ABSTRACT
This final chapter has two overall aims. The first is to address the questions which were not answered by Marx and Gramsci with the help of concepts borrowed from Bourdieu and William James. The second is to attempt to synthesise the insights gathered through previous chapters. The first two sections are devoted to the works of Bourdieu and James. After having understood the key concepts of habitus/field, interest and belief, the notions are elaborated to understand the key qualities ideologies must have to be believed, and the translation of material interests into political interest. Bourdieu’s habitus/field dichotomy is then combined with Marx’s conception of commodity fetishism to better develop the question of people’s consent to the socio-economic order and their naturalisation of said order. Marx’s theory of formation of ideas is also combined with the habitus/field dichotomy to show how certain ideas might appear ‘objective’ insofar as their belief is seen as necessary by individuals wanting to belong to the social groups they encounter. The chapter also discusses hegemonic crises and ideologies’ reliance on past ideologies.
