ABSTRACT
This chapter asks why Gramsci turned to culture as a way of understanding how ruling groups win, maintain and sometimes lose their power. It reviews Karl Marx’s work on the relationship between the economic ‘base’ and the cultural ‘superstructure’ and outlines Gramsci’s more nuanced understanding of this relationship. The chapter moves on to discuss Gramsci’s analysis of civil society and the distinction he draws between the ‘war of position’ and the ‘war of manoeuvre’. Finally it considers the question of culture within a spatial framework, paying particular attention to Gramsci’s views on the ‘Southern Question’ and the construction of a ‘nationalpopular’.
