After the 35 projects in the Programme had been commissioned, a public launch event was held in the form of a major conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster. The conference showcased the research commissioned for the programme alongside contributions from leading politicians, journalists and civil servants. A copy of the Conference Programme is available here.
The conference explored how far devolution is a challenge to 'Britishness', the glue of shared institutions, interests and identity which bind the four nations of the United Kingdom.
Advocates see devolution as a way of renewing Britishness, as a tool for rebalancing a relationship between the Union and the four nations that had become fraught and was losing its unifying force. Opponents fear devolution will undermine the binding qualities of Britishness and weaken the Union. Others are concerned that devolution's emphasis on the four nations - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - neglects 'new' Britons whose Britishness has other roots.
The debate about the impact of devolution on Britishness has been vibrant. It has been a persistent undercurrent in political debate surrounding the programme of constitutional reform carried out since 1997. Media commentators have queued up to offer their prognoses of what devolution means for Britishness (or Scottishness, or Englishness). Academic research across the social sciences and humanities - from the broad sweep of Norman Davies' The Isles through to detailed social survey research - has revealed new understandings and indices of what Britishness is, and how it is changing.
Though vibrant, these debates in politics, the media and research have largely talked past each other. They have also been territorially separated. What is important in discussing Britishness in London is not the same as in Cardiff or Edinburgh or even the rest of England.
The ESRC Devolution and Britishness Conference provided a forum to connect these debates, and to bring together their protagonists from across the UK. The aim was both to audit the current state of Britishness, but also to pick out the underlying trends which will shape future developments.
The conference was opened with a speech from Barbara Roche MP, Minister of State at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the then ESRC Chief Executive Dr Gordon Marshall. The first half of the day focused on understandings of Britishness in each part of the UK, the second on how 'overarching', quintessentially British institutions - the BBC, the NHS, the civil service and the business community - are responding to the devolution process. The day closed with a speech from Alan Whitehead MP, Minister of State in the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
The conference was sponsored by:
The ESRC
The British Academy
The Political Studies Association of the UK
The Regional Studies Association
Scottish and Newcastle
