Gramsci rejects economic reductionism to theorize political and cultural factors as relatively autonomous determinants.

Evidence

Gramsci also offers a principled rejection of any form of economic reductionism that would presume the existence of objective historical laws with automatic consequences in the manner of scientific positivism. It is this that allows him to conceptualize the theoretical space in which to substitute for simplistic teleologies of inevitable sequences of events with guaranteed outcomes what Stuart calls the “conditional tense” of the analysis of relations of force in unstable equilibria. In this, it is the relative autonomy that Gramsci grants to political and cultural factors—with a determining effectivity of their own, in the war of position conducted around the state and civil society—that is critical. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 68

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Islamophobia toolkit — this ‘conditional tense’ and relative autonomy is the mechanism by which race and racism can be analyzed as historically specific rather than epiphenomenal to class. Pairs with later readings on racialized formations. — connects to: Hayek and Röpke explicitly rejected economism and economic reductionism. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 20
• DEFINE: Defines the ‘conditional tense’ as Gramsci’s substitute for teleological inevitability — a key transferable concept.