The Right to Wander: Issues in the Leisure Use of Countryside and Wilderness Areas

Abstract

The right to wander refers to the right to be on land or water for reasons of sport, leisure and pleasure with only minimal common sense limitations — a right that is denied to the vast majority of people. This paper represents a preliminary attempt to show how notions such as private property are actually social constructions, defined by a powerful minority in its own interests; how challenges to these social constructions by representatives of the majority resulted in a series of unsatisfactory accommodations in the form of national parks and other limited protected areas; how even these unsatisfactory accommodations came under attack in the conservative political economy of the 1980s; and, how some alternative social constructions are possible that will result in far more democratic definitions and uses of countryside and wilderness areas. The present trend points toward decreased access to countryside and wilderness areas. This trend will continue if the vast majority of the world's population who are losing access do not engage in increased social action to promote alternatives to the status quo, and to further the cause of the right to wander.