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Abstract

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Abstract
This research took a phenomenological inductive approach to research themes of post-truth amongst Remainer voters. Existing literature has neglected to research Remainers as a new political group, instead focusing on Brexit supporters; their populism, emotional reasonings and xenophobia. The media has also focused its attention to the factors that caused the referendum outcome, particularly the northern, working-class, ‘left-behind’ voters and their emotional reasonings for their political decisions. Consequentially Remainers have been framed as the rational ‘normal’ group, basing their decisions on a rational assessment of the economic consequences of leaving the EU. This research aimed to explore Remainers; whether they exhibit themes of post-truth in that they have emotional reasonings for their votes, whether they exhibit themes of populism and how they position Leave voters in relation to British politics and society. This research used snowball sampling to obtain five female and five male Remainers from London, who then took part in semi-structured interviews, the results of which were thematically analysed. This research found themes of post-truth within the Remainers as they exhibited emotional connections to values of diversity, inclusion and cosmopolitanism; for these participants membership of the EU reflected these values. The participants showed little populist passion to remain in the EU, with many stating that Brexit had further democratic legitimacy as a result of the Conservative victory in the December 2019 General Election. The Remainers interviewed all had a similar conception of who a Brexit supporter is; northern, white working-class, mirroring depictions from the media. They described them as uneducated, as passive uncritical agents acting out the will of the right-wing tabloid media, again mirroring mainstream media discussions of Brexit voter’s ignorance. Future research should be undertaken to further explore Remainers as a new political group.

Course: Sociology with Pyschology - BSc (Hons) - C1509

Date Deposited: 2020-10-13

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13566.html