Abstract:A B S T R A C TTwo themes, temporality and cosmopolitanism, repeatedly arose during conversations in Scotland with people who favored remaining in the European Union. The 2016 referendum's result in favor of leaving the European Union has affected how they think about their temporal trajectories and what they might do to maintain their cosmopolitan ideals, which are now deeply shaken. Both Scots and non-UK EU nationals living in Scotland must confront the uncertainty of what impact Brexit will have on the free… Show more
“…But the anger and passion that have been unleashed by the referendum indicate that Brexit was a cataclysmic moment for many citizens to articulate a host of frustrations and possibilities that go far beyond any questions of the European Union. This was the case not only for those who voted in favor of leaving but also for those who voted to remain (Knight ).…”
The result of the United Kingdom's EU referendum has been interpreted as evidence of a “culture war” between proponents of liberal cosmopolitanism and defenders of socially conservative values. According to this interpretation, voters on both sides are seen as driven by identity‐based politics. But on a council estate (social‐housing project) in England, what made the EU referendum different from an ordinary election was that citizens perceived it as an opportunity to reject government as they know it. Citizens’ engagements with the referendum constitute attempts to insert everyday moralities into electoral processes. They provide an opening into alternative, if yet unknown, futures that go beyond any singular narratives that divide the electorate into camps of so‐called Leavers and Remainers.
“…But the anger and passion that have been unleashed by the referendum indicate that Brexit was a cataclysmic moment for many citizens to articulate a host of frustrations and possibilities that go far beyond any questions of the European Union. This was the case not only for those who voted in favor of leaving but also for those who voted to remain (Knight ).…”
The result of the United Kingdom's EU referendum has been interpreted as evidence of a “culture war” between proponents of liberal cosmopolitanism and defenders of socially conservative values. According to this interpretation, voters on both sides are seen as driven by identity‐based politics. But on a council estate (social‐housing project) in England, what made the EU referendum different from an ordinary election was that citizens perceived it as an opportunity to reject government as they know it. Citizens’ engagements with the referendum constitute attempts to insert everyday moralities into electoral processes. They provide an opening into alternative, if yet unknown, futures that go beyond any singular narratives that divide the electorate into camps of so‐called Leavers and Remainers.
“…Thus, since the 1980s, the Democratic Party has backed away from its New Deal alliance with (declining) labor unions, embraced the deregulatory policies sought by major donors, built a donor alliance with the titans of the “knowledge economy” and the professionals who work for them, and created a new progressive politics that deemphasizes blue‐collar economic issues in favor of pluralistic identity politics. Under Tony Blair, Britain's Labour Party executed the same maneuver (Driver and Martell ; Evans , ; Knight ). Mocking the Democratic Party as “the party of Martha's Vineyard,” Frank () argues that the university‐educated professionals at its heart see social and economic hierarchy not in terms of class politics but meritocracy: To the liberal class, every big economic problem is really an education problem, a failure by the losers to learn the right skills and get the credentials everyone knows you'll need in the society of the future.…”
Section: The Blue‐collar Narrativementioning
confidence: 99%
“…To give just one example, in the United Kingdom the wealthy were more likely to vote against Brexit than their US counterparts were to vote against Trump, and xenophobia there focused more on legal immigrants than in the United States (Martin ). Nevertheless, there arefamily resemblances between the agendas and styles of diverse nationalist populist movements: a hostility toward (at least some) immigrants and ethnic others, especially Muslims (Evans ; Makovicky ; Shoshan ); a claim to speak for working people, whose interests are no longer well represented by traditional parties of the Left (Evans ; Gingrich and Banks ; Jansen ; Kalb ; Walley ); an insistence that established government institutions have become corrupt or unresponsive to ordinary people (Balthazar ; Knight ; Koch , ; Mikus ; Mollona ; Smith ); an attack on transnational organizations such as the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization (Eriksen ; Shore ); a disparagement of cosmopolitan elites; and a call for a return to (an invented) “tradition” (Knight ).…”
Brexit and Donald Trump's election victory are symptoms of a new nationalist populism in western Europe and the United States. This political and ideological movement has arisen in reaction to reconfigurations of power, wealth, and identity that are endemic to global neoliberalism. In the United States, however, the media's dominant “blue‐collar narrative” about Trump's victory simplifies the relationship between neoliberalism and nationalist populism by ignoring the role of the petty bourgeoisie and the wealthy in Trump's coalition. An anthropology of Trump requires ethnographies of communities largely shunned by anthropologists as well as reflexivity about the unintended role of universities in producing support for Trump.
“…Brexit has brought the 'problem' of immigration and British ethnic nationalism to the fore of political debate, allowing the SNP to reinforce their position as a contrasting civic nationalist movement which unconditionally embraces the cosmopolitan European project (Knight 2017). Although both the Brexit and independence referenda were rooted in the same feelings of alienation from the distant political other (Europe and Westminster), the campaigns were fought on vastly different temporal orientations.…”
In the midst of chaotic Brexit negotiations and the failing political processes of Westminster, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is preparing to call a new independence referendum, arguing that Scotland should not be taken out of Europe against its will. As the SNP begins campaigning for a new referendum, two different visions of Scotland’s independent future emerge: one based on concrete economic and welfare policies championed by the party, the other, an unofficial activist‐driven orientation of the future as ‘empty’. The first makes the future tangible, populated with wishful images and achievable goals. The second promises the future as a blank slate, to be authored only after a successful independence vote. These two orientations exist in tension with one another, in continuous negotiation as they are played out on the SNP campaign trail.
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