Becoming 'Good Neighbours' Interview Transcripts - Becoming 'Good Neighbours': How the model of English common land can inspire equitable multi-species relationships (PhD Thesis)

Thesis Abstract
Against a backdrop of accelerating anthropocentric environmental breakdown, this thesis examines how English common land can inspire sustainable and equitable multi-species relationships. I consider this question via a case study of Rodborough Common in Gloucestershire. Combining historical, environmental, and qualitative research with my professional conservation experience, I examine what this lowland working common can tell us about different ways of interacting with our multi-species neighbours. Using analysis of semi-structured interviews, historical sources, auto-ethnography, and ecological observations, I present a range of more-than-human commoners’ stories. I also analyse two examples of engagement projects that test Environmental Humanities methods and theories. The study finds present-day relationships with common land rooted in communal and individual place memories, bound in attitudes of sharing, openness, and a strong commoning tradition. These enable embodied and free encounters with others and engender feelings of love, care, and personal responsibility for the future of the land and its inhabitants. The thesis concludes that Rodborough Common shows some congruence with Ostrom’s principles of common pool resource management, but full alignment is prevented by centralised controls and a lack of localised autonomy. Despite this, commons such as Rodborough can thrive when use and management are rooted in respect for past and present commoners, and the co-creative agency of other-than-humans. Furthermore, the important role commons can play in encouraging multi-species community cohesion suggests that more such spaces are needed. One place is not, however, automatically exchangeable for another, suggesting simply enabling greater access to land would not significantly improve inter-species relations. Instead, the quality of interaction, which must be predicated on rural realities rather than mythical constructions, is key to becoming ‘good neighbours’. Alongside the need for more spaces for meaningful multi-species encounters, how and where we tell and experience the stories of our more-than-human enmeshments then become vital components of imagining and enacting a more hopeful Capitalocene.
This item contains interview transcripts:
The interview transcripts in this data set are the result of a series of semi-structured interviews and one focus group researching peoples’ use, relationships, and attitudes towards Rodborough Common in Gloucestershire, and the common-land model of sharing more generally. Interviews were conducted with residents (coded R), members of interest groups (coded IG), conservationists (coded C) and land managers (coded LM). In the transcripts the interviewer (Sharon Gardham) is coded I for semi-structured interviews or R for the focus group. All scripts have been anonymised, with references to places and people shortened to initials where these might be identifying features. Some job titles/employers’ names have also been redacted, as have aspects of the discussion that were not relevant to the research (i.e., where conversation became purely social in nature). Any redactions are enclosed by square brackets [ ] and where necessary, an explanation of the reason for the redaction is given.

The critical component of this thesis can be accessed via Bath Spa University's ResearchSPAce repository here:

Gardham, S.L (2025) Becoming 'Good Neighbours': How the model of English common land can inspire equitable and sustainable multi-species relationships. PhD thesis, Bath Spa University. doi: 10.17870/bathspa.00017506