Europe in Fragments

Abstract

In this autoethnographic response to Brexit, the author tries to make sense of feelings of profound loss following the UK referendum decision to leave the European Union. In exploring questions of what it is that has been lost, who ‘we’ are, and how we might recover, she traces key strands in her family, cultural, and professional life that highlight both points of division and points of connection with others (and with those doing ‘othering’), in our increasingly polarised and fragmented world. Stories she listened to in her professional capacity, told by politicians on the one hand and by those who had long felt excluded and ‘left behind’ on the other, take on a fresh significance in light of the decision to ‘leave’. In these uncertain and insecure times, one thing seems sure: Progress lies in connecting to others, reaching out, crossing borders, holding hands, healing wounds, re-creating community.