Theories of Ideology

Theories of Ideology

Author: Jan Rehmann

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-07-25

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9004252312

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How to explain the hegemonic stability of neoliberal capitalism even in the midst of its crises? The emergence of ideology theories marked a re-foundation of Marxist research into the functioning of alienation and subjection. Going beyond traditional concepts of ‘manipulation’ and ‘false consciousness’, they turned to the material existence of hegemonic apparatuses and focused on the mostly unconscious effects of ideological practices, rituals and discourses. Jan Rehmann reconstructs the different strands of ideology theories ranging from Marx to Adorno/Horkheimer, from Lenin to Gramsci, from Althusser to Stuart Hall, from Bourdieu to W.F. Haug, from Foucault to Butler. He compares them in a way that a genuine dialogue becomes possible and applies the different methods to the ‘market totalitarianism’ of today’s high-tech-capitalism.


Ideology

Ideology

Author: Terry Eagleton

Publisher: Verso

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780860915386

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‘His thought is redneck, yours is doctrinal and mine is deliciously supple.’ Ideology has never been so much in evidence as a fact and so little understood as a concept as it is today. From the left it can often be seen as the exclusive property of ruling classes, and from the right as an arid and totalizing exception to their own common sense. For some, the concept now seems too ubiquitous to be meaningful; for others, too cohesive for a world of infinite difference. Here, in a book written for both newcomers to the topic and those already familiar with the debate, Terry Eagleton unravels the many different definitions of ideology, and explores the concept’s tortuous history from the Enlightenment to postmodernism. Ideology provides lucid interpretations of the thought of key Marxist thinkers and of others such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud and the various poststructuralists. As well as clarifying a notoriously confused topic, this new work by one of our most important contemporary critics is a controversial political intervention into current theoretical debates. It will be essential reading for students and teachers of literature and politics.


The Meaning of Ideology

The Meaning of Ideology

Author: Michael Freeden

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-18

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1317969839

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This is the first collection to bring together leading scholars from diverse disciplines to offer a variety of perspectives on ideology and its analysis, emphasizing the input of different intellectual and scholarly traditions to the meaning of ideology. The articles explore commonalities in the use and understanding of ideology as well as delineating constructive differences in its interpretation, while illuminating the changes that the concept of ideology, as well as the practices it signifies, has undergone in recent years. Contributions are included from the fields of political theory, history, literature, political science, cultural studies, post-Marxism, discourse analysis, language studies, law, and sociology. The Meaning of Ideology advances our understanding of the intricacy and relevance of ideology, and offers the latest theories and insights that currently inform scholarship on the subject. Ideology emerges through the pages of this collection more strongly than ever as a major tool of understanding political language and as a durable and normal phenomenon that is inherent in the many ways we conceive the world around us. This book was previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Political Ideologies and will be of interest to students of political ideologies and political and social theory.


Ideology

Ideology

Author: Michael Freeden

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2003-06-26

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 019280281X

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Ideology is one of the most controversial terms in the political vocabulary, inciting both revulsion and inspiration. This book explains why ideologies deserve respect as a major form of political thinking, without which we cannot make sense of the political world. The reader is introduced to their vitality and force, utilizing insights from a range of disciplines, and through examining the arguments of the main ideologies.


The Form of Ideology

The Form of Ideology

Author: D. J. Manning

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-11-22

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 100070467X

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First published in 1980. Of all the concepts deployed in the study of politics the application of the concept of ideology is by far the least precise. Those who have sought to clarify its meaning have concluded that ideology is not an independent constituent of political life and indispensable to an adequate representation of the form of political association; but, rather, a kind of epiphenomenal, parasitic and irrational thought that misguides the unfortunate, ignorant or confused in the pursuit of the unobtainable. The Form of Ideology attempts to demonstrate that this view is wholly mistaken. It offers students an understanding of ideology free from the conceptual confusion involved in the belief that ideology is in any sense a theory that can be put into practice. In addition, it argues that ideology is not a defective theory of politics, because, properly understood, ideology is not theoretical understanding of the world at all. It is not the product of any kind of investigation yielding information. The Form of Ideology permits beliefs in ideological claims, not proof of ideological assertions. It affords political inspiration and aspirations rather than judgement and knowledge. If the argument in this book succeeds in demonstrating the truth of this conclusion then the study of politics must take a completely new direction. The first three chapters explore the grounds for the methodological break the group has made with previous investigations and offer a critique of some current misconceptions; the remaining three chapters mark out the limits of the intelligibility of ideology within the context of political thought and life following the direction indicated by the previous three. The book’s concern will be of central interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses on ideology, the history of political thought, political theory and political movements in departments of political science, sociology, philosophy and history; it is unique in that it offers an account of the form of ideological understanding seen as a mode of thought in its own right.


Cultural Software

Cultural Software

Author: J. M. Balkin

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1998-01-01

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 9780300084504

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In this book J. M. Balkin offers a strikingly original theory of cultural evolution, a theory that explains shared understandings, disagreement, and diversity within cultures. Drawing on many fields of study--including anthropology, evolutionary theory, cognitive science, linguistics, sociology, political theory, philosophy, social psychology, and law--the author explores how cultures grow and spread, how shared understandings arise, and how people of different cultures can understand and evaluate each other's views. Cultural evolution occurs through the transmission of cultural information and know-how--cultural software--in human minds, Balkin says. Individuals embody cultural software and spread it to others through communication and social learning. Ideology, the author contends, is neither a special nor a pathological form of thought but an ordinary product of the evolution of cultural software. Because cultural understanding is a patchwork of older imperfect tools that are continually adapted to solve new problems, human understanding is partly adequate and partly inadequate to the pursuit of justice. Balkin presents numerous examples that illuminate the sources of ideological effects and their contributions to injustice. He also enters the current debate over multiculturalism, applying his theory to problems of mutual understanding between people who hold different worldviews. He argues that cultural understanding presupposes transcendent ideals and shows how both ideological analysis of others and ideological self-criticism are possible.


Justifying New Labour Policy

Justifying New Labour Policy

Author: J. Atkins

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2011-04-12

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0230307280

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An original combination of theoretical innovation and a detailed empirical analysis of the ideas, language and policy of New Labour. Politicians often appeal to moral principles and arguments in their efforts to win support for new policy programmes. Yet the question of how politicians use moral language has until now been neglected by scholars.


Ideology

Ideology

Author: David McLellan

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9780816628032

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To study ideology is to ask such questions as: Where do our ideas about society and politics come from? Are these ideas socially determined? If so, what validity can they claim? In this brief yet comprehensive introduction, David McLellan examines the origins of the concept of ideology, analyzes its place in the Marxist and non-Marxist traditions, and assesses the various uses to which it has been put in recent social and political theory, particularly the connection between ideology and the "end of history" debate. Revised and updated, this second edition is for all those who are interested in a clear presentation of the most basic concept in the philosophy of the social sciences.