The Geography of Discontent Revisited: Decoupling Attitudinal Clustering and Affective Intensification in Urban Britain

Tahir Abbas

doi:10.1080/14608944.2026.2635418

The Geography of Discontent Revisited: Decoupling Attitudinal Clustering and Affective Intensification in Urban Britain

Tahir Abbas

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Abstract

This paper investigates drivers of anti-diversity sentiment among the UK’s white majority. Using Latent Class Analysis on 2023 survey data (N = 2,535), we map five distinct clusters, including a large ‘Anxious Nationalist’ bloc driven by racialised status threat and a ‘Pro-Securitisation’ minority. Multilevel modelling decouples national formations from local influences. Our results suggest city deprivation does not predict membership, tentatively challenging the view that urban context ‘sorts’ individuals but significantly amplifies emotional intensity. Distinguishing formation from intensification refines the ‘geography of discontent’ thesis, arguing that while place may not determine who we are, it significantly shapes how loudly we express it.

Original language	English
Number of pages	20
Journal	National Identities
Early online date	13 Mar 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2026.2635418
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 13 Mar 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission-funded H2020 programme under grant agreement No. 959200.

Access to Document

10.1080/14608944.2026.2635418Licence: CC BY 4.0

The geography of discontent revisited decoupling attitudinal clustering and affective intensification in urban Britain
Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Final published version, 1.04 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "The Geography of Discontent Revisited: Decoupling Attitudinal Clustering and Affective Intensification in Urban Britain",

abstract = "This paper investigates drivers of anti-diversity sentiment among the UK{\textquoteright}s white majority. Using Latent Class Analysis on 2023 survey data (N = 2,535), we map five distinct clusters, including a large {\textquoteleft}Anxious Nationalist{\textquoteright} bloc driven by racialised status threat and a {\textquoteleft}Pro-Securitisation{\textquoteright} minority. Multilevel modelling decouples national formations from local influences. Our results suggest city deprivation does not predict membership, tentatively challenging the view that urban context {\textquoteleft}sorts{\textquoteright} individuals but significantly amplifies emotional intensity. Distinguishing formation from intensification refines the {\textquoteleft}geography of discontent{\textquoteright} thesis, arguing that while place may not determine who we are, it significantly shapes how loudly we express it.",

author = "Tahir Abbas",

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AB - This paper investigates drivers of anti-diversity sentiment among the UK’s white majority. Using Latent Class Analysis on 2023 survey data (N = 2,535), we map five distinct clusters, including a large ‘Anxious Nationalist’ bloc driven by racialised status threat and a ‘Pro-Securitisation’ minority. Multilevel modelling decouples national formations from local influences. Our results suggest city deprivation does not predict membership, tentatively challenging the view that urban context ‘sorts’ individuals but significantly amplifies emotional intensity. Distinguishing formation from intensification refines the ‘geography of discontent’ thesis, arguing that while place may not determine who we are, it significantly shapes how loudly we express it.

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The Geography of Discontent Revisited: Decoupling Attitudinal Clustering and Affective Intensification in Urban Britain

Abstract

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