Gramsci’s theory is activist practice within broad Marxism, not orthodoxy.

Evidence

Gramsci was not a “general theorist.” Indeed, he did not practice as an academic or scholarly theorist of any kind. From beginning to end, he was and remained a political intellectual and a socialist activist on the Italian political scene. His “theoretical” writing was developed out of this more organic engagement with his own society and times and was always intended to serve, not an abstract academic purpose, but the aim of “informing political practice.” … This means that his theoretical contribution has, always, to be read with the understanding that it is operating on, broadly, Marxist terrain. That is to say, Marxism provides the general limits within which Gramsci’s developments, refinements, revisions, advances, further thoughts, new concepts, and original formulations all operate. However, Gramsci was never a “Marxist” in either a doctrinal, orthodox, or “religious” sense. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 75

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Key orientation for using Gramsci: concepts aim to inform practice and operate on Marxist terrain without doctrinal rigidity.

Related

• Gramsci’s concepts operate on Marxist terrain aimed at political practice (similarity 0.92)
• Gramsci practices an open Marxism that develops Marx beyond orthodoxy. (similarity 0.89)
• Gramsci’s Marxism is open and supplies concepts classical Marxism lacked (similarity 0.84)
• Gramsci’s contribution is to complexify Marxist theory, not to supply general social science. (similarity 0.82)
• Marxist currents widely subordinated theory to practice’s needs (similarity 0.82)
• Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis links theory inseparably to practice and action (similarity 0.82)
• Gramsci’s concepts stay embedded in conjunctures rather than aiming at theoretical purity. (similarity 0.81)
• Adopting Gramsci let Hall say things Marxism could not before (similarity 0.81)
• Gramsci adds concepts classical Marxism lacked for explaining modern society. (similarity 0.81)
• Successfully adopting Gramsci’s framework created new problems that forced Hall to move beyond it (similarity 0.81)
• Gramsci read the Bolsheviks as living Marx’s living thought against dogmatic determinism (similarity 0.80)
• Gramsci’s concepts apply productively to colonial and non-European social formations. (similarity 0.80)
• Gramsci borrowed non-Marxist concepts while redefining them within Marxist discourse (similarity 0.79)
• Marxism’s educational mission to the masses absorbed its intellectual strength (similarity 0.79)
• Idealist revisions of Marxism came from pure intellectuals while orthodoxy came from activists. (similarity 0.79)