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The Return of ‘ E nglishness’ in B ritish Political Culture – The End of the Unions?
Author(s) -
Kenny Michael
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12203
Subject(s) - elite , politics , salient , interpretation (philosophy) , identity (music) , democracy , sociology , national identity , state (computer science) , political economy , corporate governance , political science , political culture , gender studies , law , aesthetics , economics , management , philosophy , algorithm , computer science , programming language
This article approaches the interpretation of elite and popular attitudes towards the U nited K ingdom's membership of the E uropean U nion through analysis of some of the rival perspectives on the national identity of the E nglish that have become increasingly salient during the last two decades. It highlights their role as sources of some of the most influential ideas about nationhood, governance and state now shaping public discourse on the UK 's membership of the EU . These include radical‐democratic, restorationist and A nglo‐ B ritish forms of patriotic discourse, which have prompted and responded to the growing prevalence of England as ‘an imagined community’ – a trend which has rendered other circles of attachment to the UK and Europe more tenuous and distant. A central conclusion of the article is that these emerging perspectives have spawned webs of belief that connect new and old ideas of nationhood to the political judgements that different actors are making about the EU .