scholarly journals Political Reactionism as Affective Practice: UKIP Supporters and Non-Voters in Pre-Brexit England

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Brent Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Collective Emotions ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Eu Referendum ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) supporters and non-voters in England participate respectively in forms of engaged and disengaged anti-political activity, but the role of individual, group-based, and collective emotions is still unclear. Drawing upon recent analyses of the complex emotional dynamics (e.g., <em>ressentiment</em>) underpinning the growth of right-wing populist political movements and support for parties such as UKIP, this analysis explores the affective features of reactionary political stances. The framework of affective practices is used to show how resentful affects are created, facilitated, and transformed in sharing or suppressing populist political views and practices; that is, populism is evident not only in the prevalence and influence of illiberal and anti-elite discourses but also should be explored as it is embodied and enacted in “past focused” and “change resistant” everyday actions and in relation to opportunities that “sediment” affect-laden political positions and identities. Reflexive thematic analysis of data from qualitative interviews with UKIP voters and non-voters (who both supported leaving the EU) in 2015 after the UK election but before the EU referendum vote showed that many participants: 1) shared “condensed” complaints about politics and enacted resentment towards politicians who did not listen to them, 2) oriented towards shameful and purportedly shameless racism about migrants, and 3) appeared to struggle with shame and humiliation attributed to the EU in a complex combination of transvaluation of the UK and freedom of movement, a nostalgic need for restoration of national pride, and endorsement of leaving the EU as a form of “change backwards.”

UKIP supporters and non-voters in England 2015: reactionism as pre-Brexit affective practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Brent Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Community Solidarity ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

UKIP supporters and non-voters in England are often identified as groups that respectively participate in forms of engaged and disengaged “unhealthy” anti-political activity. The analysis draws upon recent complex emotion frameworks (e.g., resentment, ressentiment) that underpin the growth of right-wing political movements and parties and understand this development in terms of political reactionism rather than populism. I argue that the concept of affective practices can play a critical role in exploring how resentful affects are created, shared or suppressed and facilitated, mobilized or transformed; that is, not just through the influence and performance of anti-elite discourses but also as they are embodied and enacted in a wide range of everyday actions and opportunities to “sediment” affect-laden political positions and identities. Data from qualitative interviews with UKIP voters and in-depth discussions with non-voters in 2015 after the UK Election were examined in order to answer the following research questions taking into account the different affect-laden and focused practices that afford and shape political reactionism in these two groups: what role do contrasting experiences of shame, loss and possible ressentiment play in relation to deliberative democratic opportunities (e.g., elections versus the EU Referendum) and what forms of “change backwards” do reactionists want to enact? Reflexive thematic analysis revealed heterogeneous non-voting and UKIP supporting stances while also demonstrating how most members of both groups came to anticipate a vote to leave the EU as a chance to address an ongoing lack of political efficacy and affective dilemmas of community solidarity and nationhood.

EU Migrant Workers, Brexit and Precarity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva A. Duda-Mikulin
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Women Migrants ◽  
Eu Referendum ◽  
Migrants Rights ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

In June 2016, after 43 years as part of the European community, the UK people decided to leave. In March 2017, the UK Prime Minister officially started the process of Brexit – the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. While Brexit was decided by a relatively small margin of people, one issue was key in the debates preceding the EU referendum. This was migration. People have been migrating since the beginning of time but today the issue of migration has been elevated to a key national concern. It is now one of the most contentious and divisive matters in the UK. This book investigates EU women migrants’ perspectives on the Brexit vote in the UK. It presents accounts from EU nationals and considers the wider implications in relation to precarity and the British paid labour market. This book offers important insights into the world of the UK paid labour but from the point of view of EU migrants and more specifically Polish women whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the Brexit vote and the decision that the UK should leave the EU whilst any solid guarantees with regards to migrants’ rights are yet to come from the UK government. Through analysis of new data generated in qualitative interviews, this book makes an original and grounded contribution to understanding the significance and impacts of the result of the Brexit referendum on migrant workers from the EU resident in the UK.

Facing forwards, looking backwards: Coming to terms with continuing uneven development in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The North ◽  
Political Response ◽  
The Uk ◽  
North And South ◽  
The Eu

