Abstract
In this book, Mayo presents hegemony as the key concept used by Gramsci throughout his prison notes. The book is also about Gramsci’s contemporary relevance in a neoliberal age. Neoliberalism is presented as an opponent of an educational project that seeks to liberate and empower persons and certainly embraced by Gramsci.
Mayo argues that Gramsci’s use of the term hegemony is sometimes presented to mean consent and at other times coercion of the working class in their oppression. Throughout the text, Mayo shows that hegemony is sustained by a series of social relations that operate on the basis of specific pedagogies (pedagogy used here in its broadest context), since the influencing of ideas, practices, and desires as the basis of consent entails a broad pedagogical effort. For Gramsci, “every relationship of ‘hegemony’ is necessarily an educational relationship” (p.119). Furthermore, in Gramsci’s writings on how to identify, and oppose hegemony, he develops a theory of learning that calls attention to the formation and development of critical consciousness.
Mayo presents Gramsci’s work as an adult educator and his perspectives on adult education within the context of informal political or nonformal education, occurring in the community, prisons, and the workplace, especially during his time working with the factory councils. For Gramsci, adult education involved social and political activism. Hence, he posited the concept of the organic intellectual—an activist and persuader who was firmly involved in the work of the oppressed group, working for them, and working on their behalf. These organic intellectuals were politically committed to those they taught. In essence, organic intellectuals were adult educators, public intellectuals, or the “subaltern intellectuals.”
Mayo recognizes that the nation-state continues to have a role in a globalized world, for instance, in repression, and ideological and commercial activities in furtherance of the neoliberal agenda. Therefore, that state of affairs requires redress. Historically frontal attack or the “war of maneuver” was used against hegemonic leaders/states. This approach was not usually possible in Western Capitalist societies. For Gramsci, intellectual and moral reforms must take place for social and political transformation to be realized within the state. This would mean working “within and outside the state” or “working in and against the state.” In Western societies, Gramsci believed that the state was propped up by “a network of cultural and ideological institutions” (p. 63) oftentimes understood to be “civil society.” In this regard, one would first have to engage in a “war of position,” which involves social organization and activism to counteract the influence of civil society and initiate beneficial change for the masses. To be counterhegemonic constitutes a “war of position.” Usually, counterhegemonic work is done by organic intellectuals. This book inchoately calls on adult educators to frame their work as social and political activism, to work as organic intellectuals to initiate systemic change.
Overall, this book has been helpful in deepening our understanding of activism in adult education, particularly in relation to the ways education can be used in contesting hegemonic systems and structures. The purpose was to underscore counterhegemonic work as valuable in adult education.
It is obvious that Mayo has deep admiration for the work of Gramsci. This was communicated throughout, and those who criticized Gramsci’s work especially his seeming ambivalence in his position on what to include in an Italian reformed school curriculum were dismissed. Yet there is value in the criticism levied against Gramsci that he privileged European ways of thinking about what was of most value. This does not detract from his contribution, but Mayo obviously held him in such high esteem that he could not accept this criticism. Mayo needs to remember that Gramsci, as great as he was, was no angel and no demi-god.
Mayo presents Gramsci’s contribution to adult education as important, especially the nonformal component and social and political activism. This is attested to by many who have been influenced by his work and are advancing the educational project concerned with the liberation of all people from various kinds of oppression, especially those who are the victims of the excesses of the powerful of society. His influence has affected the work of seminal scholars in the critical education movement, including Freire, McLaren, Giroux, Brookfield, and others. Many adult educators connect with Gramsci’s idea of the organic intellectual, seeing it as one way to think, and operate as educational practitioners, working for social justice. His influence continues as other scholars allude to his impact on their practice of education, seeing themselves “working in and against the system” and becoming agitators for a just and equitable world.