Webinar: Northern Exposure - (Red) Walls, (Brexit) Borders and (Pandemic) Politics

This free online webinar is hosted by the Northern Exposure project.

We are pleased to welcome authors Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford (University of Manchester) to our online web-seminar to present their new book:

BREXITLAND: IDENTITY, DIVERSITY AND THE RESHAPING OF BRITISH POLITICS, (Cambridge University Press) Published 30 Sept 2020

Long-term social and demographic changes - and the conflicts they create - continue to transform British politics. In this accessible and authoritative book Sobolewska and Ford show how deep the roots of this polarisation and volatility run, drawing out decades of educational expansion and rising ethnic diversity as key drivers in the emergence of new divides within the British electorate over immigration, identity and diversity. They argue that choices made by political parties from the New Labour era onwards have mobilised these divisions into politics, first through conflicts over immigration, then through conflicts over the European Union, culminating in the 2016 EU referendum. Providing a comprehensive and far-reaching view of a country in turmoil, Brexitland explains how and why this happened, for students, researchers, and anyone who wants to better understand the remarkable political times in which we live.

Discussants:

• Dr Roxana Barbulescu (Northern Exposure)
• Derek Whyte (Independent local government expert, formerly Preston City Council)

Chair:

• Professor Adrian Favell (PI, Northern Exposure)

Advance reading:

'British cultural wars? Brexit and the future politics of immigration and ethnic diversity'

Political Quarterly, 90,S2 (April 2019), 242-254

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.12646 (free access, or available on request)

Attendance:

Please confirm your attendance with Charlotte Ball. The webinar will take place on MS Teams – you will receive a joining link upon registering to attend.