One of the first persons we have to refer to when we discuss the role of the intellectual is the Italian Marxist intellectual Antonio Gramsci who made a famous distinction between two types of intellectuals: the traditional intellectuals and the organic intellectuals.

Let us look at how Chris Barker has formulated it:

“Traditional intellectuals are those persons who fill the scientific, literary, philosophical and religious positions in society. This would include those working in universities, schools, churches, the media, medical institutions publishers and law firms…. for Gramsci they produce, maintain and circulate those ideologies constitutive of hegemony that become naturalized as common sense.”

They are distinguished from the organic intellectuals in that they are usually in tune with the prevailing ideological and hegemonic structures. Not all traditional intellectuals go against the institutional authority, since he / she maintains the status quo and helps in proliferating the ideologies of the ruling class and thereby maintains the social order.