ABSTRACT
The concluding chapter reiterates the argument that socioeconomic hierarchies and political divisions rather than any cultural bifurcation are key to understanding and engaging with England’s contemporary predicament. From perspectives concerned with equality and justice at local and global scales it will be argued that the present situation outlined in Chapter 6 of ‘nationalism without nationhood’, or national identity, among England’s more affluent population should be reversed – that is, a greater sense of political community and attachment to place is required to counter prevalent individualistic norms. However, this will need to be combined with a more explicitly cosmopolitan politics if it is to resonate in a globalised society and culture in which cosmopolitan political principles are ascendant. With this aim, of promoting both nationhood and cosmopolitanism, the book will advocate seemingly contradictory approaches in which avowedly anti-nationalist and anti-racist principles coexist expediently alongside short-term protectionist and immigration control policies.
