Gramsci’s insistence on the fundamental importance of the ideological struggle to social change meant that this struggle was not limited to consciousness-raising but must aim at consciousness transformation – the creation of socialist consciousness. Antonio Gramsci Quotes (11 Quotes) To tell the truth is revolutionary. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Having said that what was required for those who wished to overthrow the present system was a counter-hegemony, a method of upsetting the consensus, of countering the ‘common sense’ view of society, how could this be done? For a brief overview of Gramsci's life and thought see: An Introduction to Gramsci's Life and Thought by Frank Rosengarten. By the end of the First World War, 30% of Turin’s population were industrial workers and this despite the fact that another 10% were in the army and not included in the total. This is the group mentioned earlier that grows organically with the dominant social group, the ruling class, and is their thinking and organising element. They were produced by the educational system to perform a function for the dominant social group in society. It is through this group that the ruling class maintains its hegemony over the rest of society. Those who really live cannot help being a citizen and a partisan. Parts of school life are quite clearly coercive (compulsory education, the national curriculum, national standards and qualifications) whilst others are not (the hidden curriculum). There was no doubt in his mind that education in modern Italy was one way in which the mass of the population was kept in its place. Each social group that comes into existence creates within itself one or more strata of intellectuals that gives it meaning, that helps to bind it together and helps it function. The first step in emancipating oneself from political and social slavery is that of freeing the mind. Gramsci describes the social character of the traditional schools as determined by the fact that each social group throughout society had its own type of school “intended to perpetuate a specific traditional function, ruling or subordinate” but the answer to the question of modernising education was not to create a whole system of different types of vocational school but “to create a single type of formative school (primary-secondary) which would take the child up … a … These notebooks were smuggled out from his prison and published in Italian after the war but did not find an English-language publisher until the 1970s. – Leo Buscaglia. Local education: Community, conversation, praxis. The ‘Turn to Gramsci’ in Adult Education: A Review: from the Newsletter of the International Gramsci Society. London: Pluto Press. “His normal-sized … (1994). The coercive ones, which were basically the public institutions such as the government, police, armed forces and the legal system he regarded as the state or political society and the non-coercive ones were the others such as the churches, the schools, trade unions, political parties, cultural associations, clubs, the family etc. They are certainly open to misinterpretation (Allman 1988, Entwistle 1979). هذا الأمر سببه فعل نسميه السياسة، وهذا يعني أن كل تلك الأشياء الجميلة لا علاقة لها بالقضية”. Marked as being in the public domain because its copyright has expired. Cutting through all the Gramscian verboseness, we’ll examine Gramsci’s understanding of the intellectual and… Often the term “ideology” is seen as referring simply to a system of ideas and beliefs. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Wed 6 Feb 2013 10.20 EST The labour process was at the core of the class struggle but it was the ideological struggle that had to be addressed if the mass of the people were to come to a consciousness that allowed them to question their political and economic masters right to rule. Gramsci’s notebooks are quite clear on the matter. Quotes tagged as "social-justice" Showing 1-30 of 889 “I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. Ideological hegemony meant that the majority of the population accepted what was happening in society as ‘common sense’ or as ‘the only way of running society’. To tell the truth is revolutionary. Gramsci, in his Notebooks, maintained that what was required was that not only should a significant number of ‘traditional’ intellectuals come over to the revolutionary cause (Marx, Lenin and Gramsci were examples of this) but also the working-class movement should produce its own organic intellectuals. The contrast was immense. In his Notebooks, he asked the question: “is it better to “think”, without having a critical awareness, … or, on the other hand, is it better to work out consciously and critically one’s own conception of the world?”. Giddens defines ideology as “shared ideas or beliefs which serve to justify the interests of dominant groups” [Giddens 1997 p583] Its relationship to power is that it legitimises the differential power that groups hold and as such it distorts the real situation that people find themselves in. Gramsci’s analysis went much further than any previous Marxist theory to provide an understanding of why the European working class had, on the whole, failed to develop revolutionary consciousness after the First World War and had instead moved towards reformism ie tinkering with the system rather than working towards overthrowing it. To the extent that this prevailing consciousness is internalised by the population, it becomes part of what is generally called ‘common sense’ so that the philosophy, culture and morality of the ruling elite comes to appear as the natural order of things. Their purpose is not necessarily individual advancement, but human well-being as a whole” (Smith 1994 p127). Resources on Antonio Gramsci: Excellent site – resources include an online searchable version of the complete Bibliografia gramsciana, a complete list of Gramsci’s writings, related appendices and introductory materials, and the first eight issues of the Newsletter of the International Gramsci Society. Essentially, they have developed organically alongside the ruling class and function for the benefit of the ruling class. No Result . (1999, 2005) ‘Antonio Gramsci, schooling and education’, The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-gram.htm. 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