Britain under Brexit
On 8 July 2016, English Conversation Club for Sociologists located at the Institute of Sociology held a round table on the occasion of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. Ukrainian sociologists together with their colleagues from University of Bedfordshire and University of...
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Iнститут соціології НАН України
2016
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| Назва видання: | Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг |
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| Цитувати: | Britain under Brexit // Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг. — 2016. — № 4. — С. 227-231. — англ. |
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irk-123456789-1820552021-12-11T01:26:12Z Britain under Brexit Научная жизнь On 8 July 2016, English Conversation Club for Sociologists located at the Institute of Sociology held a round table on the occasion of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. Ukrainian sociologists together with their colleagues from University of Bedfordshire and University of Glasgow discussed the EU referendum results and tried to envision how post-Brexit Europe 'would look like. 2016 Article Britain under Brexit // Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг. — 2016. — № 4. — С. 227-231. — англ. 1563-4426 http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/182055 uk Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг Iнститут соціології НАН України |
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Научная жизнь Научная жизнь |
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Научная жизнь Научная жизнь Britain under Brexit Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг |
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On 8 July 2016, English Conversation Club for Sociologists located at the Institute of Sociology held a round table on the occasion of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. Ukrainian sociologists together with their colleagues from University of Bedfordshire and University of Glasgow discussed the EU referendum results and tried to envision how post-Brexit Europe 'would look like. |
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Article |
| title |
Britain under Brexit |
| title_short |
Britain under Brexit |
| title_full |
Britain under Brexit |
| title_fullStr |
Britain under Brexit |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Britain under Brexit |
| title_sort |
britain under brexit |
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Iнститут соціології НАН України |
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2016 |
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Научная жизнь |
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http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/182055 |
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Britain under Brexit // Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг. — 2016. — № 4. — С. 227-231. — англ. |
| series |
Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг |
| first_indexed |
2025-07-16T00:03:05Z |
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2025-07-16T00:03:05Z |
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1837759662377664512 |
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Britain under Brexit
Britain under Brexit
ACADEMIC LIFE
Brit ain un der Brexit
On 8 July 2016, Eng lish Con ver sa tion Club for So ci ol o gists lo cated at the In sti tute of So -
ci ol ogy held a round ta ble on the oc ca sion of the United King dom’s with drawal from the Eu -
ro pean Un ion. Ukrai nian so ci ol o gists to gether with their col leagues from Uni ver sity of Bed -
ford shire and Uni ver sity of Glas gow dis cussed the EU ref er en dum re sults and tried to en vi -
sion how post-Brexit Eu rope would look like.
C
OL’HA BUROVA, (mod er a tor), PhD in So ci ol ogy, Re search Fel low of the De part -
ment of Socio- Po lit i cal Pro cesses, In sti tute of So ci ol ogy of the Na tional Acad emy of Sci -
ences of Ukraine
What do we mean when we say “Brexit”? Some peo ple just re gard it as Brit ain’s exit
from the EU, while oth ers ex pect in ev i ta ble changes in the global econ omy and pol i tics.
To day we are go ing to dis cuss why and how Brit ain de cided to leave the Eu ro pean
Un ion.
In fact, the EU ref er en dum re vealed how sharply the coun try had been di vided along
re gional, class and age lines. For ex am ple, Eng land voted strongly for Brexit by 53.4% to
46.6%; Wales also sup ported “Leave” by 52.5% to 47.5%. Scot land and North ern Ire land
in stead voted to stay in the EU: Scot land backed “Re main” by 62% to 38%, 55.8% of
North ern Ire land also cast their votes for “Re main” and 44.2% for “Leave”.
Dif fer ent socio-de mo graphic groups also voted dif fer ently. As for the age, the older
the vot ers, the more likely they were to have voted to leave the EU. Nearly three quar ters
(73%) of 18- to 24-year-olds voted to re main, fall ing to un der two-thirds (62%) among
25-34s. A ma jor ity of those aged over 45 voted to leave, ris ing to 60% of those aged 65 or
over. Most peo ple with chil dren aged ten or youn ger voted to re main; most of those with
chil dren aged 11 or older voted to leave.
