A common claim: Community land ownership in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland

Abstract

Working with Foucault's and Butler's theorisation of the norm and the political possibilities that may be created when norms are disrupted and Foucault's and Gibson-Graham's work on ethics and subjectivities, this paper focuses on practices of property and nature when land in the Outer Hebrides is brought into community ownership. I argue that, while it is early to assess new political possibilities, there is sufficient evidence to show how a troubling of neoliberal norms of privatisation and enclosure through community land ownership provides a moment where a counterdiscourse is constituted. This counter narrative, centred on a collective subjectivity, opens up the possibility of more socially just and sustainable futures. Acknowledgements: I would like to acknowledge, with the warmest gratitude, conversations with many involved with the North Harris Trust who have spent considerable time, over the years, talking with me. The responsibility for interpreting what people have said to me is, of course, mine. My thanks also to the comments of three anonymous reviewers and the encouragement of Bonnie McCay.