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Steve Fuller on Brexit

Since the 23 June 2016 referendum that voted to take the UK out of the European Union, I have published the following posts, which draw on social and political theory to explain the outcome along several dimensions, including the role of elites, expertise, political discourse, cosmopolitanism, intergenerational conflict, political timing and populism


1. “Prolegomena to the Deep Sociology of Brexit: The Long Road Back to Pareto.” SERRC 5 (7): 1-5. (4 Jul 2016)

2. A Politicians Liars? Taking a Step Back from Brexit?’ SERRC (6 Jul 2016) ‘[Originally at http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/18755 (5 Jul 2016)]

3. ‘Max Weber’s Triad – Status, Class and Party – in Light of Brexit: A Call to Party Harder’ SERRC (22 Jul 2016) [Originally at http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/18760 (10 Jul 2016)]

4. ‘Why I am not Afraid or Ashamed of Cosmopolitanism’ SERRC (3 Aug 2016). [Originally at http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/18782 (30 July 2016)]

5. ‘The Larger Lessons of Intergenerational Conflict from the Brexit Vote’ (2 Jul 2016) [Published as ‘Brexit shows that ‘Generation’ needs to be added to race, class and gender’ (2 Jul 2016) http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/18751]

6. ‘The Emerging Lessons of Brexit for Aspiring Democracies’ (3 Jul 2016) Al-Rasub [Reprinted (3 Jul 2016) in http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/18752]

7. ‘Beware the rise of gerontocracy: Some hard lessons for transhumanism, not least from Brexit’ (16 Jul 2016) [Reprinted (17 Jul 2016): http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/Fuller20160717]

8. ‘If We Don’t Need Experts, Do We Need Universities?’ University World News (7 Oct 2016)

9. ‘Brexit for Transhumanists: A Parable of Getting What You Wish For’ (11 Oct 2016)

10. ‘Fabius’ Delight: When Everyone (If Only in the UK) Benefits by Delaying Brexit’ (14 Oct 2016)

11. “’Will of the people’ or ‘Population snowflake’: Why not just say that people didn’t know what they voted for in Brexit?’ (15 Oct 2016)

I also made two videos (available on my YouTube channel) explaining Brexit