Hegemony or the
hegemonic model is not a term that I have ever heard outside of a
BBC2 cultural identity discussion! Yet it is constantly about us all, adapting and shaping its self into the programme that is life.
The term 'hegemony' was adapted by
Antonio Gramsci during his time imprisoned in the early part of the 20th century. It wasn't until 1971 that a full translation came out of the
'Prison Notebooks'.
An example of the
strongest force in our world, want to see what this hegemony actually is? Okay,
holidays,
music and
fashionjust to start! Let me start with
language, the first
tool of
communication.
The
globalisation of the
English language is not simply because of the beauty and strength of it's vocabulary, grammar and structure! Rather through the past literary and
cultural,
empirical,
military and
religious associations of the
power institutes.
Economics and the rise and use of communications enable
political power to develop.
The rise of English as a language can be regarded as a new phenomena. Post
World War Two, saw the strength of the
American economic market grow and the
dollar became the world currency. Money talks and the dollar became the language of commerce. Globalisation is progressive
capitalism.
Marx believed that capitalist development would result in one state nation, with the basis of
conflict as being that of
class. Conflicts in this
world today consist of clashes of
identity, where the old meets the transgressional new. The main influx of
ideas and
education comes through the
mass of
telecommunications.
Technology dislocates people from
boundaries of
time and space and transports them into the ‘new’, a simultaneous world. The
sphere of the political world is fought and expressed to people through the media; it is not restricted to one nation. American politics becomes the breakfast news of Ireland.