Observatoire de la société britannique n.30

Identity divide(s) in post-Brexit Britain

Sous la direction de Agnès Alexandre-Collier & Karine Tournier-Sol

Recent academic and media interest has focused on the emergence of identity- based politics in the British political landscape, as blatantly illustrated by the 2016 Brexit referendum. The outcome of the referendum exposed and subsequently fuelled polarisation between two tribes, divided by identity and values, with opposite and conflicting worldviews: the «identity conservatives» and the «identity liberals», as labelled by Sobolewska and Ford, or the “Somewheres” and the “Anywheres” according to Goodhart.

Identity divides therefore appear as a new structuring factor in British society, with values and cultural attitudes apparently replacing pre-existing traditional cleavages such as social class and economic redistribution. The aim of this issue of the Observatoire de la société britannique is to explore these new divides, and the way they have affected public debate and restructured the British political landscape since 2016.