coolbeans, Hebdige

In Hebdige’s From Culture to Hegemony, he describes culture as an ambiguous concept that can take on a variety of meanings. Culture encompasses so many different areas that it cannot just be pinpointed in one meaning. For example, culture can be art, but it can also be government, media, values, behaviors or ideologies. Within culture there are several different realms. As we learned in CMC 100, there is high culture and low culture. High culture is culture that requires some sort of education in order to read or understand. Low culture is culture that is popular and can be read or understood by anyone. Culture can also be shaped by ideologies. People of a particular group define themselves through a common set of beliefs and ideologies. When ideologies are involved usually there is a dominant ideology in which a majority or powerful group of people follow the same belief. This group of people becomes the ruling class because the ideologies tend to be more favorable for the general population or has the best interests for the dominant groups in society. The ideologies of the non dominant population tend to become a sort of subculture or counter culture because of this. This is how the transition from culture to hegemony occurs. Hegemony is a “situation in which a provisional alliance of certain social groups can exert total social authority over other subordinate groups, not simply by coercion or by the direct imposition of ruling ideas, but by winning and shaping consent so that the power of the dominant classes appears both legitimate and natural” (150). The dominant ideologies overshadow the non dominant ideologies, without even really meaning to. As long as the majority agrees with the ideology, the group that follows it is still the hegemonic power. The ones who do not follow the hegemonic ideology form into their own subcultures. A good example of this is political parties. The two dominant political parties in the United States are Republican and Democratic. These two parties are the hegemonic powers. Those who do not subscribe to either of those ideologies can choose to associate themselves with the Libertarian party, the Constitution party or the Green party, which can be labeled as the subculture.