Intellectuals act as functionaries of the superstructures mediating society and production

Evidence

The relationship between the intellectuals and the world of production is not as direct as it is with the fundamental social groups but is, in varying degrees, “mediated” by the whole fabric of society and by the complex of superstructures, of which the intellectuals are, precisely, the “functionaries”. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 277

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the core Gramscian definition of intellectuals as functionaries of superstructures mediating between production and social fabric.
• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s scaffolding goal: this is the base definition that later Islamophobia readings build on when discussing intellectuals of the dominant group. — connects to: Every rising social group organically produces its own intellectuals to articulate its function — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 1176