Abstract Since the 1990s,the new cultural geography has emerged in Anglo-America circle of cultural geography to highlight the significance of social difference in shaping human relations. The key term is cultural wars or cultural politics. The theory of hegemony developed by Antonio Gramsci provides an important theoretical framework to conceptualize and analyze cultural politics. In general,Gramsci emphasizes hegemony is a concept to reflect a dynamic balance of power relations. To achieve this balance requires both coercion and consent. In other words,hegemony does not merely build upon punishment and coercion exercised upon the subordinated,but also relies on the consent from the governed and the support from their heart. To link the theory of hegemony with geography,Gramsci reiterates the importance of place in shaping power relations and explores the different ways of life in cities and villages. Furthermore,Gramsci argues that the configuration of built environment can influence mass consciousness,popular culture,and daily life. In this sense,the spatiality of hegemony lies in two interrelated aspects:spatial strategies deployed by the dominant to attain and maintain hegemony,and the alternative reading of and control over certain space as resistance against the powerful forces. This paper contends that Gramsci's theory of hegemony can reveal the rapid social and spatial transformation in last three decades in China. Human geography can make unique epistemological contribution if we can situate this transformation in a broader temporal and spatial dimension to delve into the dynamic balance in contemporary China.
2013, Vol. 28 
