Contested Britain

Marius Guderjan is Lecturer and Researcher at the Centre for British Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. Hugh Mackay is Honorary Associate in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at The Open University, UK.Gesa Stedman is Professor at the Centre for British Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.

"A timely and important contribution to our understanding of the complex entanglements between Brexit, austerity and politics in contemporary Britain. It contextualises these issues in relation to ongoing contestations around the UK itself, drawing on a wide-range of perspectives.” Gerry Mooney, The Open University in Scotland

• Introduction ~ Marius Guderjan, Hugh Mackay and Gesa Stedman;Part I: The Politics and Culture of Austerity: Impacts and Resistance;The Contracting State: Austerity and Public Services ~ Simon Griffiths;Breaking Britain's Working Class: the Left Out ~ Lisa Mckenzie;Political Activism and Agency under Austerity and Brexit ~ Tom Montgomery and Maria Grasso;Culture Matters: Cuts and Resistance ~ Ingrid von Rosenberg;Agents and Agency in the Face of Austerity and Brexit Uncertainty: the Case of Legal Aid ~ Steven Truxal;Part II: The Politcs and Discourse of Brexit;The Economy of Brexit: Performance, Interests and Agency ~ Carlo Morelli;Brexit Populism: Disenfranchisement and Agency ~ Marius Guderjan and Adrian Wilding;A Sovereign People? Political Fantasy and Governmental TIme in the Pursuit of Brexit ~ John Clarke; 'Not an International Health Service': Xenophobia, Brexit and the Restoration of National Sovereignty ~ Kirsten Forkert;'Uni-Culti' Myths and Liberal Dreams: Brexit and Austerity from the Perspective of Migrants ~ Magdalena Nowicka;Part III: Austerity and Brexit in a Divided Union;From Brexit to the Break-Up of ... England? Thinking in and Beyond the Nation ~ Allan Cochrane;Understanding Brexit in Wales: Austerity, Elites and National Identity ~ Hugh Mackay;Scotland, Brexit and the Broken Promise of Democracy ~ Klaus Stolz;Brexit, Devolution and Northern Ireland's Political Parties: Differential Solutions, Special Status or Special Arrangements? ~ Derek Birrell and Paul Carmichael;More Than the Border? Looking at Brexit through Irish Eyes ~ Kevin Bean;Conclusion ~ Marius Guderjan, Hugh Mackay and Gesa Stedman;