Trespassing for the Right to Roam - Challenging Private Property Relations through Place-Making and Commoning in England
Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis project examines the dynamics of trespass protests, particularly focusing on the Right to Roam (RTR) movement in England. I ask in what ways trespass action for roaming rights challenges private property relations and embodies alternative relations to land and nature. Grounded in historical materialist and political-economic theories, private property is conceptualised as social and spatial relations of accumulation by dispossession and alienation, resulting in the enrichment of few at the expense of many. Through a sensory ethnographic framework and a mixed-method approach, I analyse how trespass actions embody bottom-up resistance against enclosure and commodification through place-making practices, highlighting themes of loss, belonging, and commoning. The RTR movement, while advocating for wider roaming rights, transcends the discussion of mere access to land under private ownership. Instead, it seeks to reclaim the commons as a cultural framework for fostering alternative socio-ecological relations rooted in grassroots concepts of care and reciprocity. By employing tactics such as storytelling, knowledge sharing and wild service, RTR emphasises collective rights and challenges the legitimacy of private ownership of land. The research underscores the need for experiential data collection methods to capture nuanced perspectives and lived experiences of land struggles and spatial politics. This thesis contributes to the understanding of embodied knowledge and performative resistance within spatial relations and to the research on commoning practices amidst enclosures, highlighting the power dynamics inherent in landed property.
Author: Imberh, Alexandra
Language: English
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7006504923