ABSTRACT
In a campaign speech before his election as President of France, Emmanuel Macron said that the EU must reform or face the possibility of a French campaign to leave. Goodhart argues that several decades of greater economic and cultural openness in the West have not benefitted everyone. A populist politics of culture and identity has successfully challenged the traditional politics of left and right, creating a new division: between the mobile 'achieved' identity from 'Anywhere', and the marginalised, roots-based identity from 'Somewhere'. This chapter explores an argument that 'distance' constitutes a lens on the social processes behind Brexit, Trump and populism. Particularly when it comes to immigration, rapid social change that seems to result in the world moving next door is threatening. Bridges used to symbolise the connection between place and people. Ontologies of connection are de-centred and our view of the world much more dispersed.
