The Cultural Roots of British Devolution

This book presents a provocative argument which suggests that cultural devolution preceded and indeed forced political change. A ‘post-British’ form of culture - as found across literature, education and philosophy - has long been in the making, arising especially in local communities who no longer see themselves as British. The author places this change in the context of post-imperial Britain in the second half of the20th century and looks at how underground cultures such as rave and reggae may have laid the foundations for a post-British culture. The various attempts to re-constitutionalise Britain are explored and the book ends with two key questions: how has the progress of a post-British culture been viewed in Scotland, and how do we pull a post-British England out of a devolutionary process which is liable to outstrip all British control? Key Features: *The first serious account of the history of the growing cultural division within Britain in the second half of the 20th century. *Accentuates the cultural roots of devolution, bringing them out from the shadow of party-political explanations. *Looks at the effects of devolution upon both Scottish and English culture.