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Abstract Acknowledging the importance of heroes in the framing of political identities and building on the expanding interdisciplinary scholarship, this paper offers a novel approach by situating the analysis of public choices of heroes within debates on social change, and, specifically, inclusion and diversity politics. Utilising an original dataset of two individual-level, nationally representative surveys of British and US adults, we demonstrate that the landscape of popular heroism in both countries is shaped by limited acceptance of traditionally under-represented groups such as women and ethnic minorities. Using rigorous testing and regression analysis, we highlight the endurance of a white male hero whose dominance is only challenged through preferences for same-sex and same-race/ethnicity hero-figures, with both trends signposting the symbolic boundaries of embracing the difference. Overall, this paper highlights a critical role of popular heroes in advancing inclusion and diversity agendas and urges for further empirical research on the socio-political functions, and gender, race-specific drivers of heroism.

In modern day Britain, the discourse of national heroification is routinely utilised by politicians, educationalists and cultural industry professionals, whilst also being a popular concept to describe deserving 'do-gooders' who contribute to British society in a myriad of ways. We argue that although this heroification discourse is enacted as a discursive device of encouraging politically and morally desirable behaviour, it is dissociated from the largely under-explored facets of contemporary popular heroism. To compensate for this gap, this paper explores public preferences for heroes using survey data representative of British adults. This analysis demonstrates a conceptual stretching in the understanding of heroism, and allows identifying age- and gender-linked dynamics which effect public choices of heroes. In particular, we demonstrate that age above all determines the preference for having a hero, but does not explain preferences for specific hero-types. The focus on gender illustrates that the landscape of popular heroism reproduces a male-dominated bias which exists in the wider political and cultural heroification discourse. Simultaneously, our study shows that if national heroification discourse in Britain remains male-centric, the landscape of popular heroism is characterised by a gendered trend towards privatisation of heroes being particularly prominent amongst women. In the conclusion, this paper argues for a conceptual revision and re-gendering of the national heroification discourse as a step towards both empirically grounded, and age- and gender-sensitive politics of heroes and heroines.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Lists of figures and tables -- List of abbreviations -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 The missing link: religion and British politics -- The research questions and conclusions of the book -- 1) What was the contribution of religion to the rise of Euroscepticism in Britain and the Brexit vote? -- 2) How does religion affect Euroscepticism? -- 3) How has the relationship between religion and voter behaviour in Britain changed because of rising Euroscepticism and/or Brexit? -- 2 Theorising religion and Euroscepticism -- What do we mean by 'Euroscepticism'? -- What do we mean by 'religion'? -- How does religion shape Euroscepticism? -- Religious belonging and Euroscepticism: the history of political and religious institutions -- Religious belonging and Euroscepticism: political ideology -- Religious belonging and Euroscepticism: religion and national identity -- Religious belonging and Euroscepticism: party identification -- Religious behaviour and Euroscepticism: elite cues and social capital -- Religious belief and Euroscepticism: Christian tenets -- Conclusion -- 3 Euroscepticism and religion before Brexit -- Religion and the 1975 referendum -- Religion and Euroscepticism after 1975: on the road to Brexit -- The change in the relationship between religious belonging and Euroscepticism -- Conclusion -- 4 Religion and the Brexit referendum -- Religion and vote choice in the 2016 referendum -- Identifying the religious effects -- Regression analysis results -- Conclusion -- 5 Untangling (in)direct effects of religion on Euroscepticism -- Structural equation modelling and the relationship between religion and Euroscepticism -- The effect of religion on utilitarian and affective Euroscepticism -- Analysis details and results -- Details of the SEMs -- SEM results.

AbstractAcknowledging the importance of heroes in the framing of political identities and building on the expanding interdisciplinary scholarship, this paper offers a novel approach by situating the analysis of public choices of heroes within debates on social change, and, specifically, inclusion and diversity politics. Utilising an original dataset of two individual-level, nationally representative surveys of British and US adults, we demonstrate that the landscape of popular heroism in both countries is shaped by limited acceptance of traditionally under-represented groups such as women and ethnic minorities. Using rigorous testing and regression analysis, we highlight the endurance of a white male hero whose dominance is only challenged through preferences for same-sex and same-race/ethnicity hero-figures, with both trends signposting the symbolic boundaries of embracing the difference. Overall, this paper highlights a critical role of popular heroes in advancing inclusion and diversity agendas and urges for further empirical research on the socio-political functions, and gender, race-specific drivers of heroism.

AbstractThis article examines how religious affiliation shapes support for European Union membership. While previous research has shown that Protestants are typically more eurosceptic than Catholics, little is known about the nature of this relationship: specifically, whether religion affects one's utilitarian assessments of the costs and benefits of membership, or one's affective attachment to the EU. Using the 2016 British Election Study Referendum Panel, this article shows that religious affiliation influences both sets of attitudes, suggesting that the values and shared history associated with one's religion shapes how a voter perceives the performance of the EU in delivering its policy objectives, and its operation as a legitimate institution. Moreover, some findings from previous research are challenged: Protestants are not as unified in their scepticism of the EU as is widely assumed, and the positive relationship between Catholicism and support for EU integration is not apparent in the UK.