Exploring Power Dynamics: Understanding Hegemony in Society

Question: Class consciousness, false consciousness and hegemony Class consciousness is an awareness of membership in a group as defined by economic position . The individuals in a particular social class become aware that they share common interests and a common social situation. These individuals unite to pursue their shared interests. Sometimes a group's consCiousness regarding its class gives rise to a class struggle, for example, union-organising activity. This is because people who recognise and articulate their class position are more likely to promote their class interests . Class consciousness was formed in part by public schools and universities , which exposed students from one class to students from other classes (the working, middle or upper class). It is, therefore, likely that education gives knowledge and power to some of these classes to maintain control over the political system . For example, the upper class deprives the working class and the middle class of their voice in the political process (Borland , 2008). Karl Marx viewed class consciousness as crucial because members of a social class become actively aware of themselves as a class. When members of a social class lack this awareness, it leads to a distorted perception of the reality of a class and its consequences . This is called false consciousness. False consciousness is any belief or view that prevents a person from being able to understand the true nature of a It is also defined as a person 's inability to see where his or her best interest lies. Marx referred to the workers ' acceptance of ideologies that ran counter to their interests as false consciousness. This means that the development of class consciousness may be blocked by members of a class who accept the ideology of the dominant class (Feinberg & Soltis, 2004). True consciousness of a certain class (for example, a subordinate class) is impeded by the acceptance by a person from that class of the ideologies and values of the dominant class. When the dominant class succeeds in establishing its own mode of thinking amongst most members of the subordinate class, it is said to have established hegemony over the subordinate class . Hegemony means having influence and authority over others . This influence is expressed through ideologies , beliefs, perceptions, behaviour and social structures. The institutions of civil society (for example, schooling, the media and forms of popular culture such as music, art, film, television and radio) play a role in establishing hegemony . Thus, social orders are founded and reproduced within certain institutions. This is where the dominant class sometimes exerts power and domination over the subordinate class in order to maintain social boundaries and rules . Other institutions (such as religious, educational, economic and political institutions as well as the institution of the family) also play in favour of the dominant class because they induce the subordinate class to consent to the dominant order. This means that some institutions are responsible for establishing the hegemony or ideological dominance of a distinctive type of social order (Feinberg & Soltis, 2004). Question 1 1.1. read the text and answer What is meant by “hegemony”? (take the answer from text)