Taking the 2014 Scottish independence referendum as its case study, this book examines popular participation and elite interventions in democratic, plebiscitary events. It addresses how the referendum was constructed, represented, and performed as a participatory moment in media and political discourses and asks how elite representations overlap or contrast with referendum experiences of the public.

Drawing on and appealing to media studies, cultural theory, political science and history, this is the first study to use a truly interdisciplinary range of methods to examine a key moment of political participation. It does this through a unique primary dataset, including interviews, focus groups, newspapers, literature, and social media data. This book will appeal to scholars, students, and observers of political participation, secessionist movements, political media, and those interested in Scottish independence and British politics by shedding new light on the referendum's participatory legacy and hurdles that stop contemporary politics from being inclusive.

Analyses the Scottish independence referendum in its specific cultural and socio-political context Traces negotiations of popular participation through elite prescription and representation Addresses challenges of political participation and inclusion in of grassroots politics, mediatisation, digital politics

Autorentext

Maike Dinger is a postdoctoral researcher on the AHRC-/DFG-funded project Voices from the Periphery: (De-)Constructing and Contesting Public Narratives about Post-Industrial Marginalization at Bournemouth University, UK. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the connections between politics, media, national(ist) cultures and identities, with a view to social and political marginalisation and intersectional exclusions.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction: A festival of democracy and popular participation.- Chapter 2: The media, the public sphere, and participatory politics in a devolved Scotland.- Chapter 3: Writing participation in the media: the referendum as a media event and spectacle.- Chapter 4: Activism, voice, and the limits of popular participation.- Chapter 5: Digital publics and networks of communication on Twitter.- Chapter 6: Claiming politics, imagining Scotland: fictionalising indyref and visions of a country.- Chapter 7: Representing the people and a myth of popular participation.- Chapter 8: Conclusion: the myth of popular participation.