‘We're out, so wtf do we do now?’: Brexit and rural identity in the era of online agricultural communities

Abstract

This article explores online interactions between members of the UK farming community in the context of Brexit, a moment of great friction within British agriculture. A ‘netnography’ was conducted of thefarmingforum.co.uk, a British-based discussion group with a large membership, covering a range of aspects from farming practices to trade and relationships. Findings reveal how the online space challenges and connects notions of rural space and place. A displaced identity, unmoored from traditional farming attributes such as land and locality, becomes both a driving force for participation and a tool for political control. The article sheds light on the under-appreciated political power of such online groups enabled through under-researched digital technologies. The farmer-owned forum represents the ‘other voice’ within corporate-led agricultural innovation; however, the onset of Brexit became a catalyst for extreme politics, facilitating a populist swing towards the Leave campaign and revealing a visceral distrust for institutions.