230045 SE Reading Seminar: Sociologies of Brexit (2020S)

After much protracted debate and political conflict, 2020 sees the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, although the future relationship between the European Union and Britain remains unclear. Moreover, Britain remains a divided country over the question of Brexit and there is still no consensus among social scientists as to why a majority of Britons voted to leave the European Union in the EU-referendum in June 2016. In this Reading Seminar we will revisit the events, sites, processes and personalities that have shaped and are shaping societal transformation Britain is currently undergoing. Together we will construct a political sociology of Brexit in three steps. First, we will analyse the political fault-lines between so-called ‘Brexiteers’ and ‘Remainers’. Second, we will situate the Brexit phenomenon within the context of the social, economic and cultural transformation of Britain over the last thirty years and explain the Brexit vote in terms of central social-structural components, including class, ethnicity, age and region. We will also look at popular culture and representations of the Brexit phenomenon in film, literature and other cultural media. Third, we will explore how Britain’s Brexit crisis is at once unique to the British context, while it also articulates the crisis within the European Union. Therefore, we will place the events of the Brexit crisis within this broader European context and explore its meaning for the processes that European societies are currently experiencing.

Learning Outcomes
- Identify a sociological approach to the analysis of ‘Brexit’ (Britain’s 2016 EU-referendum and subsequent events)
- Differentiate between competing interpretations of the causes and consequences of the Brexit vote
- Interpret cultural representations of Brexit
- Evaluate the wider context of events and processes within Europe that relate to the Brexit phenomenon