{"id":372986,"date":"2018-08-11T18:29:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-11T17:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/using-gramsci-to-understand-the-arab-uprisings\/"},"modified":"2018-08-11T18:29:58","modified_gmt":"2018-08-11T17:29:58","slug":"using-gramsci-to-understand-the-arab-uprisings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/using-gramsci-to-understand-the-arab-uprisings\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Gramsci to Understand the Arab Uprisings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"introtext\">This interview is part of the series \u201cCritical Voices in Critical Times\u201d coordinated and edited by Linda Herrera. In this interview Peter Mayo, professor at the University of Malta and renowned scholar on Gramsci and Freire, engages with Egyptian sociologist from the University of Manchester, Nadim Mirshak, in a compelling conversation about civil society, hegemony and the \u201cModern Prince.\u201d They explore the challenges of doing critical work under authoritarian contexts and the need to develop a globalization from below as an alternative to neoliberal globalization.<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"introtext\"><span>Watch the video of the interview <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=A8Vdhud1hww\">here.<\/a><\/aside>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"460\" height=\"260\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A8Vdhud1hww\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" lang=\"en-GB\"><strong>Nadim Mirshak:<\/strong><span> <\/span><strong>In this current period of post-uprising Egypt, civil society seems to be one of the few spaces left where hegemony is challenged in ways that are different from protests, sit-ins or violent demonstrations. In your book, <em><a class=\"western\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zedbooks.net\/shop\/book\/gramsci-freire-and-adult-education\/\">Gramsci, Freire and Adult Education: Possibilities for Transformative Action <\/a><\/em><a class=\"western\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zedbooks.net\/shop\/book\/gramsci-freire-and-adult-education\/\"><em>(1999)<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>you argue that civil society should not be romanticized. Can you explain what you mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" lang=\"en-GB\"><strong>Peter Mayo:<\/strong><span> <\/span>Central to Gramsci\u2019s notion of hegemony is that civil society is not always oppositional. Gramsci was looking at what the Germans call \u201c<em>b\u00fcrgerliche gesellschaft<\/em>,\u201d bourgeois civil society. What he means is that if a transformation would take place within civil society and within the interstices of hegemony itself, or if a great revolution or intellectual and moral reform took place, maybe it would not remain a bourgeois civil society anymore. But it would still remain civil society nonetheless.<\/p>\n<div class=\"banner_wrapper\" style=\"\">\n<div id=\"banner-247294\" class=\"banner subscribe-banner  banner-247294 bottom vert custom-banners-theme-default_style\" style=\"\"><a class=\"custom_banners_big_link\" href=\"#\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"banner_caption\" style=\"\">\n<div class=\"banner_caption_inner\">\n<div class=\"banner_caption_text\" style=\"\">\n<p><strong>Don&#8217;t miss a beat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"western\" lang=\"en-GB\">Nowhere in Gramsci\u2019s writings does he use the term \u201ccounter-hegemony,\u201d precisely because he wants to avoid this notion of binary, of being \u201ccounter\u201d or \u201chegemonic.\u201d The two are instead intertwined, dialectically if you like. One cannot be counter-hegemonic without participating within the hegemonic system. At the same time, the hegemonic system is never one hundred&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/hegemony-is-never-complete-using-gramsci-to-understand-the-arab-uprisings\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This interview is part of the series \u201cCritical Voices in Critical Times\u201d coordinated and edited by Linda Herrera. In this interview Peter Mayo, professor at the University of Malta and renowned scholar on Gramsci and Freire, engages with Egyptian sociologist from the University of Manchester, Nadim Mirshak, in a compelling conversation about civil society, hegemony [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-372986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}