From Brexit to the Break-Up of … England? Thinking in and Beyond the Nation

Abstract

The chapter sets the experience of Brexit in the context of the UK’s reshaping and redefinition over recent decades, with a particular focus on the troubled (re)emergence of ‘England’ as an imagined political territory. It analyses Brexit as a symptom of the political, economic and social geography of the UK, particularly its uneven development in a spatial polity dominated by London and the South East of England. The divisions within the UK were reflected in the voting patterns of the 2016 referendum and this may have significant implications for the UK’s future as a multinational state, and particularly for England as a central pillar of that state. The chapter explores some of the key factors that underlay the geographical patterns of the ways in which England and its regions voted in the referendum, highlighting the importance of uneven development in generating significant political outcomes and embedding social difference in place.