Brexit: Understanding the Socio-Economic Origins and Possible Consequences
|
Deadline: August 3, 2016
The Brexit referendum has already been described as creating 'an unprecedented geopolitical shift'.1 It was the most divisive political campaign experienced in the UK since the 1980s. It brought to light fractured political opinions about the effects of globalization, Europeanization and economic inequality. Leave and Remain voters were segregated between regions, cities and provinces, across generations, classes and ethnic groups, as well as divided within families. An ugly face of xenophobia and violence was exposed during the campaign which saw the senseless attack and subsequent death of the MP Jo Cox. Brexit reflects divisions that have deep socio-economic origins, but have either been ignored or hushed out of 'respectable' public debate.
Similarly, the international repercussions of Brexit are unprecedented and highly uncertain. Politically, Brexit prompts rethinking about the nature and stability of EU. Economically, Brexit has already fueled disruption of financial markets, stemmed debate on firm location decision, caused fears about the future of British universities or the NHS, and will ultimately have massive consequences for European labor markets. The unintended consequences of Brexit are likely to be vast across many more areas.
The complexity and high stakes of Brexit demand broad scholarship that straddles history, economics, politics, and sociology. The planned Discussion Forum builds on the Pop-Up Salon held at the SASE 2016 conference at UC-Berkeley, organized by Jacqueline O'Reilly (University of Brighton) under the title of 'Brexit: What's Next?' The high turnout and lively debate inspired us to think about a fast and open process for organizing Discussion Forum for Socio-Economic Review.
SER invites contributions that apply theoretical concepts or offer interesting empirical observations about the socio-economic origins or likely consequences of Brexit. Contributions are expected to be 1,000 to 2,000 words in length and written for a broad audience. The SER editors will select a small collection of contributions to be published as a Discussion Forum in the next issue of Socio-Economic Review. Meanwhile, additional submissions that could be included in the main Discussion Forum will be featured in a special on-line blog forum on the SASE website.
Submission deadline is August 3, 2016. Please include your full name, email, academic affiliation, and word count. Submissions should be directed to the Socio-Economic Review by email: ser.editorialoffice@oup.com
For further information, please contact Gregory Jackson (Gregory.Jackson@fu-berlin.de) or Nina Bandelj (nbandelj@uci.edu)
