Loughborough University
Browse

“Our nation’s future”: Youth visions of a post-Brexit Britain

Download (1.48 MB)
chapter
posted on 2019-02-25, 11:37 authored by Marco AntonsichMarco Antonsich, Peny Sotiropoulou, Leila Wilmers, Cuomu Zhaxi, Sophie-Louise Hyde
In 2016, in the so-called ‘Brexit’ referendum, the British electorate voted to leave the European Union (EU). In an age of connectivity, mobility and increasing diversity, the Brexit vote seems to have put the clock back, heralding the nation as a bastion against change. Given the fact that 75% of those aged 18–24 voted to remain in the EU, it is clear that young people hold different views compared to those of their parents and grand-parents. The aim of this chapter is to explore these views, mapping the different ways the nation is made meaningful by them. Focusing on a socially heterogeneous cohort of young people (aged 14–19) living in Loughborough, a market town in the East Midlands, which also voted to leave the EU, the paper analyses artworks and accompanying texts produced in schools and youth associations on the theme: ‘Our nations’ future’. Tracing the hopes for and concerns about a post-Brexit Britain, the chapter brings to the fore young people’s agency in uncertain and complex times, scrutinising how the nation becomes a vehicle to establish entitlement and belonging.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Geography and Environment

Citation

ANTONSICH, M. ... et al., 2019. “Our nation’s future”: Youth visions of a post-Brexit Britain. IN: Colombo, E. and Rebughini, P. (eds.) Youth and the Politics of the Present: Coping with Complexity and Ambivalence. London: Routledge, pp.165-180.

Publisher

Routledge

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Rights holder

© selection and editorial matter, Enzo Colombo and Paola Rebughini; individual chapters, the contributors

Publisher statement

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Publication date

2019-05-16

Copyright date

2019

ISBN

9780367150990; 9780429198267

Book series

Routledge Advances in Sociology;265

Language

  • en

Editor(s)

Enzo Colombo, Paola Rebughini

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC