Utopianism in the 2019 Labour Campaign and Manifesto: Investigating an Anomalous Moment in Contemporary British Party Politics

This project will explore the 2019 Labour Party election campaign and manifesto, focusing on the campaign as a utopian moment in British society and politics that looked explicitly towards a different and better future, with an emphasis on collective reform. The study will investigate how campaigners understood this moment and how it was framed and received in the media and broader public sphere. Semi-structured interviews with Labour Party activists, campaigners,
and other insiders will explore the ideas, motivations and experiences associated with this unusual political turn in the post- Thatcher era. Discourse analyses of the 2019 Labour Manifesto and corresponding print and online media coverage will enable an investigation of how these ideas were framed and articulated in writing, and how they were received in broader media and political circles. Using these methods the study will shed light on broader questions around articulations of political desire which do not conform to established political norms in a neoliberal society. The project will be informed by the concept of utopia defined by Levitas who emphasises process and the ongoing desire for, and belief in, a better society. The study will also draw on Brown's ideas about neoliberal rationality. It will build on and extend academic debates about the relationship between the neoliberal status quo and the possibilities for utopian projects in the early 21st century, and add a qualitative and sociological dimension to the understanding of mainstream political movements in utopian studies.