So, why did Brit ain end up vot ing to leave the EU? To find an an swer to this ques tion,
we need to look back on Brit ain un der Mar ga ret Thatcher’s pre mier ship in the 1980s.
Thatcher set Brit ain on a new eco nomic course: the gov ern ment was bet ting on free en ter -
prise and in di vid ual ini tia tive, strict gov ern ment reg u la tions of busi ness were abol ished,
the share of pub lic sec tor was re duced while the pri vate one re mark ably ex panded. The
im mense so cial and eco nomic changes wrought by Thatcherism are likely to have a pro -
found im pact even on to day’s Brit ain. Thatcher is seen as a pow er ful pol i ti cian who “made
Brit ain great again” — de spite the fact that the num ber of un em ployed rose from 1 to 3 mil -
lion in three years af ter she had be come prime min is ter. There fore, the EU ref er en dum re -
sults are not very sur pris ing. Per haps, the Brit ish hope that Brit ain will re cover past glory
through Brexit.
One of the big gest risks to the EU is that the Brexit ne go ti a tions will drag on for
years, be ing added to a long list of never-end ing Euro-zone cri ses such as Greek de fault,
im mi gra tion chal lenges, an un re solved eco nomic cri sis and con stant ter ror ist threats.
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 4 227
How ever, the Eu ro pean Un ion law will be in ef fect in Brit ain un til it ceases be ing a mem -
ber, and this pro cess could take some time. The UK will con tinue to abide by the EU trea -
ties and laws, but not take part in any de ci sion-mak ing.
C
NATALIA BOIKO, PhD in Sociology, Senior Research Fellow of the Department of
Social Psychology, Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of
Ukraine
Be ing a so ci ol o gist and so cial psy chol o gist, I am in ter ested not only in po lit i cal but
also in so cial as pects of Brexit. I would like to share my views con cern ing the cur rent sit u -
a tion in the UK (shortly af ter the EU ref er en dum) and some pos si ble con se quences of
Brexit. Hav ing ana lysed the Brit ish pub lic’s re ac tion to the ref er en dum re sults, I can con -
clude that to day’s so cial sit u a tion in the UK is char ac ter ised by con sid er able in sta bil ity
and so cial ten sion. In fact, the Brexit ref er en dum has di vided Brit ish so ci ety into two op -
pos ing parts ac cord ing to socio-de mo graphic char ac ter is tics of vot ers. We can see the fol -
low ing pic ture: Scot land against Eng land, pro vin cial Eng land against Lon don, the rich
against the poor (“If you’ve got money, you vote in, if you have n’t got money, you vote
out”) and (the most no tice able dif fer ence) the young against the old. Such a sharp di vide
may lead to even more in sta bil ity and so cial ten sion. An other fact de serv ing at ten tion is
that the day af ter the Brexit ref er en dum the Brit ish peo ple ac tively searched the Internet
for in for ma tion about the Eu ro pean Un ion and con se quences of the UK’s exit from the
EU. So, they might have voted emo tion ally rather than ra tio nally.
I think that the de ci sion made by Brit ons will def i nitely urge so ci ol o gists, psy chol o -
gists and so cial work ers to study so cial as pects of Brexit.
C
TETIANA PETRUSHINA, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Senior Research Fellow,
Head of the Department of Economic Sociology, Institute of Sociology of the National
Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Across the world, peo ple have been watch ing the choice made by Brit ain. They are
try ing to un der stand how Brexit re sults will in flu ence dif fer ent as pects of life not only in
the Eu ro pean Un ion and Great Brit ain but also in ev ery coun try of our globalising world,
in clud ing Ukraine.
Brexit pro po nents say that the EU can not pro tect its cit i zens from risks as so ci ated
with globalisation. They draw at ten tion to mul ti ple chal lenges fac ing the EU to day: lin -
ger ing fi nan cial and eco nomic cri sis, im mi gra tion prob lems, a per ceived asym me try be -
tween con tri bu tions to the EU bud get and mem ber ship ben e fits, con flicts be tween dif fer -
ent Eu ro pean coun tries, etc. They also com plain about over-bureaucratisation of the EU
in sti tu tions.
