Independent players or shadow compatriots. How did British cities deal with the Brexit process?

ABSTRACT

After the Brexit referendum in 2016, the United Kingdom has started the process of leaving the EU. In fact, it is not only a challenge for the British State but also for local governments and for British cities in particular. The aim of the article is to examine how the largest British cities have dealt with this process. We would like to check what the cities have done, in what way and what the current results are. In order to answer these questions we prepared a theoretical framework that helps us to distinguish different kinds of cities’ strategies. We conclude that cities have mostly dealt with the Brexit process on their own, focusing on information actions.

KEYWORDS:

• Brexit
• cities
• governance
• city diplomacy
• sub-national

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank all the persons who participated in the research that was the basis for this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Agnieszka Szpak http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7601-1230

Robert Gawłowski http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3419-7679

Joanna Modrzyńska http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5409-6787

Paweł Modrzyński http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1861-0643