Penn State

Consortium forSocial Movements and Education
Research and Practice

Gramsci’s challenge to the politics of the left in ‘Our Times’

Gramsci’s challenge to the politics of the left in ‘Our Times’

Paula Allman, John Wallis
1995
1995

Abstract

This article offers a detailed discussion of the writings of Antonio Gramsci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party. Gramsci's writings, and secondary source accounts of these, have had a profound influence in many areas of ‘radical’ adult and community education in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The article attempts, by returning to Gramsci's original texts and by interpreting them within his own ‘leitmotiv’, to challenge many of the current applications of his thought within radical education and ‘left’ political practice. The former types of applications are normally filtered through the political and academic writings of the latter; therefore the challenge offered, on behalf of Gramsci, is directed primarily at these.

Abstract

This article offers a detailed discussion of the writings of Antonio Gramsci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party. Gramsci's writings, and secondary source accounts of these, have had a profound influence in many areas of ‘radical’ adult and community education in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The article attempts, by returning to Gramsci's original texts and by interpreting them within his own ‘leitmotiv’, to challenge many of the current applications of his thought within radical education and ‘left’ political practice. The former types of applications are normally filtered through the political and academic writings of the latter; therefore the challenge offered, on behalf of Gramsci, is directed primarily at these.

Social Movements

Socialist movements

Keywords

Class, Europe, Praxis

Theme

Theoretical Perspectives on Social Movements and Education