Humanistic Marxism
This modern version of Marxism sees cultures as involving ways of doing and thinking. In this respect culture is not simply a matter of personal choice and preference (although this is an important aspect of culture). It also reflects a wider sense of (class) struggle in society. This is because cultures are integrating mechanisms in society.
What this means is that cultures bind people together by giving them things in common. Religious groups, for example, develop a common sense of culture based around things like a belief in the same god(s), practices and rituals. This common culture gives such groups an identity (they are different to other groups) and a common cause. In addition, these cultures give their individual members a sense of identity (who they are, their purpose in life and so forth).
Humanistic Marxists such as Gramsci (1891 - 1937) have argued that different social classes develop different cultural backgrounds and identities based on their different experiences in the social world.
A rich white male, for example, experiences life in modern Britain very differently from a poor black female. Cultures, as a "design for living", develop to reflect these experiences precisely because they are ways we use to equip ourselves for living and coping in society.
Although this seems to reflect a pluralist view of culture, one of the main differences is that Marxist Conflict theorists see society in terms of large social groups (classes) rather than the much smaller groups characteristic of pluralist perspectives. Thus, broadly, each social class develops its own cultural norms that reflect its particular experiences in the world (although, in reality, it does tend to get more complex than this crude outline suggests).
This perspective stresses two important ideas:
Unlike in the past when a ruling economic class could establish its leadership in society through force and terror (killing people who disagreed with its general view of the world), in modern societies leadership has to be earned. That is, a ruling class cannot take its "right to rule" for granted. Members of this class must, in short, convince both themselves and others in society that they have the "right to rule".
Writers such as Gramsci, therefore, have used the concept of cultural hegemony (that is, the right to lead based on the consent - willing or manufactured - of those who are led).
What this involves is a dynamic relationship between different class cultures. Rather than a ruling class simply imposing its culture on the rest of society, the process is more complex. This class, for example, seeks to propagate its values throughout society (but not necessarily its norms), since if people can be convinced of certain values this will influence their normative development along particular lines.
To use a simple example, if people can be convinced that Capitalism is the best possible economic system then they will develop norms that encourage them to try to succeed according to Capitalist values. In this way, Capitalism as an economic system survives (and a ruling class, by and large, survive over time since they are economically and culturally best equipped to succeed in this type of society).
The concept of hegemony is useful because it provides a sense of cultural diversity and dynamic political struggle. It can be used to explain, for example, how and why cultural forms (classical music, football, punk rock) are adopted and used by people of diverse cultural backgrounds.
In this respect, hegemony solves the problem of how to explain:
a. The fact that basic cultural forms survive over time (which is difficult to explain from a pluralist perspective that places much more stress on individual choice).
b. The fact that cultural forms evolve, adapt and change over time (since cultural leadership is seen to be a process of struggle and conflict).
Finally, therefore, the idea of a popular culture is one that, for modern Marxist Conflict theorists, should be used to show the dynamic and creative nature of cultural forms and behaviour. People develop new cultural forms as a means of coping with their position in the social world, challenging the old order and, perhaps, creating forms of "cultural space" that provide a sense of meaning and identity in the modern world.