1. What is hegemony

1. Hegemony = how we think and what we do, from individual over social organization to institution.

2. Hegemony is everywhere and touches everything

How we think and what we do seeps into everything.

Hegemony goes beyond culture and permeates almost every social domain.

3. Hegemonic thinking and acting is for the most part accidental.

Hegemony is driven by both "recognition" and "acquiescence”. People recognize and understand the societal values and norms and adjust their thinking and actions accordingly. Mostly unconsciously. We resign ourselves to how things are.

Recognition and acquiescence are passive. There is very little conscious decision-making in choosing a particular society or hegemony. For most of us it is a coincidence that we live and work within a certain hegemonic reality. We are born and grow up in a society and consider it normal but rarely is that choice consciously made.

4. Thinking and acting hegemonically happens unconsciously most of the time.

We experience hegemony as “this is how it is” rather than “I consciously choose to think or act this or that way” . Consent (assent, acceptance, acquiescence) is key in hegemony, which is different from consensus. A decision made by consensus is supported by those involved. It’s a joint agreement. A hegemony may

be supported but there is usually little or no conscious decisionmaking process involved.

5. Hegemony operates under the radar most of the time.

We are usually quite unaware of the hegemonic reality of which we are a part. Only when a hegemony is challenged does it become more tangible and do we experience it more consciously.

6. Hegemony arises spontaneously.

A classical view of hegemony places coercion, power, and authority at the center. Hegemony in such an approach stands for leadership: it is all about who has power, who decides and who does not.

But hegemony largely comes about naturally. It is an organic process and very rarely is anyone in control.

7. Hegemony brings stability.

Humans - a few exceptions aside - have a natural desire for order, peace, stability, cohesion and conformity. We have a natural aversion to chaos, violence, uncertainty and (overly drastic) change.

We are also social beings by nature. We want to belong: being part of social groups gives meaning to life. As does being part of a greater whole.

Our urge as a society for stability and peace is one of the strongest dynamics and driving forces that sustains a hegemony.

8. We cannot do without hegemony.

Hegemony generates social cohesion.

We need hegemony in our societies.

When a hegemonic vacuum occurs for whatever reason, then it is filled in no time by new hegemonic dynamics.

9. Hegemony is self-reinforcing.

How we think and what we do is confirmed over and over again by ourselves and the people around us.

Images and messages of all kinds reproduce the same hegemonic ideas time and again.

In social contexts and situations, we repeat the same habitual actions.

Wherever you look, all around, you see, above all, the continuous reaffirmation of current thinking and acting.

10. Hegemony is self-sustaining.

Once a hegemony is established - once it has reached a certain critical mass - social dynamics cause more and more people to think and act as expected within a society.

Hegemonies are their own perpetuum mobile.

11. Hegemony is a self-renewing continuum.

Hegemony is never-ending. It continues to reproduce itself.

At the same time, each hegemonic reproduction may carry within it a germ of change. That’s how societies continue to evolve.

12. Just about everything is at least hegemonically influenced.

So what is part of hegemony? Just about everything: education, ideology, the dominant ideas in society, norms and values, beliefs, behaviors, culture and cultural expressions, clothing and fashion, what

we eat, how we look, the language we use, the words we do or do not use, political correctness, being woke, social media, memes, the video games we play, the television programs we watch, opinions in the media, what we do / do not conform to, what we consider (ab-)normal, how we react to events, our routines, the relations between men and women, our sexuality, how we live, work, shop...

13. Hegemony operates at three levels: individuals, social organizations and institutions.

Hegemony can be represented as a pyramid consisting of 3 layers:

1. At the bottom are individuals. 2. In the middle of the pyramid we find social organizations. 3. At the top are the institutions.

In other words, we have a lot of individuals, quite a lot of social organizations, and a limited number of institutions.

14. Within society, all players play the game and thus help shape it.

Within society, all citizens, social organizations and institutions play along according to the mostly unspoken and often unwritten rules of the game.

15. Within hegemony the golden rule is: to conform = to confirm.

16. We regularly interpret hegemony differently.

As individuals, we are one way with our friends and another with our colleagues. We do things differently within different social organizations. We do things this way at work and that way at the sports club.

At the same time there is always some leeway: depending on the social situation and context, we think and act partially differently.

There is no invisible hand that leads us always and everywhere.

We are not sheep even though we often behave sheepishly.

We are not exact copycats even though we mimic many things.

Even though hegemonic thinking and acting follows a more or less rigid straitjacket, there is always some room for interpretation and variation.

Individuals and groups can still go against a hegemony. And regularly we do. We cannot help ourselves.

17. Hegemony is never absolute.

Hegemony is never absolutely determined nor all-encompassing. It’s never pristine or pure. Absolute consistency within a hegemony is simply not possible. It is always somewhat messy and often schizophrenic.

Different positions and viewpoints collide and influence each other all the time.

Hegemonies remain volatile and are never static.

