Using Jordan's concept of authoritative knowledge, this article describes some of the ways that the prenatal care practices of a group of U.S. women help to consolidate biomedical hegemony. We analyze the considerations that the women took into account when deciding whether or not to accept specific prenatal care recommendations as authoritative, focusing on when and how they used their own "em...

In this paper we show how applying an analytical framing of hegemony to policy making can draw out strategic positioning and negotiation of the actors involved that would remain hidden with a more rationalistic analysis. We show how long established flood protection management from the Dutch lowlands was imported into Limburg after two major flood events (1993/95) and we argue this case highlig...

The Roman imperial monarchy is generally studied from the vantage point of ancient Roman history: the “Roman emperor” is viewed and analyzed as an element of the Roman world. This conventional approach fails to place this institution in a broader comparative context, that of monarchical rulers across world history. Systematic comparison opens up new perspectives and is indispensable in identify...

Recently there have been several attempts to arrive at a more precise understanding of the relationship between Marxism and psychology. These have been notable in that they have been informed by Althusserian treatments of Marxism rather than orthodox Freudian or Lacanian themes. Such treatments, it is argued, entail the complete eradication of any notion of subjectivity. The following analyses ...

The concept of cultural hegemony is notoriously difficult. As it is presented in Gramsci’s original writings, hegemony is a cluster of several ideas, insights, and suggestions (see Adamson, 1980; Bates, 1975; Howson & Smith, 2008; G. A. Williams, 1960). This is hardly surprising. One had to remind that the notion was developed to explain very specific historical processes in post-WWI Europe. Re...

Monetary policy rule might be helpful to avoid the problem of time inconsistency provided there is a commitment to the rule. The commitment is the ability of a government to bind future policies. However, it doesn’t include intrinsic motivations. Therefore, hegemony, which includes both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, better solves the problem of  time inconsistency. In this paper, we expl...

The antiquities of Jammu and Kashmir reveal that women might have enjoyed a high status as elsewhere in India. But ,there was a marked deterioration in the position of women. Female children were not much desired and their sufferings became endless with the beginning of inroads of Turko-Afghan tribes for whom carrying away of women formed the prized item of booty. This situation gave new dimens...