Another important concept in Marxism is ideology which refers to a set of ideas and values, an approach to reality. Ideology is a result of forces of production and relations of production, that is, the mode of production.

According to Chris Barker:

“Ideology is not separate from the practical activities of life but provides people with rules of practical conduct and moral behaviour rooted in day-to-day conditions…. Ideology is understood to be both lived experience and a body of systematic ideas whose role is to organize and bind together a bloc of diverse social elements …. ”

Ideology is both coercive and non-coercive and can in fact be ‘manufactured.' As maps of meaning, ideology or ruling ideas maintain the status quo.