The way we think and act is constantly in flux and it shifts slightly all of the time.

18. Hegemonies evolve and change continuously.

No hegemony is everlasting or unchanging. The current hegemony will eventually give way to a new hegemony.

19. Hegemony rests on a fragile balance.

We are all part of a whole range of social groups and social constructs within society. Most of us try to balance all of these. Still, within that frail equilibrium, there must also be sufficient distinction. After all, we are who we are as individuals and social groups by distinguishing ourselves from other individuals and other groups. Within hegemony, we need opposing positions. For most of the time, these different positions hold each other more or less in balance.

20. Hegemony needs antagonism.

Hegemony is a continuous game of attraction and repulsion. Of conformity and distinction. We need diversity and plurality. When there’s insufficient diversity and plurality, hegemony becomes unbalanced.

21. Different sub-hegemonies cohabit within a hegemony.

Within a hegemony, there are a whole series of sub-hegemonies: variations on how we think and what we do that occur only in certain contexts or among certain groups.

Consider, for example…

• Regional or geographical contexts (local customs specific to a region or municipality) • Organizational contexts (the customs within companies or other social organizations) • Familial contexts (what is customary in one's own family can seem strange to other families)

• Class contexts (many social customs differ from one social class to another) • Cultural contexts (different cultural groups - including communities of faith - hold different ideas and customs).

22. Sub-hegemonies can be more or less part of a hegemony.

Most of the time, these sub-hegemonies are not extremely different from the general hegemony.

When the differences do become more pronounced, ghettoization can occur. Such ghettos can either be in people's minds or take on physical forms.

Within the walls of one's own ghetto, a sub-hegemony can be reinforced further and differences can be magnified.

23. The contours of a hegemony are porous and constantly under pressure.

Hegemonic thinking and acting takes place within certain chalk lines but these hegemonic boundaries are often difficult to frame or delineate exactly. Sub-hegemonies and various forms of counterhegemonic thinking and acting rub against the hegemonic edges causing these to stretch. Here and there, they can even be partially redrawn. When this redrawing of the outlines remains within certain confines, this tends to pass without significant issues.

Hegemony is therefore always a bit vague and fuzzy.

But those who color too drastically outside the lines, run the risk of placing themselves (partially) outside the hegemony.

24. Hegemony is complex.

Hegemony touches on everything and is thus intertwined with many different domains. Additionally, much hegemonic thinking and acting

is also interpreted differently by different individuals, social groups and institutions. This makes hegemony extremely complex.

25. Hegemony can probably never be fully understood.

Fortunately, we do not need absolute or perfect knowledge to function within a hegemony. A partial understanding of appropriate thinking and acting within a hegemony is sufficient.

CHAPTER 1 | What is hegemony

Hegemony is "what we think and how we act from individual over social organization to institution." Hegemony therefore touches on just about everything: it is omnipresent.

Within hegemony, all players (individuals, social organizations and institutions) play the game spontaneously.

Most of the time we are unaware of hegemony.

Despite a whole series of self-reinforcing dynamics, every renewal of hegemony carries within it a potential seed for change. That’s how hegemonies continue to evolve.

That makes it also difficult to delineate the boundaries of hegemony.

Hegemonic concentric circles

You can imagine hegemony as a series of concentric circles.

In the center we find individuals, social organizations and institutions that are more in agreement with the prevailing hegemony. There is more conformity.

At the edge - at the outer circles - we find individuals and social organizations that are less in agreement with the current hegemony. There is less conformity.

Individuals and social organizations can also find themselves completely outside a hegemony but that in itself is rather exceptional. Just about all people and social groups within a society conform to the prevailing hegemony to a fair degree.

When hegemony is in balance, the circles are evenly distributed and the whole looks harmonious. But this is by no means always the case.

Gradually, new ways of thinking and acting, which were initially at the edge, may gradually become more central. Thus the center of the circles begins to shift.

When the center of a hegemony begins to shift, hegemony changes. What and who was initially at the center of hegemony may thus, over time, find itself at its edge.

When a hegemony is out of balance, it will move back to a new balance over time. When such a new equilibrium is reached, the center of a previous hegemony may henceforth be at the edge of the new hegemony. Those who were previously at the edge of the hegemony may suddenly find themselves at the center in a new hegemonic equilibrium.

That’s how hegemonies continue to evolve. And the people who find themselves within a hegemony move and evolve with it.

Hegemony thus continuously evolves from a status in equilibrium to a status out of equilibrium. A hegemony in balance is alternated with a hegemony out of balance from which a new hegemony in balance then emerges.

The periods in balance normally last longer than the periods out of balance. We as humans thrive less well in hegemonies out of balance. Therefore, a new equilibrium will impose itself almost automatically after some time.

The changes that take place during a hegemony out of balance are usually fairly limited. Only in very extreme circumstances can the change be more abrupt and disruptive. Such changes are usually very traumatic for the people involved.