Imaginary Borders and Bordered Imaginaries: Brexit, Narratives of Violence and Rebordering Processes in Northern Ireland's Border Region

Abstract

This thesis outlines how the Brexit referendum in the UK has brought a new political uncertainty to Northern Ireland, that is impacting how communities relate to each other and how identity itself is perceived. This early-stage analysis is empirically significant given the ongoing crisis in the Brexit negotiations, and though it is not attempting to hypothesise for an as yet undefined future, this thesis lays out how Brexit related uncertainty is affecting shifts in community relations and perceptions of identity right now, specifically in the post-conflict border region of Northern Ireland. Through incorporating ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Northern Ireland and using an analytical frame devised from the school of border studies, alongside Schröder and Schmidt’s conceptualisation of violent imaginaries, this thesis engages with how processes of rebordering that have been set into motion by Brexit, on both the physical and social-identity level, must be taken alongside the historical narratives that perpetuate, and are perpetuated by, them, in order to be understood properly. This thesis goes on to conclude how, through these narratives, rebordering processes have catalysed what can already be seen as a shift in how the two traditional communities in Northern Ireland relate to each other and how notions of identity of the self, and other, are perceived.