Culture, Power and Education

Book excerpt: Employing Gramscian conceptions of hegemony, this book demonstrates the inextricable links between politics, education, culture and power. Based upon in-depth analyses of the theories of Antonio Gramsci, Lorenzo Milani, Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, and bell hooks among others, this book shows how many hegemonic social relationships are fundamentally educational relationships. In doing so, Mayo demonstrates how popular culture, education, museums, and fine art are both sites of hegemony and contestation. This thought-provoking work will be of interest to students and scholars with an interest in sociology of art and culture, sociology of education, critical pedagogy, cultural studies, museum studies and social theory.