Rethinking Britain: launching the Centre for Modern & Contemporary Britain

The Centre for Modern and Contemporary Britain (CMCB) aims to be an open, interdisciplinary UCL centre examining diverse aspects of Britain and Britishness. It engages with academics from all faculties in order to develop research agendas and network across and beyond UCL. The Centre is committed to critical, comparative scholarship and public engagement around the challenges and opportunities faced by contemporary Britain.

Our opening event is the first of a number of round table discussions featuring an introduction to the new centre from Professor Tom Woodin. Interrogating the notion of Britishness, Professor Meg Russell will focus on the contradictions and implications of the current constitutional structure of Britain; Professor Jon Agar will examine tensions over ‘proving Britishness’ and identity cards; while Dr Sara Young will consider the implications for migration in contemporary Britain.

The event will be followed by a wine reception.

Introducing the Centre for Modern and Contemporary Britain

Tom Woodin, co-director CMCB and Professor of the Social History of Education

The Centre for Modern and Contemporary Britain (CMCB) is an open and diverse centre within the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) that is committed to critical, interdisciplinary, comparative scholarship and public engagement around the problems, challenges and opportunities faced by contemporary Britain. The Centre aims to build a vibrant and connected space for intellectual community and exchange that creates new synergies and productive working relationships by organising lectures, seminars and public events; new research clusters; and postgraduate support networks.

A constitutional perspective on modern Britain

Meg Russell, Director of the Constitution Unit and Professor of British and Comparative Politics, UCL

Britain is widely noted as special given its uncodified constitution, which can cause both controversy and misunderstanding. Meanwhile there are currently questions all over the world about the stability of democracy, and the rise of populism. Is Britain subject to these same pressures, or different pressures, and is it better or less able to cope given its setup? Such questions emerged over Brexit, and have continued since.

"Britishness" and proving identity

John Agar, co-head, Dept of Science and Technology Studies and Professor of Science and Technology Studies, UCL

Universal registration systems have repeatedly been proposed as solutions to short-lived moral panics. But there is little evidence that national registers effectively resolve such panics. This presentation draws upon the experience of identity cards from 1915-19 and 1939-52. Public indifference and hostility may only be overcome by building 'parasitic vitality' - making them function for a wider purpose. But this raises the danger of 'function creep': that the disclosure and use of personal information gradually becomes markedly different from that originally declared.

Britain and Migration: an unchanging discourse

Sara Young, co-director CMCB; and IOE, UCL Faculty of Education and Society.

Debates surrounding migration and the position of migrants within British society continue to dominate political discourse in Britain. The current government discourse has been argued to echo that of Enoch Powell’s 1968 incendiary ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, yet can also be seen as a continuation of the positioning of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ migrants that characterised the migration crisis of 2015 and provided a backdrop to the Brexit Referendum. Imbricated with such positioning is the question of language proficiency, which, this talk will argue, has become a proxy for the expression of anti-migrant sentiments and a particularly invidious way of framing the debate around migration.

About the speakers

Professor Jon Agar’s research focuses on the history of modern science and technology. Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Polity Press, 2012) provides a detailed overview of over a hundred years of science in context. Recent, specific research interests include: history of science and government; history at the intersections of technologies and the environment; history of computing including artificial intelligence, history of Cold War research; and new ways of thinking about technology.

Professor Meg Russell is Director of the UCL Constitution Unit and particularly known for her work on the British parliament. She is author of four books, and numerous reports and papers, on the workings of the House of Lords and House of Commons and their possible reform. From 2019-22 she was a Senior Fellow with the UK in a Changing Europe on ‘Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution’, and her subsequent work has focused particularly on constitutional standards and public attitudes to democracy. In the past, she has also worked on referendums, political party organisation, women's representation in politics and political psychology.

Professor Tom Woodin has published widely on the history of education and learners, as well as co-operative and mutual models of education and learning, working class writing and cultural forms. Recently, he updated the history of the IOE and is currently working on a history of teacher education. He is a founding member of the International Centre for Historical Research in Education (ICHRE).

Dr Sara Young is based at IOE, where she specialises in multilingual studies and migration, and also examines their intersection with state and complementary education. Her research explores the experiences of children and teenagers, including a current project with the Turkish community in London. She has particular expertise in the area of Polish Migration, on which she has published extensively. She has also written about the consequences of Brexit, and the implications for multilingualism and English language learning.