ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the role of intellectuals in giving form and expression to the moral, philosophical, ideological and scientific values that are elaborated into a hegemonic project. The chapter again works through examples to give a sense of how values cohere around the figure of the intellectual and how such meanings are contested between groups of intellectuals, and between the intelligentsia and the publics they labour to hegemonize. Intellectuals introduce a dimension of agency to the hegemonic process that may appear to be absent in more impersonal phenomena such as texts and institutions. However, we should be cautious when distinguishing between these categories, or when placing an accent upon agency. In the previous chapter we saw that institutions can be thought of as networks of agents. Intellectuals work within institutions, and institutions require intellectuals with the specific skills needed to maintain the institution theoretically. Similarly, intellectuals may produce representations, but the image of the intellectual, whether as disinterested authority or as engaged thinker, is one that is constructed within representation.