Skip to main content
Book cover

Antonio Gramsci pp 137–155Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Gramsci and ‘the International’: Past, Present and Future

  • Chapter

Part of the Critical Explorations in Contemporary Political Thought book series (CEPT)

Abstract

Situated within a historical materialist understanding of social transformation and deploying many insights from Antonio Gramsci, a crucial break with mainstream International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE) approaches emerged in the early 1980s in the work of Robert Cox.1 This provided a key inspiration for the emergence of what became known, along with a few other names, as an identifiable ‘neo-Gramscian’ literature of IR/IPE by the 1990s.2 While our own work could be identified as ‘neo-Gramscian’ in this respect,3 a key limitation of this otherwise highly significant body of scholarship was the place within it of Antonio Gramsci himself. There are two key reasons for our dissatisfaction: (1) the way in which many of Gramsci’s key insights on the international were downplayed; and (2) the manner of the critique of the neo-Gramscian literature which tended to engage not with Gramsci but those claiming to be inspired by him. As such, the case for Gramsci’s relevance still requires more work, not least because placing Gramsci at the center of our approach entails a research agenda which is distinctive compared to earlier frameworks. More provocatively, this chapter shows that a ‘Gramscian’ rather than ‘neo-Gramscian’ way of thinking is more appropriate, both in general terms and when considering the current era.4 While we do not want to claim that Gramsci simply has the answers to our questions, the argument below shows that there is still plenty of unrealized potential within IR/IPE that could be developed via Gramsci’s writings.

Keywords

  • Social Movement
  • Trade Union
  • International Relation
  • World Order
  • Global Capitalism

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1057/9781137334183_8
  • Chapter length: 19 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-1-137-33418-3
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Hardcover Book
USD   149.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Robert W. Cox, ‘Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory,’ Millennium 10 (1981), 126–55;

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  2. Robert W. Cox, ‘Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method,’ Millennium 12 (1983), 162–75;

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  3. see also Robert W. Cox (with Timothy J. Sinclair) Approaches to World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  4. For example, see: Stephen Gill, ed., Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993);

    Google Scholar 

  5. Mark Rupert, Producing Hegemony: The Politics of Mass Production and American Global Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  6. For example, Andreas Bieler and Adam D. Morton, eds., Social Forces in the Making of the New Europe: The Restructuring of European Social Relations in the Global Political Economy (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001);

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ian Bruff, ‘Making Sense of the Globalisation Debate when Engaging in Political Economy Analysis,’ British Journal of Politics & International Relations 7 (2005), 261–80.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  8. See also Stuart Hall, ‘Gramsci and Us,’ in Roger Simon, Gramsci’s Political Thought: An Introduction (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1991), 114–30.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Robert W. Cox, Production, Power and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987), 1.

    Google Scholar 

  10. See various chapters in Robert O. Keohane, ed., After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. and trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971), 181.

    Google Scholar 

  12. For example, Stephen Gill, ‘Globalisation, Market Civilisation and Disciplinary Neoliberalism,’ Millennium 24 (1995), 399–423;

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  13. Henk Overbeek, ‘Transnational Class Formation and Concepts of Control: Towards a Genealogy of the Amsterdam Project in International Political Economy,’ Journal of International Relations and Development 7 (2004), 113–41.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  14. For example, Joseph Femia, ‘Gramsci, Machiavelli and International Relations,’ Political Quarterly 76 (2005), 341–9.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  15. Randall D. Germain and Michael Kenny, ‘Engaging Gramsci: International Relations Theory and the New Gramscians,’ Review of International Studies 24 (1998), 13.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  16. For a critique of austere historicism, see Adam D. Morton, Unravelling Gramsci: Hegemony and Passive Revolution in the Global Political Economy (London: Pluto Press, 2007), 24–36.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Adam D. Morton, ‘Waiting for Gramsci: State Formation, Passive Revolution and the International,’ Millennium 35 (2007), 597–621;

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  18. Mark McNally, ‘Gramsci’s Internationalism, the National-Popular and the Alternative Globalisation Movement,’ in Gramsci and Global Politics: Hegemony and Resistance, ed. Mark McNally and John Schwarzmantel (London: Routledge, 2009), 58–75;

