Antonio Gramsci: A Pedagogy to Change the World

This book is a collection of essays on the educational thought and the pedagogical approach of Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci. Preceded by a broad introduction that positions Gramsci in his context and in the literature, the essays critically revisit the many passages of the Prison Notebooks and pre-prison writings where Gramsci addresses the nexus between politics and pedagogy. Some essays apply those concepts to specific contexts. The book for the first time brings to the attention of an English-speaking audience voices from the current historiography in Italy and Latin America. Overall, the volume provides evidence for the argument of a central place of pedagogy in the interpretation of Gramsci's political theory. Gramsci's view that 'every relationship of hegemony is necessarily a pedagogical relationship' makes it imperative to dismiss narrow and formal interpretations of his educational theories as applying to schooling only. This book argues that what is required rather is an inquiry into the Italian thinker's broad conceptualisation of pedagogy, which he thought as a quintessential political activity, central to understanding and transforming society.§§Contributors: Stephen Brookfield, Alessandro Carlucci, Diego Fusaro, Flora Hillert, John D. Holst, Carl Levy, Pietro Maltese, Peter Mayo, Riccardo Pagano, Rebecca Tarlau, André Tosel, María A. Vetter.§§