Benevolence, hegemony and nationalism: fifty years of the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act

Parker, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3079-4377 and Ravenscroft, N. (1999) Benevolence, hegemony and nationalism: fifty years of the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. Leisure Studies, 18 (4). pp. 297-313. ISSN 1466-4496 doi: 10.1080/026143699374871

Abstract/Summary

This paper reviews the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 fifty years since its enactment. The Act is assessed in the light of fifty years of access policy and within the present context of political debates and manoeuvres over the ‘right to roam’. It is concluded that benevolence is still the prevailing attitude towards access provision, maintaining as it does the scope for alternative freedoms and opportunities to exploit land for consumptive practices such as leisure and recreation. As such, it is argued that the notion of the gift (Mauss, 1990) continues to dominate the provision of countryside access in England and Wales.