Opening Farmland to the Public Countryside Access Issues in Ireland

• Published in: SOSHIOROJI Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 3 - 19,198
• Main Author: KAJIMA, Yoshikazu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: SHAKAIGAKU KENKYUKAI 01.02.2013
• Subjects: Ambivalence; Arendt, Hannah; Certainty; Conflict; Family Farms; Farmers; Ireland; Land; Natural Resources; Rights; Rural Areas; Trust
• ISSN: 0584-1380; 2188-9406
• DOI: 10.14959/soshioroji.57.3_3

Many rural areas in Europe have experienced countryside access issues since the1980s, namely, conflict over land between its legal owners (often farmers) and people using the land for recreational purposes. Without legal access rights for the public, recreational users have dialogues to elicit goodwill from landowners. However, open public access involves many uncertainties, so it is difficult to forge trust, particularly “generalized trust” on the side of landowners. Creating a system controlling public access to reduce such uncertainties could be effective, but it may not function effectively for different reasons.　This paper explores countryside access issues for walking activities in the Republic of Ireland, where there are no legal access rights for the public. The Irish government has experienced difficulties in solving access issues by either dialogue or with a system because of the problems described above. With a case study of an area experiencing access problems, the paper shows that similar difficulties are experienced at local level and national level. However, possibilities for public access through the practice of local farmers for their land are clarified. Farmers regard themselves as the temporal owner of their land in terms of family ownership, and feel unable to stop walkers. At the same time, however, they use this logic when obstructing walkers. For them, it is vital to passon properly managed land to the next generation.　The paper explores this way of opening natural resources using Arendt’s concepts, applying “work” and “action” to system and dialogue in countryside access issues. Her concept of “labor” can be applied to farmers’ practices. However, “the world” made by this “labor” contains ambivalence, and both the willingness and non-willingness of the farmers to accept walkers arise there.