    Google Scholar 

  19. Ian Bruff, ‘European Varieties of Capitalism and the International,’ European Journal of International Relations 16 (2010), 615–38.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  20. Peter Ives and Nicola Short, ‘On Gramsci and the International: A Textual Analysis,’ Review of International Studies 39 (2013), 622 (added emphasis).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from Cultural Writings, ed. David Forgacs and Geoffrey Nowell Smith, trans. William Boelhower (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985), 181.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Adam D. Morton, Revolution and State in Modern Mexico: The Political Economy of Uneven Development (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2013). Updated edition.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, Vol. II, ed. and trans. Joseph A. Buttigieg (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), N4, §60, 233.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, Vol. I, ed. Joseph A. Buttigieg and trans. Joseph A. Buttigieg and Antonio Callari (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), N1, §44, 151.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from Political Writings, 1910–1920, ed. Quintin Hoare and trans. John Matthews (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1977), 69.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Leon Trotsky, The Third International After Lenin, trans. John. G. Wright (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970), 19–20.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, Vol. III, ed. and trans. Joseph A. Buttigieg (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), N8, §25, 252.

    Google Scholar 

  28. See Adam D. Morton, ‘The Limits of Sociological Marxism?’ Historical Materialism 21 (2013), 129–58.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  29. Kees van der Pijl, Transnational Classes and International Relations (London: Routledge, 1998), 64–83.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Andreas Bieler, Ian Bruff and Adam D. Morton, ‘Acorns and Fruit: From Totalisation to Periodisation in the Critique of Capitalism,’ Capital & Class 34 (2010), 25–37.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  31. William I. Robinson, A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class, and State in a Transnational World (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2004), 4.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Andreas Bieler, Ingemar Lindberg and Werner Sauerborn, ‘After Thirty Years of Deadlock: Labour’s Possible Strategies in the New Global Order,’ Globalizations 7 (2010), 249–53.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  33. Andreas Bieler, Ingemar Lindberg and Devan Pillay, ‘What Future Strategy for the Global Working Class? The Need for a New Historical Subject,’ in Labour and the Challenges of Globalization: What Prospects for Transnational Solidarity?, ed. Andreas Bieler, Ingemar Lindberg and Devan Pillay (London: Pluto Press, 2008), 272.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Bastiaan van Apeldoorn, Transnational Capitalism and the Struggle over European Integration (London: Routledge, 2002).

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  35. Mark S. Anner, Solidarity Transformed: Labour Responses to Globalization and Crisis in Latin America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011), 130.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Roland Erne, European Unions: Labour’s Quest for a Transnational Democracy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 90–4.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Andreas Bieler, ‘Labour, New Social Movements and the Resistance to Neoliberal Restructuring in Europe,’ New Political Economy 16 (2011), 163–83.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  38. See, for example, Neil Brenner, Jamie Peck and Nik Theodore, ‘Variegated Neoliberalism: Geographies, Modalities, Pathways,’ Global Networks 10 (2010), 182–222.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  39. Ian Bruff, ‘Overcoming the State/Market Dichotomy,’ in Critical International Political Economy: Dialogue, Debate and Dissensus, ed. Stuart Shields, Ian Bruff and Huw Macartney (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 80–98.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Stuart Hall, ‘Popular-Democratic vs. Authoritarian Populism: Two Ways of “Taking Democracy Seriously,”’ in Marxism and Democracy, ed. Alan Hunt (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1980), 173.

    Google Scholar 

  41. For more on authoritarian neoliberalism, see Ian Bruff, ‘The Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism,’ Rethinking Marxism 26 (2014), 113–29.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  42. Peter D. Thomas, The Gramscian Moment: Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 161–7;

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  43. Antonio Gramsci, Further Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. and trans. Derek Boothman (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1995), 15.

    Google Scholar 

  44. See also Ian Bruff, Culture and Consensus in European Varieties of Capitalism: A ‘Common Sense’ Analysis (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  45. See also Marcus Green and Peter Ives, ‘Subalternity and Language: Overcoming the Fragmentation of Common Sense,’ Historical Materialism 17 (2009), 3–30.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Andreas Bieler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ian Bruff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Adam David Morton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lecturer in Politics, School of Media, Culture and Society, University of the West of Scotland, UK

    Mark McNally

Copyright information

© 2015 Andreas Bieler , Ian Bruff and Adam David Morton

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bieler, A., Bruff, I., Morton, A.D. (2015). Gramsci and ‘the International’: Past, Present and Future. In: McNally, M. (eds) Antonio Gramsci. Critical Explorations in Contemporary Political Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137334183_8

Download citation