Description

The findings of a major three-year research project funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council are now available in a newly-published book from Earthscan, entitled Contested Common Land: Environmental Governance, past and present. The project, a partnership between the Department and Newcastle Law School, explored the management of common land in England and Wales, past and present, focusing on case studies of commons in Cumbria, Yorkshire, mid-Wales and Norfolk.

The historical research was undertaken here at Lancaster by Angus Winchester and Eleanor Straughton, working closely with environmental lawyers, Chris Rodgers and Margherita Pieraccini of Newcastle Law School. The new book has been described by Professor Stephen Daniels, Director of the AHRC Landscape and Environment Programme, as 'collaborative, multi-disciplinary landscape research at its finest: field and archival, contemporary and historical, comparative and local, scholarly and publically engaged. Both rigorous and imaginative, the book shines a new light on English and Welsh commons and the landscape more widely'. Endorsing the book, the Nobel prizewinning economist Elinor Ostrom reinforces the importance of historical research in environmental issues: 'For sustainability questions we have to study more systems over time as this important collection of studies illustrates', she writes.

Further details of the project will be found on the project website.