The cultures political participation in UKIP. An Ethnographic exploration of English Nationalism in a coastal town in South East Essex

As participation in U.K. far-right groups is rising in a post-Brexit U.K. society, this timely study will explore the cultures of political participation among UKIP supporters. Fieldwork will take place in the white-majority working-class coastal town of Walton-on-the-Naze, Clacton, Essex. This project has the potential to introduce new anthropological insight into British politics, and right-wing politics and contribute to debates about 'Englishness', racism, and 'white Nationalism' in the U.K. and beyond. This project will further anthropologists understanding of English society, British politics and Nationalism. Anthropology has a long-established study of the interlocked relations between personhood, kinship, identity and Nationalism (Wolf, 1982; Kapferer, 2001; Eriksen, 2002; Spencer, 2014). Theoretically, the project develops from this work and current debates about right-wing participation, including historical authoritarianism, the strength of religion, dissatisfaction with democracy and, UKIP's inclusive notion of a British nation (Marshall, 2014; Martin and Smith, 2014; Mondon, 2015; Morelock, 2018, Raemdonck, 2020). The project will also draw from contemporary theories of individual autonomy (Glaskin, 2012; Cruz, 2019; Enke,2019), and the moral economy of violence that explains the cultural conventions that legitimises some types of violence through historically conditional social contexts (Taussig, 1987; Rabasa, 2000; Shoshan, 2016). The project aims to explore cultures of political participation among UKIP supporters in the U.K. and use this data to develop an analytical basis to re-evaluate existing theories concerning right-wing participation, questions of identity and politics in England and beyond. In order to understand UKIP support in the region, I will ask: Why is UKIP politics popular among particular sectors of society and regions? Answering this question requires a grasp of the socio-historical and economic conditions that allow for the development of right-wing politics in provincial England. Therefore, it will first be necessary to map out the landscape of ideas that legitimise (or reject) particular, extreme radical and xenophobic ideology. The project will seek to understand why people participate in such politics or vote for politicians with reputations for wielding extreme views on 'others', despite the law. Focusing on the town of Walton-on-the-Naze, Clacton, I will explore local cultures of political participation and ask the following questions: How are they related to socio-economic mobility, economic competition, and local patron-client networks; and how do class, poverty and 'white privilege' enter the equation? What concepts and vocabularies are developed by people to legitimise (or reject) socially conservative racist policies and patriotism? What kind of folk theories of race and descent do they hold? Who are the enemies and what type of mythologies are produced? And what kinds of hopes do such politics bring to the everyday life of people? This will be an ethnography collected in Walton-on-the-Naze, Clacton, Essex. The most far-right area in the U.K. - 66% voted UKIP in 2017, and 91% voted to leave the E.U. (Electoral Calculus, 2017). Fieldwork will take place for 12 months. I will attend councils, planning committees, and other meetings, and the surgeries he holds. The surgeries should provide an insight into people's problems and complaints, help to understand landscapes and provides an opportunity to get connected with other extreme right influences. I will embed myself in UKIP practices of the area. From this, I can get involved with participants in other realms of life such as family and entertainment as, unlike liberalism, right supporters reject the notion of separable public and private selves, combining racist agendas with mainstream lives (Blee, 2002).