Subculture, hegemony, praxis, and "youth organizations"
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1987
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Abstract
The concept of hegemony expresses how a ruling group acquires and maintains consensual support from subordinate groups (the majority) through the creation and dissemination of a dominant culture, so that, the best interests of the ruling group (the minority) appear in everyone's best interests. Capitalism's ability to endure despite its social structural contradictions has been explained by the existence of hegemony. However, the problem remains to explain specifically how this hegemony or the dominant culture operates. In addition to discussing functionalism, which has led to a prevalence of integrationalist conceptualizations of "youth rebelliousness", other factors of hegemony reproduction, observed during ethnographic fieldwork, will be discussed. The first factor is the presence of a social reformist type subcultural praxis, which is historically neutralized. The second, is the interorganizational divisiveness generated in the social activist community, by particular organizational praxes which are partly given form by the dominant culture. The ease in which cultural rebellion type subculture is co-opted by the music and fashion industries, also is a factor in hegemony reproduction. These suggested forces of hegemony reproduction are unavoidably limited by, and partly a product of, my self-reflexive subjectivity and "participant observation" in Calgary's social activist and "alternate" communities. Only by arguing that objective reality emerges when a knowledge of the social context is provided, can the validity of subjectivity be formed. A synthesis, so to speak, which approaches objective reality, is produced when the reader synthesizes both what is said, and equally as importantly, who is saying it. If one agrees that objective reality is ultimately grounded in the social context, and that there must be at least philosophical attempts to undogmatically approach objective reality in order to guide the practical concerns of social action, then we have reached a "philosophy of praxis". The raison d'etre of which, is the amelioration of the human condition and ultimately the survival of the species.
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Bibliography: p. 130-134.
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Citation
Moses, N. R. (1987). Subculture, hegemony, praxis, and "youth organizations" (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/23471