At a time of major changes in the geography of the global economy, and following the major financial and economic crises of 2007/2008, the European Union (EU) is marked by deepening uneven economic development, between and within the territories of its 28 (for now) member states. This is one expression of neo-liberalisation as the dominant political force in the EU, combined with deep austerity policies in response to the crises of 2007/2008. Within the Eurozone, a common currency without a common fiscal policy further intensified inequalities, especially between the economies of the north and south of the EU. These developments had profound political ramifications as the promise of increasing economic growth and material well-being has been rudely shattered for many people and unemployment, poverty and ill-being have burgeoned in many parts of the EU. The political response to this – in ways reminiscent of the 1930s – has been a resurgence of regressive virulent right-wing nationalisms, sometimes with fascistic tendencies, as people have come to see the EU, and neoliberal globalisation, as inimical to their interests. This tendency has been further intensified by inflows of migrants and refugees, many in response to neo-imperialist ventures in the Middle East. This is most starkly (so far) the case in the UK, leading to the British Exit from the European Community (BREXIT) vote to leave the EU. There are counter-tendencies, locally based political movements that espouse a more humane social democratic model of the EU, but there seems little chance of these cohering politically to challenge the dominant view.

scholarly journals The EU Referendum and Experiences and Fear of Ethnic and Racial Harassment: Variation Across Individuals and Communities in England

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alita Nandi ◽  
Renee Reichl Luthra
Keyword(s):  
Public Spaces ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Buffering Effect ◽  
Racial Harassment ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Eu Referendum ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Party Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

This paper uses nationally representative, longitudinal data to examine experiences and fear of ethnic and racial harassment in public spaces among minorities in the UK, comparing levels of both before and after the 2016 EU Referendum. We do not find an increase in the prevalence of ethnic and racial harassment, but we do find higher levels of fear of ethnic and racial harassment in the period after the Referendum. The increase in fear following the vote was concentrated among more privileged individuals: those with higher levels of education, and those living in less socioeconomically deprived areas with lower levels of previous right-wing party support. We conclude that the Referendum exacerbated already higher levels of perceived discrimination among higher educated minorities while reducing the buffering effect of residence in “safe areas.”

scholarly journals Migration infrastructures and the production of migrants’ irregularity in Japan and the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nando Sigona ◽  
Jotaro Kato ◽  
Irina Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Legal Violence ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Access And Quality ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe article examines the migration infrastructures and pathways through which migrants move into, through and out of irregular status in Japan and the UK and how these infrastructures uniquely shape their migrant experiences of irregularity at key stages of their migration projects.Our analysis brings together two bodies of migration scholarship, namely critical work on the social and legal production of illegality and the impact of legal violence on the lives of immigrants with precarious legal status, and on the role of migration infrastructures in shaping mobility pathways.Drawing upon in-depth qualitative interviews with irregular and precarious migrants in Japan and the UK collected over a ten-year period, this article develops a three-pronged analysis of the infrastructures of irregularity, focusing on infrastructures of entry, settlement and exit, casting a comparative light on the mechanisms that produce precarious and expendable migrant lives in relation to access to labour and labour conditions, access and quality of housing and law enforcement, and how migrants adapt, cope, resist or eventually are overpowered by them.

The UK as victim and hero in the Sun’s coverage of the Brexit ‘humiliation’

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-662
Author(s):  
Franco Zappettini
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Tabloid Journalism ◽  
Tabloid Press ◽  
The Eu

This paper discusses how emotions were mobilised by the British tabloid press as discursive strategies of persuasion during the public debate on the implementation of Brexit. Using the case study of the Suns coverage of the alleged UKs humiliation at the Salzburg meeting (2018) during the Brexit negotiations, the analysis addresses the questions of how and through which linguistic means actors and events were framed discursively in such an article. The findings suggest that The Sun elicited emotions of fear, frustration, pride, and freedom to frame Brexit along a long-established narrative of domination and national heroism. The discourse was also sustained by a discursive prosody in keeping with a satirical genre and a populist register that have often characterised the British tabloid press. In particular the linguistic analysis has shown how antagonistic representations of the UK and the EU were driven by an allegory of incompetent gangsterism and morally justified resistance. Emotionalisation in the article was thus aimed both at ridiculing the EU and at representing it as a criminal organisation. Such framing was instrumental in pushing the newspaper agenda as much as in legitimising and institutionalising harder forms of Brexit with the tabloids readership. Approaching journalist discourse at the intersection of affective, stylistic, and political dimensions of communication, this paper extends the body of literature on the instrumental use of emotive arguments and populist narratives and on the wider historical role of tabloid journalism in representing political relations. between the UK and the EU.

