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Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 12 October 2018 Version of attached le: Published Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Abram, Simone and Blandy, Sarah (2018) 'Ownership and belonging in urban green space.', in Legal strategies for the development and protection of communal property. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 177-201. Proceedings of the British Academy. Further information on publisher's website: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/legal-strategies-for-the-development-and-protection-of-communal- property-9780197266380 Publisher's copyright statement: Abram, Simone Blandy, Sarah (2018). Ownership and belonging in urban green space. In Legal Strategies for the Development and Protection of Communal Property. 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Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk 9 Ownership and Belonging in Urban Green Space SIMONE ABRAM AND SARAH BLANDY Introduction This chapter is concerned with a particular type of communal property: urban green spaces which are used by the general public and are prevalent throughout the UK. ‘Urban’ refers to spaces within town or city boundaries, and ‘green’ to areas with vegetation, not paved squares or plazas. In this chapter we have adopted the term ‘communal property’ to capture the understanding that rights of access, use and enjoyment of these urban green spaces are shared in common by the general public. Urban green spaces transcend the public/private divide and provide natural beauty in urban settings, opportunities for chance encounters, spaces for commu- nity development and neighbourhood events; they are ‘critical to the social and communal fabric’.1 Consideration of legal strategies for their development and protection raises many interesting and important issues, particularly relevant at a time of austerity when local authority parks are facing financial cuts, and other sources of funding for urban green spaces are also diminishing.2 Green spaces in the UK are strikingly varied in form, governance and ownership arrangements. The traditional fenced or walled park owned by the local author- ity faces increasing financial pressures. Councils are exploring the practicalities of different forms of management, especially partnership arrangements between public, private and voluntary sector organisations. There are also pocket parks in community management, neighbourhood gardens, and green spaces owned and managed by charitable trusts and private subscription societies, among others. 1 J. Page, ‘Towards an Understanding of Public Property’, in N. Hopkins (ed.), Modern Studies in Property Law, vol. 7 (Oxford, Hart, 2013), pp. 195–216 at p. 214. 2 See full discussion of this context in Communities and Local Government Committee, Public Parks: Seventh Report of Session 2016–17, House of Commons, HC 45: www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ cm201617/cmselect/cmcomloc/45/45.pdf. Proceedings of the British Academy, 216, 177–201. © The British Academy 2018. Legal Strategies.indb 177 13/07/2018 11:14 178 Simone Abram and Sarah Blandy A number of reasons have been suggested for the changes to urban green spaces since the mid-twentieth century when the majority of UK parks were owned and managed by local authorities. For instance, there has been a resurgence of indi- vidual and, particularly, collective ways of engaging with the land;3 some local authorities have adopted innovative practices to involve residents with their local green spaces; and funding cuts to local authorities since the financial crash in 2008 have prompted the establishment of many partnership arrangements. The relevant property rights of ownership, management, access and use can- not necessarily be divined through the materiality of the space itself, nor is it always apparent where responsibility lies for a particular space and what kinds of activities are permitted there. This raises the issue of democratic accountability in relation to decision-making over urban green spaces owned and managed both by local authorities and by community groups. As will become apparent, there are difficulties in categorising parks in terms of property law in this jurisdiction, and a bewildering array of possible alternative legal arrangements for the own- ership of parks by a range of different organisations. Although these issues are discussed in this chapter, we want to move beyond a single focus on property law to consider the wide range of literature addressing the phenomenon of urban green space. Urban green spaces have attracted attention from a range of academic disciplines. The interrelationship of this research is used here to illuminate understanding and to contribute to the development of theories of communal property, despite the difficulties caused by similar-sounding terms used in different ways. For example, critical urbanist scholars are concerned with theorising ‘public space’,4 and in particular the effects of its commodification and privatisation.5 Anthropological research highlights the connection between individuals, community and place, closely examining the concepts of belonging and ownership.6 Recent scholarship on the ‘urban commons’ describes and theorises the process of claiming space as communal.7 Similarly, legal geographers use the concept of performativity to 3 S. Farran, ‘Earth under the Nails: The Extraordinary Return to the Land’, in N. Hopkins (ed.), Modern Studies in Property Law, vol. 7 (Oxford, Hart, 2013), pp. 173–191. 4 H. Lefebvre, Writings on Cities, trans. E. Kofman and E. Lebas (Oxford, Blackwell, 1996; first published in French, 1968). 5 D. Mitchell, The Right to the City (New York, Guilford Press, 2003). See also legal scholarship on this issue: A. Layard, ‘Shopping in the Public Realm: A Law of Place’, Journal of Law and Society, 37 (2010), 412–441. 6 M. Strathern, Property Substance and Effect: Anthropological Essays on Persons and Things (London, Athlone Press, 1999); C. M. Hann (ed.), Property Relations: Renewing the Anthropological Tradition (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998); V. Strang and M. Busse (eds), Ownership and Appropriation (Oxford and New York, Berg, 2011). 7 D. Bollier, Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons (Gabriola Island, BC, Canada, New Society Publishers, 2014); P. Linebaugh, The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All (Oakland, University of California Press, 2009); I. Susser and Legal Strategies.indb 178 13/07/2018 11:14 OWNERSHIP AND BELONGING IN Urban GREEN Space 179 shed light on ideas of property and possession in land.8 Landscape researchers have clarified the important distinction between initial acts of place-making and the ongoing process of place-keeping,9 and have also analysed the partnership arrangements between public, private and third sector organisations, through which many urban green spaces are now owned and managed.10 The breadth of the literature referred to above, on which we draw in this chapter, underlines the significance of this type of communal property. A unifying theme is the transformation over time of urban green spaces through human interac- tions. These collective activities change the look of the land, and drive changes to the legal and practical arrangements for its ownership, management and rights of access and use. This chapter investigates the co-constitutive relationship of people (individuals and communities), place and law in relation to urban green spaces. In contrast to legal scholarship’s customary ‘sharp boundaries between people and place’,11 we explore feelings and experiences of belonging and ownership, and how community identity coheres around particular spaces.12 We examine these themes, and not just legality, along a temporal axis.13 The rich variation of types of urban green space as communal property, the different disciplinary approaches, and the importance of studying changes over time, all point to the value of detailed contextual research. Analysis of ‘practices as well as the spatial, social and legal interaction[s]’14 at a particular site over time can reveal the mismatch between legal and popular understandings of communal property. This chapter focuses on Heeley People’s Park in Sheffield in the UK as a case study, exploring its creation and development over time and the current strategies intended to ensure its future. As trustees of Heeley Development Trust, which holds leasehold title to the park, both authors enjoy ‘insider status’15 giving us access to particular experiences and rich knowledge and information about the S. Tonnelat, ‘Transformative Cities: The Three Urban Commons’, Focaal – Journal