Gramsci designed hegemony as a bulwark against economic reductionism.

Evidence

It can be seen from the general thrust of the argument in this passage that many of Gramsci’s key concepts (hegemony, for example) and characteristic approaches (the approach via the analysis of “relations of social forces,” for example) were consciously understood by him as a barrier against the tendency to economic reductionism in some versions of Marxism. He coupled with his critique of “economism” the related tendencies to positivism, empiricism, “scientism,” and objectivism within Marxism. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 93

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the genealogy and purpose of hegemony: not a neutral analytical term but a deliberate theoretical intervention against economism, positivism, empiricism, scientism, and objectivism.
• XREF: This is the intellectual origin for how Hall later theorizes race and Islamophobia as ‘articulated’ rather than economically determined — key bridge to downstream Islamophobia readings.