Britishness in the 21st Century

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Posted on 01 February 2013

On 19 June SPIRE, in association with the Dialogue Society, is hosting an innovative one-day workshop aiming to critically explore notions of Britishness and to evaluate the key issues involved in formulating shared understandings of British national identity.

girl The workshop aims to consider the contradictions of British liberalism and imperialism and their legacies for national identity today. In particular, does the association of Britishness with liberal values of due process, human rights and toleration distract us from persistent global associations of the nation with imperial practices of European history, which perhaps manifest in new and even more troubling forms of imperialism?

With the British economy facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, to what extent is ‘humanitarian intervention’ via military activism, a new name for the old concept of imperialism and its associated control of resources? What are the politics of inclusion and exclusion around reconstructed notions of Britishness in response? Does the liberal-multicultural emphasis on group rights and differentiated citizenship assist or hinder a project of Britishness? Does the label ‘Britishness’ promise support for liberal values of tolerance, fairness, equality and respect; or is this mere self-congratulation, obscuring extensive problems such as unequal resources and social misrecognition? Will teaching Britishness to young people support a stronger sense of inclusion in the processes of local democracy? And what value does Britishness hold in the context of internationalisation and globalisation?

Such concerns prompt consideration of the constellation of material, political, civic and international challenges involved in understanding ‘Britishness’ afresh in the early twenty-first century. This one-day workshop, accordingly, aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to foster a critical dialogue about these challenging and timely questions.

For more information, and to find out how to get involved, see the conference webpage.

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