Whose Place Is This Anyway? An Actor-Network Theory Exploration of a Conservation Conflict

Abstract

This is a story of community protest, natural landscape, and the conservation of a small area of National Trust land in North West England. Taking an ethnographic approach into the history of this conflict over the management of nature, this research examines contested perceptions of an area of countryside with the national designation of a “site of special scientific interest.” There is a disjuncture between policy-oriented “official” interpretations of the site as a “site of special scientific interest” needing conservation, which alludes to its historical identity, and local people’s sense of belonging to the place as it has evolved through benign neglect. Using an actor-network theory-based approach to the relationships between the different entities involved at this site, this article examines the different ways of caring for places and the implications of these for future generations.