Abstract
Recent shifts in political support to populist parties worldwide have been linked to the changing preferences of 'left behind communities'. Based on apparently growing 'left behind' support for populists, some commentators have argued for policy changes including tightened immigration rules coupled with increasing investment in economically deprived areas, particularly in health care. However, left behind communities’ policy preferences are unclear from existing research due to a series of methodological challenges associated with researching polarization and stigmatization. We complement existing research with an innovative photo elicitation methodology covering five field sites in the United Kingdom during 2019, focusing on left behind communities’ policy preferences concerning Brexit. Photo elicitation overcomes methodological challenges associated with emotional attachment and stigmatization. Drawing on 418 interviews with 489 participants, we find that interviewees rejected elite framings suggesting a logical link between Brexit and health care investment, instead articulating policy preferences for health care investment drawing on personal experiences.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1173 - 1187 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | American Political Science Review |
| Volume | 117 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 08 Feb 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2023 |
Access to Document
- What do 'Left Behind Communities' want? A qualitative study in the United Kingdom using photo elicitation
Copyright 2023 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.