Towards a Very British Version of the "Culture Wars"

Populism, Social Fractures and Political Communication

Alma-Pierre Bonnet, Raphaële Kilty

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781040265857
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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 the 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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Endorsement Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Notes on contributors
• 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 Farage’s national populist campaign in favour of Brexit: Early signs of a culture war in the United Kingdom
• 4 Communities of grievance: Comparative evidence from the Yellow Vests movement in France
• 5 The great divider?: Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s use of metaphors and the emergence of the UK “culture wars”
• 6 The Conservative Right’s ‘War against Woke’: Fighting the latest ‘enemies within’
• 7 Policing the culture wars in contemporary Britain: ‘More PCs, less PC’
• 8 Petrolheads vs. Ecowarriors: Climate change and cultural collision in UK politics
• 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
• Index