Holding to the organic intellectual ideal shapes intellectual work even under fragmented politics.

Evidence

I know there are lots of objections to the metaphor of the organic intellectual, I have lots of them myself. We have to take seriously Foucault’s suggestion that perhaps the moment of the organic intellectual is over; now we are in another historical moment, that of the specific intellectual. I understand exactly what he means by that because, of course, I don’t propose the organic intellectual as the source of another grand metanarrative or as producing the theory for the movement from outside. Nevertheless, I hold on to the notion of the organic intellectual because I think it puts a shadow across intellectual work. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 266

Categorization

• DEFINE: Contrasts Gramsci’s organic intellectual with Foucault’s specific intellectual while explaining why Hall keeps the older category.
• XREF: Recalls Gramsci’s notion of the organic intellectual from Volume 2 and Foucault’s ‘specific intellectual’ from his 1976 Power/Knowledge interviews.
• SEED: Essay angle: the revival of the ‘organic intellectual’ ideal in today’s fragmented media/institutional landscape, when nobody owns a unified movement.