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Paper short abstract:

The poster will present results of an ongoing PhD research project on the perception of European identity in post-Brexit Scotland with a particular focus on the relation between European identity and small state vulnerability.

Paper long abstract:

Following two dividing referendums on Scottish independence and the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union, Scotland is undergoing a tumultuous period in which its identity is widely being debated and (re)negotiated. In particular the EU referendum and the ensuing negotiations on Brexit have resulted in Britain entering a liminal phase of change without a foreseeable ending. Within this transformational context, European identity is being understood in new ways and with new meanings. For some it is a defiant expression of connection: a root and a route to the rest of Europe; for others it is also an expression of disconnection between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom and is incorporated into the support for Scottish independence.

This poster will present an ongoing research project which explores the function of European identity within the Scottish pro-independence movement, with a particular focus on the relation between European identity and small-state vulnerability. If Scotland became independent, it would be considered as a small state in Europe. Small state studies have argued that such states are particularly vulnerable to their external environment. This line of study has been based within the political sciences, which have proposed several strategies small states use to counteract their vulnerability. The research project aims to argue that European identity may also be used to create resilience within small states, thereby adding an ethnological perspective to small state studies. Results of a scoping study which forms part of the PhD research will be presented.