Social and Cultural Perspectives on Brexit Britain: Identity, Belonging and the Media

Transcription

1 Social and Cultural Perspectives on Brexit Britain: Identity, Belonging and the Media Dr Cathrine Degnen Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology School of Geography, Politics & Sociology Newcastle University

2 Who we are Identity, Belonging, and the Role of the Media in Brexit Britain ( ) Anthropology of Britain Cathrine Degnen (Newcastle) and Katharine Tyler (Exeter) Political Science and Media Analysis Susan Banducci, Dan Stevens and Trevor Coan (Exeter)

3 Popular explanations of the referendum result

4 Mapping the vote (Benjamin Hennig) Data Source: UK Electoral Commission uploads/2016/06/eureferendumcartogram.png

5 Explanatory model British public depicted as deeply polarised: racial, ethnic, classed, socio-demographic, geographical and generational lines

6 Leavers & the white working class Depicted by media and commentators as: disenfranchised older generation living in post-industrial and/or rural areas anti-immigration loss of national sovereignty not well-educated left behinds and neglected by Westminster mistrusting of EU and of UK political elite

7 Remainers & liberal metropolitan elite Depicted by media and commentators as: South East of England younger demographic well-educated cosmopolitan elite enfranchised in & benefitting from knowledge economy banking/finance sectors perceives multiple risks to not being EU member state

8 Black and Asian Britons Depicted by media and commentators as: Speculative that vote was towards Remain camp and away from xenophobic undertones of Leave campaign (But supposition not always supported by ward-level analysis see Ehsan 2017) (And socio-economics as well as diaspora links matter)

9 Polarised, emotional, not just UK Authoritarian politics, nationalism, right-wing populism Parallels across parts of Europe and America

10 Why anthropology & ethnography? Currently, the explanatory model of Brexit Britain is based on large scale surveys and aggregate electoral data analysis Survey data useful for many things, but not able to explain what people in their everyday lives have to say Ethnography gives deeper human context, the contradictions, the embedded history behind

11 For example. Leave s broad-based coalition of voters The left behind, affluent Eurosceptics Hugh Gusterson s small-business owners, accountants, pharmacists, the petty bourgeoisie deeply alienated from distant bureaucracies [and] are particularly disposed to believe that their tax [monies] go to undeserving welfare cases (2017: 210) Ethnographic research by anthropologists of Britain Insa Koch (LSE) and Katherine Smith (Manchester) Koch (2017: 227, 228)=> deep-seated frustrations with government + austerity public-sector cuts penalising social-housing tenants & politicians who did not seem to care Brexit as a way to say no to a system of representative democracy that many have come to experiences in punitive terms (Koch 2017: 229)

12 Anthropology of Britain & Brexit Interconnections of inequalities, identities and the emotional register Run up to referendum and consequences of its outcome in context: complex national, regional and local histories tied into global processes of postcolonialsim, deindustrialisation, expansion of global trade changing context over time of economic migrants and refugees changing levels of social and economic inequalities/divisions in wealth Context also of British cultural forms of belonging and identity often expressed in terms of connection/disconnection to geographical places such as neighbourhoods, streets, villages, towns) to people including families, friends and neighbours kinship, collective memories, local histories, shared class identities, as well as identifications and dis-identifications to the nation

13 But also the media How do everyday uses of the media frame people s identity formation and questions of immigration, national and European belonging? Hochschild (2016 Strangers in Their Own Land) and significance of Fox News for Tea Party and Trump supporters part of their deep story Britain? How media message matter and are negotiated in relation to other forms of knowledge (Family? Friends? Neighbours?)

14 How? And with who? 12 months of community-based ethnographic fieldwork (participant observation and interviews), 6 sites nationally Range of ethnic identities (including white British, ethnic minorities including black, Asian and mixed-race Britons) Range of migration identities and citizenship (e.g. EU citizens, migrants who are not EU citizens, refugees) Range of ages and across various social classes Families and other social networks - how participants attitudes are shared and reproduced (or not) within families, across generations, amongst friendship networks and neighbours

15 What about the media research? Two stages: 1) Pre-fieldwork analysis to identify themes, images, tones and frames 2) Ethnographers will incorporate discussion of these frames into participant-observation & discuss daily media practices with participants

16 Three themes i) Identity formation: the ways in which individuals across differing identities and geographical locations share similar, overlapping or contrasting views on questions of immigration and national belonging; ii) Media narratives and practices: how these views resonate with the media narratives identified in the quantitative research, that will be contextualised in everyday media practices; iii) Emotion and affect: Attention will also be paid to the differing emotional and affective registers that shape people s engagements with what it means to belong (or not) to Britain and Europe, including trust (or not) in the media.

17 Newcastle and Sunderland Exeter and Devon Leicester and Boston, Lincolnshire Where?

18 Newcastle and Sunderland

19 Exeter and Devon uploads/2016/06/eureferendumcartogram.png Benjamin Hennig

20 Leicester and Boston