Performance Research A Journal of the Performing Arts Letters from Europe (original) (raw)

Beyond Awkwardness: England, Europe and the End of Integration

The UK Challenge to Europeanization: the persistence of Euroscepticism, 2015

This chapter argues that we have moved beyond mere ‘awkwardness’ in United Kingdom-European Union relations and into something new. This argument is driven in part by a sense that what observers call the ‘Europeanisation’ of British politics has gone so far that European integration has altered the face of British politics in a fundamental way. It is also driven by the observation that it is increasingly difficult to see the politics of European integration and British disintegration as distinct and separate processes. The argument that we have moved ‘beyond awkwardness’ proceeds in two ways. Firstly that we have witnessed a fundamental change in British politics caused by European integration but concomitantly that resistance to European integration from Britain has altered the EU. Secondly, we have also seen the beginnings of a British re-orientation away from Europe and beyond the Atlantic towards the old Commonwealth and the so-called ‘Anglosphere’. Thus this chapter also argues that it is impossible to understand the politics of Britain’s place within the European Union without an understanding of the politics of nationalism within the United Kingdom. The move ‘beyond awkwardness’ in Europe is driven by the increasing awkwardness of the United Kingdom itself.

Facing Europe's British Question

A short essay for Queries Magazine. 'An EU referendum would change not only the UK and its place in the world but also the EU. We need to think through what the withdrawal of one of the largest states from Europe’s predominant organisation for politics, security and economics could mean for Britain and European geopolitics.'

Europhobes and Europhiles, Eurospats and Eurojibes Revisiting Britain’s EU debate, 2000–2016

Europhobes and Europhiles, Eurospats and Eurojibes Revisiting Britain’s EU debate, 2000–2016, 2018

This paper is an examination in three parts of the UK’s debate on membership of the European Union, before and immediately after the so-called ‘Brexit’ Referendum. The first part takes its cue from an article by Wolfgang Teubert which has exercised considerable influence in the field of corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS), namely, his examination of the language of EUscepticism in the UK (Teubert 2001). The aim of the CADS approach is the uncovering, in the discourse type under study, of non-obvious meanings and patterns of meanings, that is, meanings which might not be readily available to naked-eye perusal. Teubert’s paper was an inspiring example of these procedures. In the second part, a para-replication of Teubert’s work, we revisit attitudes to the EU as represented in sections of the UK press in 2013 (the year the British Prime Minister announced an “in-out” referendum on EU membership). The third section examines the themes debated immediately before and immediately after the referendum vote in June 2016. We also reflect on how the much-invoked notion of negative representation needs to be employed with care, particularly with regard to media discourses.

Constructions of Europe in the run-up to the EU referendum in the UK

Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 2018

The paper reports on a focus group study on representations of Europe, conducted in England in the run-up to the UK EU referendum. Four themes were identified in the analysis: 'cultured Europe'; 'little Europe/global Britain'; 'Europe as a cultural threat'; and 'Eastern vs. Western Europe'. Analysis of these themes showed that Europe was an ambivalent identity category that could encapsulate contrary ideas such as cosmopolitanism/isolationism and cultural enrichment/undermining. Europe's relation to Britain was also ambivalent in the data. Britain could be positioned as superior to Europe, sometimes being seen as closer to the 'European essence' in the context of the EU's eastward expansion, which was seen as diluting European culture. But, Britain could also be seen as backward compared to the idea of cosmopolitan continental Europe. These different lines of argument and their ideological underpinnings are explored in the discussion of the findings.

The UK idols and the EU institutions

This essay was written before the Lisbon Treaty came into force, but the European Constitution was rejected by way of referendum in France and the Netherlands. Keeping an eye on any sign of federalism, I tried to unveil the most striking peculiarities of the British legal and political culture> the symbols, the institutions, the idols, with the Queen above all else. In the second part, I have drafted a comparison to the EU institutions and legal system, seeking for possible common characteristics or, on the contrary, on their main divergence aspects/. Despite the fact that the interwar period acknowledged a UK's leading position and interest in the European unification projects, even for the federal variant, London has been reluctant to all the steps that followed the end of the world confrontation. The strong feeling of "otherness" together with that of greatness, coming out of Britain's proven capacity to oppose Hitler by itself for such a long time, turned to be strong reasons for them to believe they deserve at least, a leading position on the continent. For the entire the British performance meanwhile the war, they expected to be fully recognized as primum inter pares if not in a (morally, at least) hegemonic position. But Plan Marshall's requisites for some kind of united Europe as well as France's decision to cooperate with the Western part of Germany, left the British leaders alone not only on their island, but in their utopian dream. Instead of realizing a European unity against Germany, they were watching how Germany was supported both by the US (from whom UK expected largest assistance) and by France (which Churchill invited to set an anti-German alliance with). In this new context, the British leaders had to decide whether to accept an alliance and, thus, cooperation with their former enemy or to reinvent their entire foreign politics. The failure of The Free Trade European Association as well as the dissolution of the British Commonwealth placed the Westminster government in a very delicate position. "From a political point of view, the British space is a distinct part of the world-nor European, nor Asian, nor African, nor Australian or American, but simply, Britain. Its cohesion is not owed to any geographical connections, but to the community of language and culture of the dominant nation, as well as to the wisdom of its leaders." 2 Being so close related to its (ex-) colonies, The United Kingdom proves too large to be part of European Union, although its

Britain and Europe: A new settlement? EPC Challenge Europe 23, May 2016

2016

he Brexit referendum on 23 June is of the utmost importance for the future of both Britain and the EU, yet so far there has been an alarming lack of strategic vision and positive narratives about Britain’s historical and future role within Europe. This new EPC publication ‘Britain and Europe: A new settlement?’ draws on past experience to make the case for more positive British engagement with the EU. Contributions from fourteen prominent Britons* who have extensive first-hand experience of the EU institutions provide important insights into events which have shaped – and still shape – our Union. For those who are seeking information on what the EU actually does from those who have actually been involved in it, this is a must read. “This collection of elegant and forceful essays by people who actually know what they are talking about should raise the level of debate as we make a fateful decision in June on the future of Britain and Europe. If reason and evidence still count for anyt...