There is an other is sue that needs to be ad dressed: the prin ci ples that the un ion like
this should be based on (equal ity, mu tual ben e fit and re spect).
At the mo ment, it seems quite dif fi cult to make a clear and un am big u ous eval u a tion of
the cur rent sit u a tion. Ana lys ing the world af ter Brexit and pre dict ing the con se quences of
this his tor i cal event re quires tak ing into ac count all as pects, such as eco nomic, fi nan cial,
po lit i cal, geopolitical, cul tural, ideo log i cal, etc., with due re gard to na tional and in ter na -
tional se cu rity is sues.
The EU ref er en dum has given a snap shot of to day’s Brit ish so ci ety. Brit ons are di -
vided over the EU mem ber ship; fur ther more, the num ber of EU sup port ers is nearly equal
to the num ber of Euroscepticists. Both so cial classes and gen er a tions are split: pen sion ers
over whelm ingly backed Brexit while young Brits tried in vain to save the coun try’s EU
mem ber ship. 52% of those aged 35–44, 62% of 25–34s and 73% of 18- to 24-year-olds
voted to re main. Their de ci sion should be re spected since they are ac tive mem bers of Brit -
ish so ci ety to day and will de ter mine the coun try’s fu ture.
228 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 4
Britain under Brexit
The EU ref er en dum can be re garded ei ther as a man i fes ta tion of real de moc racy or as
a fail ure of the pol icy pur sued by the Brit ish au thor i ties. Some an a lysts as cribe the suc cess
of the “Leave” cam paign to a well thought-out strat egy of the main driv ing forces of cap i -
tal ist globalisation. Any way, only time will give the an swers to some of the nu mer ous
tricky ques tions re lated to Brexit.
C
ANDRII MALIUK, PhD in Sociology, Senior Research Fellow of the Department of
Economic Sociology, Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of
Ukraine
The UK’s with drawal from the Eu ro pean Un ion has re sulted from the ever-deep en -
ing con tra dic tions of global cap i tal ism. It has also ex posed the fault lines in the EU pro ject
it self. On the one hand, Brit ain’s de ci sion to leave the EU is a con se quence of inter-elite
con flicts; on the other hand, it is caused by the op po si tion be tween the trans-na tional cap -
i tal ist elite and dem o crat i cally in clined masses in the EU. In this re gard, Brexit is a re -
sponse of those so cial groups of Brit ish so ci ety to which the pro ject of neo-lib eral Eu ro -
pean in te gra tion is det ri men tal.
As far as fi nan cial cap i tal is con cerned, the ad van tages of the EU mem ber ship look
less con vinc ing to Brit ain to day. Most of the ini tial gains from re mov ing bar ri ers to trade,
in vest ment and la bour mo bil ity within the EU have been ex hausted. Now the cap i tal
needs in vest ing on a wider sphere, and the sales mar kets need new op por tu ni ties as well.
How ever, Brexit is not the pan a cea it might seem. There is a myth that if the UK left
the Eu ro pean Un ion, it could have as good con di tions for for eign trade as it had while be -
ing an EU mem ber and, at the same time, would not have to fol low all the EU reg u la tions
and pay any thing to the EU bud get. But the ex pe ri ence of Nor way and Swit zer land in ne -
go ti at ing trade agree ments with the Eu ro pean Un ion shows that any agree ment im poses
cer tain ob li ga tions. De spite not be ing EU mem bers, Nor way and Swit zer land must im ple -
ment all the EU mar ket rules, stan dards and reg u la tions with out res er va tion. These coun -
tries must agree to trans late all rel e vant EU laws into their do mes tic leg is la tion with out
con sult ing their cit i zens. They are con tri bu tors to the EU bud get. Be sides, they must ac -
cept mi grants as the EU coun tries do. So, Brit ain is rather un likely to gain fi nan cially from
Brexit. Leav ing the EU will hardly gen er ate sub stan tial fis cal sav ings for the UK gov ern -
ment and tax pay ers. All this is de ter mined by Brit ain’s po si tion in the sys tem of in ter na -
tional eco nomic re la tions rather than by Eu ro pean in te gra tion.
