Suchergebnisse

Five years after the murder of British MP, Jo Cox, during the European Union referendum campaign in 2016, this article examines the More In Common initiative through two sites of participatory practice: on Twitter via two related hashtags–#MoreInCommon and #LoveLikeJo–and the 'More In Common' exhibition (2021–2022) at the People's History Museum in Manchester. We consider how both spaces help to organise public feeling and consider the ways in which these sites draw on Cox's identity politics and values to curate her political legacy. We identify three emergent logics through our thematic analysis of the tweets posted with the hashtags in the month following her death: connected, visual and resistant. Considering the political legacy of 'more in common' 5 years later, we then trace the movement of the campaign from the digital to the physical and assess the ways in which Cox's values are crystalized through co-created participatory artistic projects displayed in public gallery space.

In a Parliament called back following its unlawful prorogation in September 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson touched a raw nerve by stating that the 'best way to honour Jo Cox's memory is to get Brexit done'. Johnson had earlier dismissed concerns about threats to Members of Parliament which echoed his inflammatory language as 'humbug'. We examine this critical parliamentary moment in the context of broader discussions about emotionality, toxic discourse and polarisation in the United Kingdom. The study combines performance analysis of the Hansard transcripts and UK Parliament YouTube coverage of the debate, with discourse analysis of national and local newspaper coverage from 25 September to 1 October 2019. We contend that in-depth examination of this moment, alongside the subsequent journalistic commentary, contributes an original case study which works to illuminate the intersections of political performance, affective atmospheres and gender in contemporary mediated political culture.