Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 327
Who made this the only sensible option?
Hegemony directs executive attention from isolated persuasion to the institutions, alliances, vocabularies, and incentives that make one interpretation feel normal
Premise
Shared language can become powerful long before anyone issues an explicit command. A definition gains durability when it is repeated through institutions, connected to legitimate expertise, attached to careers and resources, and presented as an account of the common interest rather than one group’s preference. Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony examines that organized relation among leadership, consent, culture, institutions, and coercive capacity.
For executives, the value is diagnostic rather than ideological. The question is not whether a phrase is persuasive in one meeting, but how a vocabulary acquires institutional backing until it begins to shape which proposals sound reasonable, which alternatives appear irresponsible, and who is authorized to define the problem.
What the model is: Hegemony (Gramsci) in Knowledge →
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryParadigms, Traditions & Metatheories
- DomainVoice, Silence & Power
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Paradigms, Traditions & Metatheories
Provides a broad intellectual perspective within which multiple concepts, theories or investigations are developed. Traditions carry histories and commitments; metatheories examine how theories themselves are organized or related.
- KnowledgeHegemony (Gramsci)