Brit ish cap i tal ism is in creas ingly turn ing into a kind of rentier econ omy, gain ing sur -
plus value not from pro duc ing goods and ser vices and sell ing them at home and abroad but
mainly from act ing as a banker, an in ves tor or a busi ness ad vi sor for for eign cap i tal ists,
thereby col lect ing in ter ests on loans and ac cu mu lat ing rents. It means that Brit ain should
im port more and more goods and pay for them with money gained from pro vid ing fi nan -
cial and busi ness ser vices. It also means that the coun try is de pend ent on the will ing ness
of for eign cap i tal ists to put their money into banks and fi nan cial in sti tu tions in the City of
Lon don. Spend ing a lot of money on im ported goods and ser vices, the UK is run ning a
con sid er able cur rent ac count def i cit. Pos i tive cap i tal flow bal ance has started turn ing
into neg a tive one.
More over, Brit ish fi nan cial cap i tal reck ons that there are some el e ments of the na -
tional bour geoi sie and petty bour geoi sie (small busi nesses own ers) that do not gain any -
thing from the trade or fi nan cial trans ac tions with the EU coun tries. So, they may con -
sider Brexit to be a way to re turn to the good old days of Brit ish im pe ri al ism stand ing on
its own (“tak ing our coun try back”).
The fol low ing fact should also be taken into con sid er ation: for a long time, a con sid er -
able part of the work ing class in Brit ain (mainly the lower stra tum work ers) have been
wor ried about los ing their jobs be cause of cheap la bour force com ing from East ern Eu rope
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 4 229
Britain under Brexit
and thereby in creas ing com pe ti tion in the la bour mar ket. Maybe Brit ish work ers hope
that Brit ain’s exit from the EU will stop for eign work ers flood ing the coun try since they
drive down wages and push up un em ploy ment for Brit ish peo ple. Vot ing for Brexit, Brit -
ish work ing class ac tu ally voted against the cur rent po lit i cal and eco nomic sys tem and
im mi gra tion pol icy. How ever, even if im mi gra tion is re duced in the fu ture, the sit u a tion
of Brit ish work ers will hardly im prove. Mi grants usu ally take the jobs that na tive work ers
do not take.
As men tioned be fore, the UK’s fi nan cial cap i tal is un likely to ben e fit from Brexit. The
same goes for the UK’s la bour force.
There are also opin ions that Brit ain’s mo men tous de ci sion to break away from the
EU is threat en ing the very sur vival of the Eu ro pean Un ion. The pre ce dent that Brexit has
set could be re peated else where. An other con se quence of the Brit ain’s exit from the EU is
that it may spur the global re ces sion.
C
OL’HA MAKSYMENKO, Leading Sociologist of the Department of Methodology
and Methods of Sociology, Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences
of Ukraine
One of the ar gu ments in fa vour of Brexit was that the Eu ro pean Un ion al lows “too
many im mi grants”. Both or di nary Brit ons and pol i ti cians (like Nigel Farage, a found ing
leader of the far-right United King dom In de pend ence Party) are in creas ingly con cerned
about im mi gra tion, which seems un stop pa ble and un man age able. There are sev eral types
of long-term mi gra tion to the UK. One of them is la bour mi gra tion. Hun dreds of thou -
sands of East ern Eu ro pe ans (and non-Eu ro pe ans as well) flock to the UK in search of
work, which, ac cord ing to a Brit ish jour nal ist and Brexit sup porter Douglas Murray, “un -
der cuts the na tive work ing pop u la tion”. An other nu mer ous group of mi grants is rep re -
sented by ref u gees, pre dom i nantly from Mus lim coun tries. Brit ons’ at ti tudes to ward
them are mostly neg a tive: Mus lim im mi grants are re garded as threat en ing West ern val -
ues. So far, no other re li gion has evoked as many neg a tive feel ings as Is lam has done. This
re li gion is of ten as so ci ated with ter ror ism and vi o lence.
