ABSTRACT
In 2016, in the so-called ‘Brexit’ referendum, the British electorate voted to leave the European Union (EU). In an age of connectivity, mobility and increasing diversity, the Brexit vote seems to have put the clock back, heralding the nation as a bastion against change. Given the fact that 75% of those aged 18–24 voted to remain in the EU, it is clear that young people hold different views compared to those of their parents and grand-parents. The aim of this chapter is to explore these views, mapping the different ways the nation is made meaningful by them. Focusing on a socially heterogeneous cohort of young people (aged 14–19) living in Loughborough, a market town in the East Midlands, which also voted to leave the EU, the paper analyses artworks and accompanying texts produced in schools and youth associations on the theme: ‘Our nations’ future’. Tracing the hopes for and concerns about a post-Brexit Britain, the chapter brings to the fore young people’s agency in uncertain and complex times, scrutinising how the nation becomes a vehicle to establish entitlement and belonging.
