Call for Papers — Antonio Gramsci: Violence, Coercion and Resistance (Five Panels)

Conference venue: Giardini Naxos, Italy.
Period: 23–26 September 2015
Deadline for submitting abstracts: January 15, 2015

Antonio Gramsci’s writings offer a rich source of material for thinking both empirically and theoretically about the role that violence has played, is playing, and might play in the future within political societies. In popular interpretations of Gramsci, his celebrated notion of hegemony is often equated with a politics of consent, tending to facilitate more liberal understandings of his work. However, this is to ignore or downplay his wider formulation of the state, conceived as “hegemony protected by the armour of coercion.” Gramsci was insistent that while moral and spiritual leadership were integral aspects of power, another crucial facet of its exercise was the physical domination of antagonistic groups which are often subjugated by physical force. Gramsci was also prone to deploy military metaphors when thinking about questions of political transformation, most notably in his key terms ‘war of manoeuvre’ and ‘war of position’.  The latter term has now tended to be emphasised purely as a form of cultural struggle. However, it should not be forgotten that Gramsci also stressed that “every political struggle… always has a military substratum.” Violence, for Gramsci therefore co-exists and sits in dialectic tension with a politics of consent.

This prompts a variety of issues for reflection: to what extent does neo-liberalism remain reliant upon violence and coercion to main itself (both in the capitalist heartlands as well as in more peripheral nations)? How has the turn to a politics of austerity affected questions of violence/coercion? Does violence have a legitimate role in movements seeking to challenge capitalism? Indeed, are Gramsci’s thoughts on violence/exclusion still relevant for thinking about the political?
Suggested themes for panels:

European International Studies Association
University of Catania

The final deadline for panel, roundtable and paper submissions is midnight (CET) 15th January 2015. All submissions must be inputted directly through the Conference’s online submission site.

Please contact Dr Chris Hesketh (Oxford Brookes University) for further details at: chesketh@brookes.ac.uk

Dr Chris Hesketh
Oxford Brookes University
e-mail: chesketh@brookes.ac.uk