Wastes and Strays
The Past Present and Future of English Urban Commons
Professor Chris Rodgers, Professor Rachel Hammersley, Dr Sarah Collins and Dr Livi Dee are working together on this project, running from January 2019 to June 2022. Funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (UKRI), this project has support from Portsmouth University, Exeter University and Sheffield university along with non-academic support from The National Trust.
Synopsis of the research project
"Wastes and Strays is an interdisciplinary 3-year project studying urban commons across England, its objective being to promote them as publicly accountable, open, green, spaces vital for culture, health, wellbeing and biodiversity in the metropolitan context. With different legislative backgrounds and use-value, the definition of ‘common’ use is often misunderstood. With many urban commons lost, neglected or underused, the project will use four diverse case studies as exemplars of the distinctively ‘urban’ common. The project is using historical, legal, performance based and oral history research methodologies to study each of its four case study commons namely: Town Moor, Newcastle; Valley Gardens, Brighton; Mousehold Heath, Norwich; and Clifton Down, Bristol. It will generate a multifaceted definition of the ‘urban’ common to provide a robust base for education initiatives and future public policy guidance informing their development and use as a diverse cultural and ecological space in our future cities."
Key outputs
The Wastes and Strays Blog (16 articles) (https://research.ncl.ac.uk/wastesandstrays/wastesandstraysblog/). A research monograph will be published by Routledge in 2022.
Project website