5 Summary

This week the emphasis shifted away from a direct focus on uneven development and the particular case of London and the South East in shaping the UK’s political and economic geography. It moved towards a concern with the ways in which the UK has been constructed as a multinational state. You have been introduced to some of the tensions reflected in the referendum vote, particularly as they have been expressed through national identity in the different parts of the UK. Data from the British Election Study have been used to help with this.

You should now be able to:

• actively reflect on the extent to which the vote for the UK to leave the European Union has also highlighted tensions within the UK itself as a multinational state
• recognise different expressions of nationalism within the UK and some of the complexities of overlapping national identity in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
• use a range of data from different sources (including video and survey evidence) to support you in analysing processes of political change.

It is now possible with the help of the work you have undertaken across the weeks of the course to draw some tentative conclusions about the political geography of the referendum and what it means for the UK.