Notes on the ECHR and the Disunited Kingdom ‘After’ Brexit – In memoriam Scott Crosby

2020 ◽  
pp. 203228442097693
Author(s):  
Gavin Robinson
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
European Convention ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Time Record ◽  
Eu Referendum ◽  
In Memoriam ◽  
European Criminal Law ◽  
The Eu

When the idea of this special edition occurred to the team behind the New Journal of European Criminal Law, my first thought was to go back through all of Scott Crosby’s contributions in print as editor-in-chief and see whether a mini-retrospective on the themes and views therein would be worthy of inclusion here – by Scott’s own standards. These notes focus on what gradually became the single biggest concern expressed in Scott’s editorials: the perilous position of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in a post-Brexit UK – in concreto, the prospect of what he labelled ‘Brexit plus’: a British exit from the ECHR system. I begin with Scott’s views on the European Union (EU) Referendum and the Brexit process. Next comes the great uncertainty currently surrounding the future of Convention rights in the United Kingdom, set against the emphasis placed by the editorials on the instrumental role of the ECHR in fostering peace across the whole of Europe, within and beyond the territory of the EU. In the event that Brexit plus should materialise, writing in the wake of polls showing all-time record support in Scotland for secession from the United Kingdom I close by asking whether Scotland might be able to ‘leave a light on for Strasbourg’.

scholarly journals Can Indicators Bridge the Gap between Science and Policy? An Exploration into the (Non)Use and (Non)Influence of Indicators in EU and UK Policy Making

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léa Sébastien ◽  
Tom Bauler ◽  
Markku Lehtonen
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Science And Policy ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Energy Indicators ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Evidence For Policy ◽  
The Eu

This article examines the various roles that indicators, as boundary objects, can play as a science-based evidence for policy processes. It presents two case studies from the EU-funded POINT project that analyzed the use and influence of two highly different types of indicators: composite indicators of sustainable development at the EU level and energy indicators in the UK. In both cases indicators failed as direct input to policy making, yet they generated various types of conceptual and political use and influence. The composite sustainable development indicators served as “framework indicators”, helping to advocate a specific vision of sustainable development, whereas the energy indicators produced various types of indirect influence, including through the process of indicator elaboration. Our case studies demonstrate the relatively limited importance of the characteristics and quality of indicators in determining the role of indicators, as compared with the crucial importance of “user factors” (characteristics of policy actors) and “policy factors” (policy context).

scholarly journals Rhythm Politics in a Changing Brazil: A Study of the Musical Mobilization of Voters by Bolsonaro and Haddad in the 2018 Election

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjetil Klette Bøhler
Keyword(s):  
Political Movements ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Public Events ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Right ◽  
Musical Rhythms

This article investigates the role of music in presidential election campaigns and political movements inspired by theoretical arguments in Henri Lefebvre’s Rhythmanalysis, John Dewey ́s pragmatist rethinking of aesthetics and existing scholarship on the politics of music. Specifically, it explores how musical rhythms and melodies enable new forms of political awareness, participation, and critique in an increasingly polarized Brazil through an ethnomusicological exploration of how left-wing and right-wing movements used music to disseminate politics during the 2018 election that culminated in the presidency of Jair Messias Bolsonaro. Three lessons can be learned. First, in Brazil, music breathes life, energy, and affective engagement into politics—sung arguments and joyful rhythms enrich public events and street demonstrations in complex and dynamic ways. Second, music is used by right-wing and left-wing movements in unique ways. For Bolsonaro supporters and right-wing movements, jingles, produced as part of larger election campaigns, were disseminated through massive sound cars in the heart of São Paulo while demonstrators sang the national anthem and waved Brazilian flags. In contrast, leftist musical politics appears to be more spontaneous and bohemian. Third, music has the ability to both humanize and popularize bolsonarismo movements that threaten human rights and the rights of ethnic minorities, among others, in contemporary Brazil. To contest bolsonarismo, Trumpism, and other forms of extreme right-wing populism, we cannot close our ears and listen only to grooves of resistance and songs of freedom performed by leftists. We must also listen to the music of the right.

scholarly journals A Corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of the Discursive Representation of Immigration in the EU Referendum Debate

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebtisam Saleh Aluthman
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Daily News ◽  
Concordance Analysis ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Eu Referendum ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

This paper presents a critical account of the representation of immigration in the Brexit corpus—a collective corpus of 108,452,923 words compiled mostly from blogs, tweets, and daily news related to Brexit debate. The study follows the methodological synergy approach proposed by Baker et al. (2008), a heuristic methodological approach that combines methods of discourse analysis and corpus-assisted statistical tools including keyword, collocation, and concordance analysis. Drawing on this methodological synergy approach, the investigation yields significant findings contextualized within the socio-economic-political context of the European Union (EU) leave referendum to trace how the issue of immigration is represented in the discourses of the Remain and Leave campaigns. The frequency results show that immigration is one of the most salient topics in the Brexit corpus. Concordance analysis of the word immigrants and collocation investigation of the word immigration reveal opposing attitudes toward immigration in the EU referendum debate. The analysis uncovers negative attitudes toward the uncontrolled flow of immigrants from other EU countries and public concerns about immigrants' negative impacts on wages, education, and health services. Other findings reveal positive attitudes toward immigrants emphasizing their positive contributions to the UK economy. The study concludes with an argument of the significant association between the political and socio-economic ideologies of a particular society and the language communicated in its media.

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