Social rearticulation
Social rearticulation is a sociohistorical process characterized by the reinterpretation and reorganization of existing ideological themes and interests within a society. Rooted in classical political economy and informed by thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci, the concept gained prominence through the work of sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant. They describe it as a dual process that involves both disorganizing dominant ideologies—values upheld by the dominant group—and constructing oppositional cultures that reflect resistance or alternative perspectives.
The essence of social rearticulation lies in its ability to impart new meanings to established traditions and norms by recombining preexisting ideas with fresh conceptions of social identities. This dynamic often manifests in social movements and cultural discourse, making it a significant political process aimed at destabilizing existing power structures, promoting civil reform, and catalyzing societal change. Social rearticulation is inherently complex and marked by instability, as it navigates the tensions between cultural predecessors and the emergence of new social categories. Overall, it serves as a vital mechanism through which societies redefine themselves and address issues of identity, inequality, and power relations.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Social rearticulation
The concept of social rearticulation has a complex intellectual history that originated in classical political economy, was informed by Italian intellectual Antonio Gramsci, and in the late twentieth century, found voice in the work of sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant. According to Omi and Winant, social rearticulation is the “discursive reorganization or reinterpretation of ideological themes and interests already present in subjects’ consciousness, such that these elements obtain new meanings or coherence.” In practice, social rearticulation involves the dual process of disorganizing “dominant ideologies”—the values of the dominant group—and constructing “oppositional cultures”—cultures that are different from the dominant culture but that reflect or react to the society around them.
Dominant ideologies can be reorganized in various ways. However, to be termed social rearticulation, the process must involve the imparting of new knowledge to established traditions and norms and the recombination of preexisting meanings with new conceptions of social identities. Examples of preexisting systems and beliefs being reformulated can be found not only in social movements but also in popular and intellectual discourse. Therefore, social rearticulation is quintessentially a political process, a way of destabilizing, reorganizing, and initiating civil and state reform. As a social construct, its trajectory is complex, uneven, and marked by considerable instability and tension. However, as a way to break away from cultural and political predecessors, social rearticulation is an important sociohistorical process in which racial and social categories are created, inhabited, and transformed.
In the context of race, social rearticulation refers to the process of social justice that aims to redefine the social construct of race and reinterpret racial identities. Race is a dynamic social construct that changes with political, cultural, and social shifts. For example, the Civil Rights Movement rearticulated the meaning of being a Black American, giving a voice to the marginalized group and restructuring society’s perspective.
Bibliography
Castro, Eliana. ““How Every Black Man Should Be”: Historical Narrative Construction as Identity Rearticulation.” Journal of Social Studies Research, vol. 47, no. 1, 2023, pp. 40–55, doi.org/10.1016/j.jssr.2022.01.006. Accessed 20 Dec. 2024.
Chalcraft, John, and Yaseen Noorani. Introduction. Counterhegemony in the Colony and Postcolony. Edited by Chalcraft and Noorani, Palgrave, 2007, pp. 1–19.
Craig, Maxine Leeds. “Ridicule and Celebration: Black Women as Symbols in the Rearticulation of Race.” Ain’t I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race, 2002, doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152623.003.0001. Accessed 20 Dec. 2024.
HoSang, Daniel Martinez, et al., editors. Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century. U of California P, 2012.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015.
Small, Stephen. Racialised Barriers: The Black Experience in the United States and England in the 1980s. Routledge, 1994.
Visweswaran, Kamala. Un/common Cultures: Racism and the Rearticulation of Cultural Difference. Duke UP, 2010.