SUSTAINING THE COMMONS
ONE DAY CONFERENCE
DEVONSHIRE BUILDING NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
5TH JULY 2013
THE CHALLENGES FACING COMMON LAND AND ITS RELEVANCE TO MODERN SOCIETY AND
THE ECONOMY ARE MANY AND VARIOUS. THE CONFERENCE WILL ADDRESS NEW MODELS
FOR COMMONS GOVERNANCE AND HOW BEST TO RECOGNISE, PROTECT AND CELEBTRATE
THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE MODERN COMMONS.
SUSTAINING THE COMMONS
NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
5 JULY 2013
10.00 a.m.-4.30 p.m.
Venue: G21/22 Devonshire Building, Newcastle University
Conference Themes
The challenges facing common land, to capturing its relevance to modern society and the
economy, are many and various. The conference will address two themes. It will, firstly,
conclude the Building Commons Knowledge research project by addressing new models for
commons governance. Ensuring that we “sustain” the commons will require “sustainable”
governance
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Governance that will endure for the long term, that will provide for the inclusive and
effective governance of common land for the public benefit and for that of
stakeholders
Governance that will reconcile public access and recreation on the one hand with
economic resource use (for example agriculture) on the other- and with nature
conservation and with other environmental demands now made on the modern
commons.
The second theme will consider how we can best recognise, protect and celebrate the cultural
heritage of the modern commons.
The conference will conclude the Building Commons Knowledge research project, funded by
the Arts and Humanities Research Council On Funding scheme 2012-2013. Building
Commons Knowledge continues the work of the AHRC Contested Common Land research
project, a collaborative project from 2007-2010 by Newcastle and Lancaster Universities.
Contacts: Professor C Rodgers [email protected] ; Ben Cowell
[email protected]; or Dr Ann Sinclair [email protected] for further
details.
The conference is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and supported
by Research Project Partners - The National Trust and The Foundation for Common
Land
PROGRAMME
Contested Commons Today – Pressures, Interests & Services
10.00 The Contested Common Land Project and Building Commons Knowledge
Ben Cowell (The National Trust) and Professor Chris Rodgers (Newcastle University)
10.10 The Modern Commons – a Protected Open Space?
Kate Ashbrook (Open Spaces Society)
11.00 – 11.15 Coffee
11.15 The Modern Commons, Reconciling Conservation and Farming
Graham Bathe (Open Spaces Society, Foundation for Common Land)
12.00 The Modern Commons – Providing Ecosystem Services?
Chris Short (CCRI University of Gloucestershire), Julia Aglionby (Director, National Centre
for the Uplands)
1:00 – 2.00 Lunch
The Commons – Past and Future
2.00 Capturing Commons Stories
Professor Angus Winchester and Dr Eleanor Straughton (University of Lancaster)
3.00 Tea
3.15 New Commons – Inspiring New Cultural Traditions
Duncan Mackay (Principal Specialist, People and Access, Natural England)
4.00 Sustaining the Commons – Conclusions (Plenary)
4.30 Close of Conference
SPEAKERS
Julia Aglionby is Director of the National Centre for the Uplands based at Newton Rigg
College in Cumbria. She is also Chairman of the Foundation for Common Land and is
undertaking doctoral research on the governance of Commons in National Parks.
Kate Ashbrook has been general secretary of the Open Spaces Society for 29 years. She is
also president of the Ramblers, a trustee of the Campaign for National Parks and the
Dartmoor Preservation Association and patron of the Walkers Are Welcome Towns Network.
She owns 17 acres of common land on western Dartmoor.
Graham Bathe has 40 years’ experience in countryside management, working for charities
and the public sector, in Britain and overseas. He was Principal Project Manager for
Common Land in Natural England, working on the preparation and implementation of the
Commons Act 2006. He is currently a trustee of both the Open Spaces Society and the
Foundation for Common Land.
Duncan Mackay is currently Natural England's Principal Adviser in the Reconnecting People
and Nature team. He was formerly: Director of the South East region of the Countryside
Agency; an environmental Technical Director in the private sector Babtie Group (now
Jacobs); Environmental Manager for Berkshire County Council; and, Deputy Secretary of the
Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society.
Chris Rodgers is Professor of law and Head of School at Newcastle law School. He was
Principal Investigator of the AHRC Contested Common Land project 2007-2010 and of the
Building Commons Knowledge project 2012-2013. His recent publications include Contested
Common Land: Environmental Governance Past and Present (Earthscan 2010) (with
Winchester, Straughton and Pieraccini), and The Law of Nature Conservation: property,
environment and the limits of law (Oxford University Press 2013).
Chris Short is Senior Research Fellow at the Countryside and Community Research. He has
written widely on the relationship between agriculture, forestry, nature conservation, amenity
and climate change and their constituent communities. He has particular interests in the
development and implementation of rural development and agri-environment policy, as well
as the nature of partnerships and knowledge exchange that these require. He has considerable
expertise in issues relating to landscape scale initiatives, shared resources, collective action
and commons across Europe.
Eleanor Straughton is Research Associate in the History Department, Lancaster University;
she is currently working on the Building Commons Knowledge Project and previously worked
on the Contested Common Land Project. She is the author of Common Grazing in the
Northern English Uplands, 1800-1965 (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008).
Angus Winchester Angus Winchester is Professor of Local and Landscape History at
Lancaster University and has had a sustained interest in the history of common land since
writing The Harvest of the Hills (Edinburgh University Press, 2000). He co-led the
Contested Common Land and Building Commons Knowledge projects.