Paper short abstract:

This paper will revisit the concept of Euroland (Johler, 2002), apply it to a context of European disintegration; post-Brexit Britain; and will discuss how increasing disconnection between the local and the European affects perceptions of the nation, the European and the futures they offer.

Paper long abstract:

When the UK kickstarted European disintegration and the effects of Brexit started to be noticed in everyday lifeworlds, there appeared to be an increase in awareness of the locality of Europe, as well as its importance to local structures. This paper will ask how European disintegration affects the everyday meanings of Europe: both perceptions of its locality, as well as what Europe has to offer in terms of perspectives for the future.

To do this, the researcher will reflect on fieldwork he did for his PhD with members of the Scottish independence movement in Orkney, Scotland, during the Brexit transition period. Because a majority of Scottish voters chose to remain in the European Union, thereby putting the democratic imbalance in the UK into focus, the Scottish independence movement has also been faced with the question of how the future of independence fits within Europe. Brexit thus not only challenged the meanings of Europe but also those of the national: to some the central structure around which visions of the future are built, to others a banal but necessary connection between the local and the European.

Post-Brexit Scotland thus presents a situation in which links between the local and both the nation and the European are challenged and rethought. To tackle this fluid context, the paper will revisit the concept of Euroland; a space wherein the European becomes localised and the local becomes Europeanised; but applied to a context in which the local and the European are increasingly separated.