Chris Gifford

This article explores how a political economy approach can explicate recent events in the United Kingdom’s relation to the European Union. The proposition is that neither critical nor comparative approaches do justice to the extent to which British elites have sought to differentiate the UK from the EU. The UK is here understood as a Eurosceptic political economy, constructed in opposition to European integration and, in particular, Economic and Monetary. The article explores how we have witnessed a hardening of this Eurosceptic political economy in the context of the Eurozone crisis. The most distinctive feature of which, as seen in the referendum campaign, is the extent to which the economic case for withdrawal has been established as part of the mainstream of British political debate.

The experiences of young people in developed societies such as Japan and the UK have undergone considerable change in the last 30 or so years. Our starting point is that such developments are associated with the globalization of institutions and an individualization of experience, which destabilizes life-course transitions and cultural transmission between generations. However, we continue to assert the importance of the national framework, defined by national cultures and territorial jurisdictions, in mediating global processes. Adapting Connolly's (2005. Pluralism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press) differentiation between types of politics in late modernity, we argue for a distinction to be made between being citizens and becoming citizens. Being a citizen involves integration into pre-existing collective identities such as nation-states which increasingly act to restrict membership to the citizen community. With this in mind, we compare the key sites of social recognition in Japan and the UK for young people and identify some fundamental barriers to citizenship. In addition, we discuss the ways in which conventional social and educational policy responses aimed at integrating young people into work and nation perpetuate their precarious relationship to citizenship. These processes are contrasted with becoming a citizen, which is dynamic, intimately connected to cultural learning and the creation of new civic virtues and sources of recognition.

Published by Palgrave Macmillan since 2005, EPS: European Political Science is a journal of the European Consortium for Political Research. European Political Science (EPS) is an international journal devoted to publishing contributions by and for the political science community. Its interpretation of 'political science' is wide and encompasses comparative politics, political economy, international relations, public administration, political theory, European studies and related disciplines.

This article focuses on the products of governance in Scotland and the UK, considering policy documents, public announcements and press releases and examines these outputs to consider the presence of Britishness within the institutions, agencies and other groups that govern in Scotland. It is our contention that Britishness, and the idea of Britain, is increasingly absent within the discussion, operation and outputs of governance in Scotland, despite the best efforts of the current British Government to entrench a sense of Britishness within the socio-political realm. By focusing on aspects of specific policy areas, such as citizenship in education and the railways within transport, this article will illustrate that the banal emphasis of governance within Scotland is not on Britishness but on Scotland and Scottishness. The end-result of such a focus, whether it be intentional or not, is the increasing differentiation of Scottishness from other British identities. Such findings pose serious questions for the political organisation and operation of the UK.

(2008). Human emotions: a sociological theory by Jonathan H. Turner | Radical democracy: politics between abundance and lack by Lasse Thomassen and Lars T⊘nder, eds | Aversive democracy: inheritance and originality in the democratic tradition by Aletta Norval | Power in the global age by Ulrich Beck | Cosmopolitan global politics by Patrick Haydon | Citizenship: beyond the state by John Hoffman Supranational citizenship by Lynn Dobson. Journal of Power: Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 385-413.

An extensive range of evidence and analysis has been employed to understand the complex relationship between Britain and the process of European integration. This article builds on a body of work within the study of European integration that examines British economic interests in European policy-making. However, I show that a comprehensive explanation of this relationship requires the application of a politico-economic analysis on national articulations of global and transnational processes. It is, I propose, Britain's distinctive insertion into the global economy that enables us to understand and explain Britain's problematic relationship to the processes of European integration. This is explored through an analytic narrative of Britain's historical relationship to the process of European integration. From a broad comparative perspective, I emphasise the exceptional character of Britain's globalised political economy.