2017-07-04
30 分钟Welcome to LSE IQ,
a podcast from the London School of Economics and Political Science where we ask leading social scientists and other experts to answer an intelligent question about economics,
politics or society.
Just over a year ago, on the 23rd of June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union by 51.9%.
Many didn't see the result coming.
In the 12 months since, academics, the media,
politicians and policymakers have sought to understand the demographic that was seen to have played a key role in delivering Brexit.
In this episode, Sue Windybank asks, what can Brexit tell us about the white working class?
In 1971, Barking and Dagenham had full employment.
You could move from one job to another.
From the print to the factory, there were close-knit families.
In the first class I taught in 1971, every single kid's parents worked at Ford's.
Nobody left Barking and Dagenham.
Ten years ago, there were no black kids in my school.
These are the words of a teacher, Fred Toulson, as told to Dr Justin Guest,
co-director of LSE's Migration Study Unit and assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University.
Justin had studied the white working class communities of Barking and Dagenham in the UK and the steel town of Youngstown,
Ohio, in the United States.
He wanted to understand the social and political trends that he argues later underpinned Brexit,
as well as the election of President Trump.