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Bound by gravity or living in a ‘Post Geography Trading World’? Expert knowledge and affective spatial imaginaries in the construction of the UK’s post-Brexit trade policy
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Siles-Brügge, Gabriel (2019) Bound by gravity or living in a ‘Post Geography Trading World’? Expert knowledge and affective spatial imaginaries in the construction of the UK’s post-Brexit trade policy. New Political Economy, 24 (3). pp. 422-439. doi:10.1080/13563467.2018.1484722 ISSN 1356-3467.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2018.1484722
Abstract
A key battle has been fought within the UK cabinet on the direction of post-Brexit trade policy. The opposing sides have favoured either continued alignment or a ‘hard’ break with the European Union’s (EU’s) regulatory and customs regime, in the latter case to allow the UK to pursue an independent and ambitious trade policy agenda. Contrary to much commentary on ‘post-truth’ politics, both sides have relied on rival forms of expertise to support their claims. I argue for the need to not only re-emphasise the malleability and political nature of expert knowledge, but also appreciate its emotional bases. The Treasury has led the charge in favour of a softer Brexit by drawing on econometric (‘gravity’) models that emphasise the economic costs of looser association with the EU. In contrast to this attempt at technocratic legitimation, the specific legal expertise drawn upon by cabinet advocates of ‘hard’ Brexit has appealed to an emotive political economy of bringing the UK, and its (in this imaginary) overly regulated economy, closer to its ‘kith and kin’ in the Anglosphere, deepening the UK ‘national business model’. I conclude by calling for more explicitly emotive and values-based argumentation in the public debate on the UK’s future trade policy to improve the quality of democratic deliberation.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | European Union -- Great Britain -- Economic aspects, Commercial policy -- Great Britain, Expertise | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | New Political Economy | ||||||||
Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1356-3467 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 2019 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 24 | ||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 422-439 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1080/13563467.2018.1484722 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 1 May 2018 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 3 October 2018 | ||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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