Publisher's Synopsis
The authors show how environmental degradation goes hand-in-hand with the history of the enclosure of the local commons, a process which has fragmented and dispossessed communities from medieval Britain to present-day Brazil and New York. The policies put forward at the Earth Summit in Rio, they argue, will simply continue the process with new and more intrusive forms of enclosure. The only way to understand the process is to see it in terms of power - where that lies, how it is exercised, by whom and for whose benefit. Far better, the book makes clear, for environmentalists to support local movements attempting to defend the commons against the encroachments of multinationals, international agencies and national governments. Local communities do not need outside "management", but control over their own land, forests, water and air.
