Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory

Williams develops a model for examining cultural formations in a society, in order to explore the interplay between power relations manifested in cultural understandings (drawing on Gramsci's concept of hegemony) and in the everyday lived experience of these cultural understandings ('common sense'). Williams suggests that it is useful to approach this topic through looking for three different forms of cultural formations: dominant, residual and emergent. Dominant cultural formations control most of the field, but never all of it. Residual formations are carried over from the past and are usually rooted in religious or rural practices. Emergent formations are those that present previously unimaginable social practices (the classic example being the early feminist movement). Residual and emergent formations can be either 'alternative' or 'oppositional'. Alternative cultural suggestions seek to adapt to the general framework of the existing dominant formation, whereas oppositional trends seek - at least originally - to replace dominant practices.