and validity that is likely to continue to inspire political analysts well into the future.