"For the Sake of the Deer": Land, Local Government and the Hunt

TY - JOUR

T1 - "For the Sake of the Deer":

T2 - Land, Local Government and the Hunt

AU - Cooper, Davina Sarah

PY - 1997

Y1 - 1997

N2 - Political activism by local government is a well known phenomenon in Britain. Less known are the interests affected. In this study, Somerset council's decision to ban hunting clashed with the long standing activities of the Quantock Staghounds. My discussion focuses on the conflict between hunt and council as a conflict of governance in which land rights provided both terrain and techniques of struggle. For the hunt, land rights functioned as a foundational basis for the hunt's authority and legitimacy. For Somerset, their decision to attack hunting through land ownership not only reveals the complex relationship between land and rural state governance, but also placed Somerset's own authority in jeopardy as the courts declared they could not ban hunting on moral grounds. Somerset's land rights were construed by the courts as dependent on pursuing management objectives. Similarly, the hunt's political credibility was also dependent on demonstrating their role in deer management. The paper concludes with the problems of discursively fusing management and governance.

AB - Political activism by local government is a well known phenomenon in Britain. Less known are the interests affected. In this study, Somerset council's decision to ban hunting clashed with the long standing activities of the Quantock Staghounds. My discussion focuses on the conflict between hunt and council as a conflict of governance in which land rights provided both terrain and techniques of struggle. For the hunt, land rights functioned as a foundational basis for the hunt's authority and legitimacy. For Somerset, their decision to attack hunting through land ownership not only reveals the complex relationship between land and rural state governance, but also placed Somerset's own authority in jeopardy as the courts declared they could not ban hunting on moral grounds. Somerset's land rights were construed by the courts as dependent on pursuing management objectives. Similarly, the hunt's political credibility was also dependent on demonstrating their role in deer management. The paper concludes with the problems of discursively fusing management and governance.

KW - K Law

M3 - Article

SN - 1467-954X

VL - 45

SP - 668

EP - 689

JO - The Sociological Review

JF - The Sociological Review

IS - 4

ER -