Contested Commons

Formidably erudite, compellingly argued, and dryly humorous, Contested Commons will change the way you think about the politics of space, the “myth of the commons”, and the history of England since the eighteenth century. “Protest is a practice of communing”, Katrina Navickas argues, showing that commoning has been resistance to enclosure, claiming rights of access, and standing your ground when racists try forcing you out. It is also learning to see and contest new acts of enclosure today and, quite simply, children playing ball games out on the street. * Matthew Kelly, author of The Women Who Saved the English Countryside *
Starting with Kennington Common, and ranging from Steeple Bumpstead to Sheffield, Stonehenge and Brixton, and with a cast that includes ramblers, ranters, revolutionaries and ravers, this is a superb, sweeping but fine-grained history. It's also a highly necessary, politically urgent reminder of what public space is - places for everyone, owned by everyone, accessible to everyone, whether carefully tended or wild – and what it isn't, the tradition of pseudo-public space that runs from Victorian parks to privatised malls' * Owen Hatherley *