[ecrea] Call for Papers: Britain in Europe Conference

The Britain in Europe conference.

 Centre for International Media Analysis, Research and Consultancy 
University of Bedfordshire Luton, UK.

 3-5 September, 2014.

Europe is in crisis, precipitated by problems with the Euro. 
Euroscepticism across the continent, ahead of this Spring’s EU 
elections, is at an all-time high and nowhere more so than in the UK. 
Indeed some argue that Britain, post-war, has defined itself in relation 
to this Other: Europe. Going beyond a critique of the EU, Britain is now 
contemplating withdrawal from the post-war project, in a referendum set 
for 2017. But Britain may have already disintegrated by then. Scotland 
will conduct a referendum considering secession from the UK in 2014. 
Whether an independent Scotland can automatically be part of the EU is 
another point of contestation.

This public policy conference will be a timely, open and balanced debate 
about Britain’s place in Europe and more specifically, the portrayal and 
communication of Europe in Britain by politicians, journalists and 
social media professionals. Are the public well informed about what the 
EU does and how Britain contributes, is penalised and gains?

The public will be invited and asked how they would vote on a UK 
referendum considering EU withdrawal, if it was held tomorrow. Pollsters 
will record the position of individual voters both before the conference 
and at the end of the three-day event. In an exercise in deliberative 
democracy, the public will be encouraged to attend the panels as well as 
specific sessions run by experts, informing them of how the EU works 
(well and badly) and answer detailed questions about Britain’s involvement.

The conference organizers welcome papers from Europe and beyond by 
journalists, academics, politicians, social networkers, pollsters and 
those in related fields on relevant topics including (but not exclusively):

Europe’s post-war history and Britain’s narrative in that history;

What Europe does – and fails to do;

UK politicians and the communication (and miscommunication) of Europe;

The British media feeding and feeding off national perceptions of Europe;

The discursive construction of Europe in Britain;

Breaking Britain. Scotland, Wales and the EU;

British and wider Euroscepticism;

Britain and the forthcoming referendum on British withdrawal from the EU;

Communicating Britain in Europe in the digital age.



Please submit a 200-word abstract and a 50-word bibliography by

July 1 to (paul.rowinski /at/ beds.ac.uk)



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