This book examines the emergence and the political use of what has come to be known as “culture wars” in the United Kingdom.
This book examines the emergence and the political use of what has come to be known as “culture wars” in the United Kingdom.
Adopting multidisciplinary perspectives, it investigates the ways in which cultural identities are used for political ends. The book bridges the conceptual and theoretical gap in fully understanding so-called “culture wars” in a British context; as such, it envisages debates as part of a larger political project to gain popular support by tapping into voters' sense of neglect by the political elite. Applying the concept of “national populism” as a binding conceptual framework for the book, a prestigious panel of international experts offer thorough analyses to show that not enough attention is being paid to what may be considered as an “escalation” of culture wars, and to how divisions have been accentuated by political elites to deliberately exacerbate them.
This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and readers in British politics, populism studies, party politics, Conservative party politics and more broadly to European and Comparative politics.
1. Towards a very British version of the culture wars: An introduction
2. Partisan conflict over Clause 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act: Culture
Wars avant la lettre
3. Nigel Farages national populist campaign in favour
of Brexit: Early signs of a culture war in the United Kingdom
4. Comparative
evidence from the Yellow Vests movement in France: Communities of grievance
5. Prime Minister Boris Johnsons use of metaphors and the emergence of the
UK culture wars: The great divider?
6. The Conservative Rights War
against Woke: Fighting the latest enemies within
7. Policing the culture
wars in contemporary Britain: More PCs, less PC
8. Climate Change and
Cultural Collision in UK politics: Petrolheads vs. Ecowarriors
9. Critical
Race Theory and the politics of race in Britain: The Long Culture War
10.
Academic freedom and transphobia in UK higher education: Two sides of the
same coin?
11. Conservative unionism v. Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland)
Bill: Killing two birds with one stone?
12. Conclusion
Alma-Pierre Bonnet is Senior Lecturer in British Studies at Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University, France.
Raphaële Kilty is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History and Politics at Clermont Auvergne University, France.
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