The Eu ro pean Un ion gave free move ment rights to peo ple who moved to an other
mem ber state (in clud ing Brit ain) to seek a job there (or be come self-em ployed). Brit ish
econ o mists and an a lysts of ten ar gue that the story of EU mi gra tion to work in Brit ain
should not be seen as “a sud den, re cent mass in va sion to be nec es sar ily feared by ev ery
Brit ish worker”. In stead, mi grant work ers are be lieved to have a pos i tive im pact on the
econ omy: they have a higher em ploy ment rate than the UK on av er age and there fore pay
more taxes. Their con tri bu tion to the UK bud get is even re garded as help ing to fuel Brit -
ain’s eco nomic growth.
How ever, the sit u a tion with ref u gees is rather dif fer ent. Many Eu ro pean coun tries
in clud ing Brit ain are re luc tant to ac cept man da tory mi grant quo tas in tro duced by the
EU in 2015. They are cer tainly afraid of not be ing able to han dle such a large in flux of new
im mi grants, who are now seen as an eco nomic bur den. Many Eu ro pe ans are also con -
cerned that im mi gra tion will con sid er ably af fect pub lic ser vices. At last, they are wor ried
about be ing a vic tim of ter ror ist at tacks since the ma jor ity of ref u gees com ing to Eu rope
are Mus lims.
Brexit sup port ers hope that leav ing the EU will pre vent the sup posed haz ards as so ci -
ated with un re stricted im mi gra tion. They think that the UK (like Aus tra lia and Can ada)
should only ad mit im mi grants who will bring valu able skills to the coun try and in te grate
well into Brit ish cul ture.
It is not sur pris ing that the “Re main” cam paign was backed by re gions with a rel a -
tively large pro por tion of im mi grants. For ex am ple, Lon don, where per cent age of im mi -
grants is sig nif i cantly higher than in the rest of the coun try, voted strongly to stay in the
EU — by 60% to 40%.
230 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 4
Britain under Brexit
C
ARTEM KURAS, PhD in Political Science, Research Fellow of the Department of
Socio-Political Processes, Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of
Ukraine
The UK’s de ci sion to aban don the Eu ro pean Un ion, how ever “stun ning” it may seem,
has been de ter mined by a set of fac tors. None of them, taken sep a rately, could lead to such
out comes. Only by act ing to gether have they pro duced the Brexit phe nom e non. The EU
ref er en dum re sults will cer tainly in flu ence ev ery coun try in the world, in clud ing Ukraine.
So, Ukrai nian sci en tists, schol ars, econ o mists and pol i ti cians should thor oughly ana lyse
all the fac tors be hind the Brexit vote and try to pre dict its eco nomic, so cial and po lit i cal
con se quences (what the UK’s for eign pol icy to ward Eu rope will look like, etc.).
There are dif fer ent opin ions about Brexit. For ex am ple, it is re garded as a re volt of the
Brit ish na tional elite and their sup port ers against cos mo pol i tan ism which is be lieved to
be de stroy ing Brit ain. On the other hand, the de ci sion to break away from the Eu ro pean
Un ion is la belled as some be trayal of Brit ain’s na tional in ter ests. The fol low ing fact
should be taken into ac count: not only of fi cials in Brussels but also pro-Brussels cir cles in
the UK did their best to pre vent Brit ish vot ers from choos ing to leave the EU — even the
day be fore the ref er en dum. And they will def i nitely try to stick the EU to gether.
Brexit has launched a se ries of changes in Eu rope’s geopolitical land scape. Any Eu ro -
pean coun try may make the same de ci sion as Brit ain did. So, an “al ter na tive” (in other
words, a Eurosceptic) Eu rope must be strength ened. That is of par tic u lar im por tance to
Ukraine which is now striv ing for the EU mem ber ship.
In con clu sion, I would like to note that Ukraine needs a spe cial in sti tu tion which will
fo cus on study ing Eu rope (post-Brexit Eu rope in par tic u lar) as a com plex phe nom e non —
no mat ter whether it will be an ac a demic in sti tu tion, a pub lic or gani sa tion or an NGO.
Maybe the only pos i tive out come of Brexit for Ukraine is that it urges Ukrai ni ans to es -
tab lish such an or gani sa tion.
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 4 231
Britain under Brexit
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