Journal 6.1 released – Free download extended

Issue 6.1 of the International Journal of Social Quality has been published by Berghahn Journals.

An article on the social consequences of Brexit is available as a free download . Update: The availability of this free download has been extended over the next months, from February through June 2017.

This article is written by Steve Corbett, at Liverpool Hope University. The paper discusses how early analysis of the Brexit vote suggests that the far right have been able to mobilise a populist discourse, drawing on Euroscepticism, nationalism and social conservatism, in successfully achieving victory for the Brexiteers. Notwithstanding the carelessness of British political elites in holding an EU referendum in the particular socio-political circumstances of the UK currently, the vote also reveals deep societal division along the lines of age, education and skills, ethnicity, geography, income and wealth, and social values.

The fragmentation of British politics into ‘remain’ and ‘leave’ groups suggests also the emergence of cleavages between the old neoliberal order and emerging proto-nationalist/populist movements characterised by openness against closure, competition against division and exclusion, and technocratic economism against ‘post-truth’ ideologies.

The concern here is that an internationalist and democratic left wing alternative is not articulated. As a result, a social quality analysis of the UK post-Brexit is fundamental to develop alternative political, ecological and economic possibilities to the emerging political cleavages in the UK. This is also reflected in the forthcoming Post-Brexit Declaration on Social Quality in Europe.

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