霸权,文化政治和葛兰西的地理思想

20世纪90年代以来,以英语为主的地理学术界出现了所谓的新文化地理学,着重关注基于社会差异的文化政治或文化战争。葛兰西的霸权理论对于分析文化政治作出了很重要的贡献。葛兰西认为,霸权是一种关于权力平衡的概念,这种平衡包含了武力压制和意见一致。也就是说,霸权不能仅仅来源于恐怖统治和武力镇压大众,尤其是受压迫的团体,同时也得依靠被统治者的认可和来自心底的拥护。葛兰西强调地方的重要性,探讨了城市和乡村不同类型的生活方式,以及建成环境的设计和布置如何塑造共识、流行文化,以及日常生活。葛兰西的理论能够揭示中国过去三十年快速的社会空间转型。将这种转型放在更广泛的时间和空间尺度下来思考,人文地理学就可能做出独特的知识贡献。

HEGEMONY,CULTURAL POLITICS,AND GEOGRAPHICAL IDEOLOGY OF GRAMSCI

Since the 1990s,the new cultural geography has emerged in Anglo-America circle of cultural geography to highlight the significance of social difference in shaping human relations. The key term is cultural wars or cultural politics. The theory of hegemony developed by Antonio Gramsci provides an important theoretical framework to conceptualize and analyze cultural politics. In general,Gramsci emphasizes hegemony is a concept to reflect a dynamic balance of power relations. To achieve this balance requires both coercion and consent. In other words,hegemony does not merely build upon punishment and coercion exercised upon the subordinated,but also relies on the consent from the governed and the support from their heart. To link the theory of hegemony with geography,Gramsci reiterates the importance of place in shaping power relations and explores the different ways of life in cities and villages. Furthermore,Gramsci argues that the configuration of built environment can influence mass consciousness,popular culture,and daily life. In this sense,the spatiality of hegemony lies in two interrelated aspects:spatial strategies deployed by the dominant to attain and maintain hegemony,and the alternative reading of and control over certain space as resistance against the powerful forces. This paper contends that Gramsci's theory of hegemony can reveal the rapid social and spatial transformation in last three decades in China. Human geography can make unique epistemological contribution if we can situate this transformation in a broader temporal and spatial dimension to delve into the dynamic balance in contemporary China.