Against the Tide: Transnational Solidarity in Brexit Britain

Citation

Baglioni S, Biosca O & Montgomery T (2020) Against the Tide: Transnational Solidarity in Brexit Britain. In: Lahusen C, Zschache U & Kousis M (eds.) Transnational Solidarity in Times of Crises: Citizen Organisations and Collective Learning in Europe. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 181-207. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49659-3_7

Abstract
This chapter discusses UK-based civil society organisations supporting vulnerable groups (migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; disabled people; and the unemployed) which have been on the front line of a decade of austerity and funding cuts. It does so by exploring the relationship between these organisations and policymakers; the impact of austerity on the organisations themselves; the mission and activities of these organisations and the cooperation between organisations at different scales (transnational, national and local). Our findings reveal a tale of ‘two Britains’: one of top-down policies and discourses which are anti-solidarity and re-activate decades-old discourses of dependency and deservingness; and another Britain of grassroots solidarity, (self-)organised from the bottom up, often in partnership with austerity-hit local government.

Keywords
Solidarity; transnational; citizen organisations; civil society

Notes
Results presented in this book have been obtained through the project ‘European paths to transnational solidarity at times of crisis: Conditions, forms, role-models and policy responses’ (TransSOL). Tis project was funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 649435).

• Against The Tide