The Struggle for Hegemony in Pakistan

'A major analysis of our world's political crisis and a brilliant critique of the ideology of middle class aspiration'

-- Joel Wainwright, Professor at Ohio State University

'Shows how an aspirational idea of the middle class reinforces the subordination of dispossessed labour, ethnic minorities in peripheral territories, terrorists and deviant dissenters. This wide-ranging book is sure to stimulate critical scholarship and organic intellectual activism both inside and outside South Asia'

-- Barbara Harriss-White, Emeritus Professor and Fellow, Wolfson College Oxford University

'Akhtar powerfully channels the spirit of Gramsci and Fanon to critique neoliberal hegemony in Pakistan - and to diagnose the next great battlefield for the Afro-Asian Left: the values, aspirations, and solidarities of the digitised youth across core and periphery'

-- Majed Akhter, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography, King's College London

'Drawing with insight on Gramsci, and located in the Global South, this accomplished book is an important contribution to the search for progressive, anti-colonial, and humanist revolutionary politics in Pakistan and beyond'

-- John Chalcraft, Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science

'What is the 'political' in Pakistan, and how does this help update our theories on democratic backsliding and contemporary authoritarianism? Why do we want to think of the middle class at the centre of it all again? Read this book to find out'

-- Shandana Mohmand, Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex

'This path-breaking work follows Antonio Gramsci to trace the processes that have led to middle-class aspirations becoming pervasive in places like Pakistan. It builds an alternative hegemony which counters the processes of depravity and violence, and allows for a more socially just future'

-- Kamran Asdar Ali, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Au