Posthegemony

Posthegemony is the theory that the concept of hegemony can no longer properly describe social order.

Theory

Posthegemony finds that ideology is no longer a political driving force and that the theory of hegemony therefore no longer accurately reflects the social order: "ideology critique--the analysis of discourse in search of distortions produced by ideological operations--is now superfluous. Posthegemony also finds that history is not, as Karl Marx described it, a class struggle, but rather a "struggle to produce class.

The theory of posthegemony is influenced by the work of theorists such as Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Bourdieu, and Antonio Negri. It is also in synch with post-Foucauldian theorists such as Giorgio Agamben. Nicholas Thoburn, drawing on Agamben's discussion on the "state of exception," writes that "it is, perhaps, with the recasting of the relationship between law and politico-military and economic crises and interventions that is instituted in the state of exception that the time of hegemony is most revealed to have passed.

Criticism

Among the criticisms of the theory of posthegemony is Richard Johnson's, that it involves "a marked reduction of social complexity. Johnson concedes that "one considerable achievement of ‘the post-hegemony project’ is to draw many observable post-9/11 features into a single imaginative picture, while also synthesizing different currents in contemporary social theory." But he argues that "it is strange, however, that the result is viewed as the end of hegemony rather than as a new hegemonic moment. He therefore calls for a rejuvenation of the concept of hegemony, rather than its abandonment.

Notes

Bibliography

Jon Beasley-Murray, "On Posthegemony." Bulletin of Latin American Research 22.1 (January 2003): 117-125.
Scott Lash. 2007. "Power after Hegemony: Cultural Studies in Mutation?" Theory, Culture, and Society. 24(3):55-78.
Nicholas Thoburn, "Patterns of Production: Cultural Studies after Hegemony." Theory, Culture, and Society 24.3 (2007): 79-94.
Richard Johnson, "Post-hegemony? I Don't Think So." Theory, Culture, and Society 24.3 (2007): 95-110.