Abstract
The rights that guarantee public passage across private land are known as Rights of Way. In this paper, we argue that Rights of Way are a literal manifestation of a politics of space. The paper’s purpose is to suggest Rights of Way are central to issues surrounding social and spatial inequality, specifically with regards to public access to urban and rural space. They are a neglected topic in geographical research, despite their relevance to many subbranches including landscape studies, urban natures, GIS and open-source geospatial research. Rights of Way in England and Wales are currently facing their biggest legal threat to date. On the 1st January 2026, unregistered Rights of Way (RoW) are set to be extinguished. Path Extinguishment threatens 1000s of kilometres of footpath, bridleway, restricted byway and byways open to all traffic. The paper concludes by examining how the aforementioned geographical approaches help reveal the cultural and historical value of two at-risk footpaths in Coventry, England.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 484-498 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 12 Nov 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 7 May 2022 |
Bibliographical note
The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2021 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Keywords
- England and Wales
- access
- archival and geospatial methods
- landscapes
- path extinguishment
- rights of way
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Earth-Surface Processes