Uncovering the local factors that helped shape the Brexit referendum

Why was support for Brexit so widely divergent across the UK? Drawing on a new study, José Javier Olivas Osuna, Max Kiefel and Kira Gartzou-Katsouyanni illustrate that while a variety of economic and cultural explanations for the result have been put forward, these processes were shaped at the local level. They find that citizens with similar socio-demographic profiles adopted very different attitudes toward Brexit depending on the local context in which they lived

Place matters: analyzing the roots of political distrust and Brexit narratives at a local level

Based on comparative qualitative research in five local authority areas, this article argues that local context is key to understanding the roots of the U.K.’s crisis of political trust and the result of the 2016 E.U. referendum. The competing cultural and economic causes of discontent suggested by the literature were found to be deeply intertwined when analyzed from a local perspective. The sense of political disempowerment and negative attitudes toward migration were ingrained in and reinforced by locally specific socio-economic and political trajectories. These experiences were articulated and amplified by dominant discourses, which channeled frustration against the political elite and the E.U. These populist narratives, promoted by the Leave campaign and the tabloid press, became dominant in certain areas, decisively shaping citizens’ voting behavior. Overall, the article highlights the value of studying how local experiences and interpretations mediate the interplay of cultural and economic causes of discontent and political distrus

Voting for your pocketbook, but against your pocketbook? A study of Brexit at the local level

In explaining the outcome of the 2016 EU referendum in the United Kingdom, can theories emphasizing the importance of economic factors be reconciled with the fact that many people appeared to vote against their economic self-interest? This article approaches this puzzle through case study research that draws on fieldwork and a process of reciprocal knowledge exchange with local communities in five local authorities in England and Wales. It argues that the Leave vote can be attributed partly to political discontent associated with trajectories of relative economic decline and deindustrialization. Building on the growing literature about the role of narratives and discourses in navigating uncertainty, it contends that these localized economic experiences, interpreted through local-level narratives, paved the way for local-level discourses of resilience and nationwide optimistic messaging about the economic impacts of Brexit to resonate. Local and national-level discourses discounting the potential economic costs of leaving the European Union played a crucial role in giving precise, somewhat paradoxical, political content to the sense of discontent. The article contributes to the growing focus on place and community in understanding political behavior and invites further research on local discourses linking macro-level trajectories and micro-level voting decisions

Understanding Brexit: impacts at a local level: Pendle case study

The UK is in a critical juncture with regard to the process of negotiations to leave the European Union. Important discussions are taking place which will shape the future relation between Britain and the EU. The economic analyses published on the issue have, so far, largely failed to grasp the attention of the general public. Most of the discussions about Brexit have focused at a national level and there has been very little evidence-based discussion at a local level. This project aims at stimulating a reflexive participatory research process involving citizens, policy-makers, business people and civil-society representatives. It introduces an innovative methodology that contextualises quantitative data through expert interviews and the analysis of local sources. The reports and discussion panels organised within the framework of the project seek to increase our understanding about the impact of Brexit at a local level

Understanding Brexit: impacts at a local level: the London Borough of Barnet case study

The UK is in a critical juncture with regard to the process of negotiations to leave the European Union. Important discussions are taking place during 2018 which will shape the future relation between Britain and the EU. The economic analyses published on the issue have, so far, largely failed to grasp the attention of the general public. Most of the discussions about Brexit take place in what could be described as elite circles and tend to be London based; there has been very little evidence-based discussion at local levels. Moreover, one of the obstacles to local level evidence based discussions is a distrust of expert evidence

Understanding Brexit: impacts at a local level: Southampton case study

According to local experts and reports, only a ‘short-term slow growth’ is expected after Brexit as Southampton is not heavily dependent on EU funding or exposed to EU markets. A Brexit opportunity is to develop a skilled workforce able to compete internationally. Of the sectors identified, those that were most promising are transport and dock-related jobs. The area has individual industrial strengths that can offer opportunity under Brexit

Understanding Brexit: impacts at a local level: Mansfield case study

Mansfield was selected as a case study of a town that has undergone significant industrial restructuring during the last four decades, following the decline of traditional industries such as coal mining and textiles. Mansfield still faces acute challenges in terms of attracting high value-added businesses and increasing the skills and earnings of the local population. the remarkably high share of the Leave vote in the area cannot be understood without taking into consideration some structural characteristics of the Mansfield economy in the post-coal mining period

Understanding Brexit at a local level: causes of discontent and asymmetric impacts

The UK is in a critical juncture with regard to the process of negotiations to leave the European Union. Important discussions are taking place which will shape the future relation between Britain and the EU. The economic analyses published on the issue have, so far, largely failed to grasp the attention of the general public. Most of the discussions about Brexit have focused at a national level and there has been very little evidence-based discussion at a local level. This project aims at stimulating a reflexive participatory research process involving citizens, policy-makers, business people and civil-society representatives. It introduces an innovative methodology that contextualises quantitative data through expert interviews and the analysis of local sources. The reports and discussion panels organised within the framework of the project seek to increase our understanding about the impact of Brexit at a local leve

Labour Party leadership: can Keir Starmer really maintain party unity?

Keir Starmer convincingly won the leadership of the Labour Party, gaining strong support in the parliamentary Labour Party, unions and the membership. However, as the controversy over a leaked report into internal party disciplinary procedures shows, unity is not a given. Max Kiefel compares the challenges Starmer faces to the circumstances of his two predecessors as party leader, and argues that it is not enough to create party unity, he must also lead the party to respond effectively to the Covid-19 crisis

Leftism exhausted: the organisational constraints to ideological change in the British Labour party, 2010-2020

Why are left parties in a state of crisis? Existing explanations tend to explain this outcome through exogenous processes, like de-industrialisation and the expansion of education, that have re-aligned the structure of party competition by reducing demand for left parties. By implication, there is little that left parties can do in response. However, I argue that left parties’ historical growth and survival was contingent on their capacity to adapt to exogenous pressures. I synthesise articulation theory with an organisational approach to party politics, which provides me with the conceptual tools to identify a process whereby a party responds to a critical juncture that disarticulates its social bloc through ideological re-orientation. This is contingent on the emergence of new types of actors within a party’s power structure who provide new interpretations on the party’s social relations. This new internal dynamic must be institutionalised and legitimised across the party organisation. This process updates the party’s orientation and provides it with the relevant ideas to articulate a new social bloc. However, I argue that the way in which left parties cartelised in the 1990s creates in-built constraints that are centred on the hegemonic dominance of electoral professional elites, which prevents this process of orientation from unfolding. I apply this argument to the case of the British Labour party in the period 2010-2020. This is an important case as Labour was one of the few parties to attempt an avowed shift from a cartel organisational structure and Third Way orientation. I show that the cartel power structure enabled pre-existing elites to stymie both Ed Miliband’s reformist attempt at re-orientation, and Jeremy Corbyn’s more radical shift. The thesis is significant as it challenges behaviouralist accounts of left party decline. My findings have implications for our understanding of the place of mainstream parties in contemporary party systems and opens up questions over whether de-cartelisation is possible