Date:
Location:
The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU after the 23 June 2016 referendum is one of the most crucial turning points for the political history of the European Union in recent times. Despite the multiple attempts to investigate this political relationship from the British perspective, there have been less attempts to analyse how both the UK and Brexit are discursively constructed in the European Council’s public discourse. This study looks into the Conclusions reached by the EU Head of State and Government and seeks to trace the discursive representations of the narratives around Brexit soon after the referendum took place. The central research question guiding this presentation explores how the process of Brexit is discursively represented by the European Council from a chronological perspective. For operationalisation purposes, this study is based upon the European Council meeting conclusions. Findings delve into the potential implications these wording choices have on the political conceptualisation of Brexit and some possible effects in the shaping of public opinion. In a nutshell, this session intends to offer a discourse-based exploration of the Conclusions reached by the EU members, shedding light on the narratives of Brexit to investigate the correlations between the EU’s discourse and its political actions.
Speakers: Alfonso Sanchez Moya. RCC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Government (FAS), Harvard University.
Sponsors: RCC, Center for American Political Studies