Brexit Referendum: first reactions from anthropology

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How should Anthropologists respond to Brexit? These are some first thoughts.

Global Journal of Archaeology & Anthropology, 2017

Special issue: Brexit Matters

The articles in this special issue contribute not just to a better and much-needed understanding of Brexit and its impact on ordinary lives, inside as well as outside the UK. The Irish, (ex-)Yugoslavian, Hungarian and French histories throw the Brexit conundrum into interesting and timely perspectives. They teach us to appreciate that we can no longer afford to regard Brexit as an exception to the rule. We have to take it seriously as both a sign of the times and a harbinger of the future. The rise of populism has thrown this question into sharp relief. More and more member states experience Eurosceptical tendencies, and although the strength and form of these vary substantially among nations, they all pivot around popular and political emotions that hanker for more national sovereignty and less European integration.

International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 2020

Brexit Worlds I was in Goldsmiths sociology department and it was October 31-Halloween-and the day that Boris Johnson had repeatedly said that 'come what may' the UK would be leaving the European Union today and that for him it was 'do or die' and if it did not happen he would 'die in a ditch'. Some on the Tory right who were in the hard Brexit European Research Groupthe ERG had said that had we not left Britain would 'explode' and that there would be riots in the streets. But none of this happened even though it was a mantra that had been so often threatened. It was part of a narrative world that had been created around Brexit by those who were determined to leave without a deal if necessary, because for them, it was the leaving itself that was a matter of faith and could alone allow Britain and its four nations to be free from what they had framed as the 'shackles of the EU', an allusion back to slavery showing how issues of race were at the unspeakable core of a hard Brexit. With the date of the 31st October so firmly set in the nation's mind and it being presented as a critical moment in which we would 'leave or die'-there was a way that language had become an instrument that was deployed so readily in the tabloid press and in the wider media to capture our consciousness and frame an unbelievable world that felt endless and which we might desperately want to escape, but somehow felt trapped and obsessed with. It was in an uncanny time when we realised that what had been promised was not going to happen, and when our attentions have been displaced on the general election that had just been announced for December 12, that so many people, be they 'leavers' or 'remainers', felt an unspeakable anxiety about what all the threats had been about. For many discussions around Brexit-the 'B' word as it had been framed-were to be avoided, even if at another level they could feel inescapable.

Comillas Journal of International Relations, 2021

This article analyses the scholarly debate on the Brexit phenomenon and its possible causes. By contextualizing Brexit in the International Relations Theory debate about the levels of analysis, the article focuses on some of the most recent contributions of the Brexit literature. Firstly, it analyses the contributions that explain Brexit as a problem of international and European politics, related to the adaptation of the United Kingdom to the process of European integration. Secondly, it analyses the contributions that explain Brexit as the result of causes located at the domestic level, such as the decisions and perceptions of national leaders, the decision-making process, and the impact of populist and Eurosceptic political discourse. The article identifies the advantages of an approach capable of considering both international and domestic variables. This allows a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and a potentially fruitful collaboration between political scientists from di...

Comillas Journal of International Relations, 2021

This article analyses the scholarly debate on the Brexit phenomenon and its possible causes. By contextualizing Brexit in the International Relations Theory debate about the levels of analysis, the article focuses on some of the most recent contributions of the Brexit literature. Firstly, it analyses the contributions that explain Brexit as a problem of international and European politics, related to the adaptation of the United Kingdom to the process of European integration. Secondly, it analyses the contributions that explain Brexit as the result of causes located at the domestic level, such as the decisions and perceptions of national leaders, the decision-making process, and the impact of populist and Eurosceptic political discourse. The article identifies the advantages of an approach capable of considering both international and domestic variables. This allows a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and a potentially fruitful collaboration between political scientists from different disciplines, such as International Relations Theory and Comparative Politics.

Open Arts Journal, 2020

This special issue offers a timely and current critical evaluation of the morbid symptoms and potential wounds of ‘Brexit Culture’ as its implications, causes and effects unravel in front of a global audience via multiple media in real time. Brexit cultures, for the purposes of our articles here, attends to the role of cultural production in forging political choices, and to the cultural dimensions of Brexit – as a response to living in times of crisis and uncertainty. Departing from solely political or economic evaluations of Brexit’s effects, contributions to the special issue explore how the humanities and social sciences, artists and writers engage with the challenges, threats and potential disasters of Brexit. This issue interrogates how multiple constituencies that make up the inhabitants of the UK deal with a climate of continued uncertainty about definitions and effects of Brexit as they unfold in everyday cultural practices and specific locations, and what kind of responses...

2016

Promises of an extra £350m a week, posted on the side of a bus. Doomsday economic predictions from the Remain campaign; the reply, “We’ve had enough of experts!”. Jo Cox MP shot dead in the street, the same day that Nigel Farage unveils an anti-immigration poster which echoes propaganda images from 1930s Nazi Germany. The UK votes to Leave, and the pound collapses. Scotland votes differently, and claims new justification for independence. “What is the European Union?” the second most googled question on the day of the result. A marked increase in hate crimes reported. Boris Johnson calls for a new Royal Yacht. “Hard Brexit” and “Soft Brexit” new terms in public discourse. A country divided. Immigration at the heart of political debate in the UK. Our international reputation damaged, perhaps beyond repair.

Regional Studies

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