Research On British Cultural Identity In The Post-Brexit Era

Cultural identity is the consensus reached by a group of people with the same cultural inclination.The study of cultural identity is of great significance for strengthening national unity and building a harmonious society.In the era of economic globalization,cultural identity not only means a lot for national identity,but also becomes the most important soft power for a country.Thus,the research on cultural identity is of great importance to the inheritance and development of national culture.The key to cultural identity study lies in cultural factors like geographical environment,language,religious beliefs and cultural symbols.The thesis takes British cultural identity in the post-Brexit era,namely,from the time of Brexit referendum taking place in June,23,2016 to now,as the research object.And the research was conducted by means of sorting out the concept and theory of cultural identity,and analyzing data and interview on the British cultural identity collected from the three polling agencies(Comes,Ipsos MORI,Natcen)and Media in UK.The thesis adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative research method to make study on British cultural identity in the post-Brexit era,takes the data from the above-mentioned polling agencies in UK and interview made by Media as study samples,then finds out the factors constructing British mainstream cultural identity and its challenges.The thesis is divided into six chapters.Chapter one and two introduce the background,purpose and significance of the study and literature review.Chapter three is to redefine cultural identity theory in the perspective of definition,classification and crisis brought about by external shock.Chapter four and five are the major parts: on the basis of polling data and case study,four core elements constituting British cultural identity are extracted,namely identification on geographical environment,English language,religion and cultural symbols and presenting the challenges of British mainstream cultural identity.Chapter six is the conclusion.Through the analysis of survey data and interview,it is clear that there is no great change in British cultural identity in the post-Brexit era,which is still determined by the identification on geographical environment,English language,religion belief and cultural symbols.However,under the influence of external environment,British cultural identity is also challenged: there are changes in the proportion of constituting factors.The identification on natural boundary has declined,while language becomes the priority when labeling identity;Due to the influx of immigrants,foreign languages are on a rise,showing an expending;minority religions,especially Islam,constantly challenging the traditional Christianity;Influenced by popular culture,the symbol of elite culture represented by gentlemanly manner is on the edge of deconstruction.