“Scotland’s different”: narratives of Scotland’s distinctiveness in the post-Brexit-vote era

Gawlewicz, A. (2020) “Scotland’s different”: narratives of Scotland’s distinctiveness in the post-Brexit-vote era. Scottish Affairs, 29(3), pp. 321-335. (doi: 10.3366/scot.2020.0326)

Abstract

While Scotland has been portrayed as an outlier in the context of Brexit, we know relatively little about how ordinary people in Scotland, including a growing migrant population, make sense of this (political and media) narrative. In order to address this gap, in this article I look at everyday narratives of Scotland's distinctiveness in the post-Brexit-vote era among the long-settled population and Polish – and to a lesser degree other European Union – migrants in the East End of Glasgow. By drawing upon scholarship on everyday nationalism and imagined communities, I explore discursive claims which romanticise Scotland as different and ‘welcoming’ of immigration and position it in binary opposition to England. How is Scotland produced as different in the context of Brexit? How are these stories used to re-imagine increasingly diverse Scottish society? In what ways are they being employed by migrant communities?

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gawlewicz, Dr Anna
• Authors: Gawlewicz, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Scottish Affairs
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• ISSN: 0966-0356
• ISSN (Online): 2053-888X
• Published Online: 01 August 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 Edinburgh University Press
• First Published: First published in Scottish Affairs 29(3):321-335
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher