Table Of ContentMaterializing Culture
ETHICS AND NATIONALIST
POPULISM AT THE
BRITISH SEASIDE
NEGOTIATING CHARACTER
Ana Carolina Balthazar
Ethics and Nationalist Populism at the
British Seaside
Drawing on ethnographic research at the British seaside, this book offers an original
and insightful anthropological contribution to the study of contemporary Britain
and nationalism. The volume focuses on people who have retired from d ifferent
parts of the UK to the seaside town of Margate and nearby areas, exploring their
ethical negotiations and relationships with things that ‘have history’. It considers
how residents engage daily with objects, houses and places ‘with character’ and
how such ordinary engagements underlie nationalist sentiments, their reaction
to local art-led urban regeneration projects and the Brexit vote. The Brazilian
anthropologist Ana Carolina Balthazar demonstrates that those who have reached
a c omfortable financial position often look for ways to reconnect with their
working-class upbringing and, while doing so, engage with the national past in a
very tangible manner. Contributing to social scientific debates on class dynamics
and ethics, the book provides a different perspective on nationalist populism,
one which moves beyond media stereotypes and arguments made about the ‘left
behind’ and ‘longing for empire’ in ‘post-industrial’ Britain.
Ana Carolina Balthazar is a postdoctoral researcher at the Pontifical Catholic
University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Materializing Culture
Series Editors: Daniel Miller and Paul Gilroy
This provocative series focuses on the social relations involved in material practices.
The study of material culture has stimulated a new body of research which brings
together areas as diverse as the artwork of record sleeves, shopping, bitter conflicts
over ancient monuments, digital fonts, craft skills and the political economy of con-
sumption. This series demonstrates the innovative and critical edge that a material
culture perspective may bring to bear upon a wide range of academic concerns.
Ethics and Nationalist Populism at the British Seaside
Negotiating Character
Ana Carolina Balthazar
https: // www . rout ledge . com/ Mater ializ ing-C ultur e/ boo k- ser ies/B LANTM C
Ethics and Nationalist
Populism at the British Seaside
Negotiating Character
Ana Carolina Balthazar
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Ana Carolina Balthazar
The right of Ana Carolina Balthazar to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-62851-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-62857-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-11108-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
To my grandmothers, Eliza and Olga.
Contents
Figures x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: An ethnographic approach to nationalist populism 1
Character and the ethics of nationalist populism:
theoretical engagements 7
Ethics in anthropological debates 7
Class in Britain 10
Is ethnography a methodology? 13
Situating the research 16
The national landscape of de-industrialization and leisure 16
Administrative divisions and local history 18
Deprivation and retirement at the seaside 20
Outline of the book 23
Note 25
1 The logic of character: ‘To put the past back’ 26
Encountering character 27
Character and childhood memories 27
The Proust effect 32
Involuntary memory and the past 33
The ethics of memory 35
Relating through character 37
The different experiences of character 39
The temporality of character 41
Maintaining or ruining character 45
Character, power and class 49
Character and aesthetics 54
Notes 55
viii C ontents
2 Connections of character: The British seaside 56
Character and the ‘Made in Britain’ 57
Personal memories and the national 57
‘Made in Britain’ and class 60
Period houses 62
Clare and Peter’s hallway 62
Lynva’s kitchen 64
Julie’s living room 66
Nationalism at home 67
Houses and social hierarchies 67
The nation in practice 70
Class and home ownership 72
Nationalism outside the home 75
Remembrance Day 75
The local History Society 78
A British town 80
Nationalism and class 82
Notes 84
3 Disconnections of character: A town undergoing regeneration 85
Local regeneration and the creative industries 85
The politics of depriving a town 88
A new art gallery in town 90
‘It’s like a bus shelter’ 90
A discomfort with conceptual art 96
Reopening the local amusement park 97
Retirement, consumption and memory talk 100
Gentrification and the arts at the seaside 103
Character and the consumption of places 105
The limits of creative ‘diversity’ 109
Note 111
4 Intersections of character: The Brexit vote 112
The local rise of nationalist populism 112
A local hotel 112
From the rubbish in the streets to formal politics 116
How nationalist populism operates 119
The ‘legacy of empire’ argument 120
The ‘left behind’ argument 122
Avoiding the ‘post’ paradigm 125
Contents ix
Brexit, time and age 129
British and other nationalities 133
Notes 137
Final considerations: The ethics of an anthropology of
nationalist populism 139
A Brazilian writing about the British 139
Character and the ethics of anthropological practice 143
References 149
Index 159
