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11 Soc. & Legal Stud. 5 (2002)

handle is hein.journals/solestu11 and id is 1 raw text is: FAR BEYOND 'THE EARLY MORNING CROWING OF A FARMYARD COCK':1 REVISITING THE PLACE OF NUISANCE WITHIN LEGAL AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE DAVINA COOPER Keele University, UK ABSTRACT Private and public nuisance have been the subject of extensive legal scholarship; however, far less has been said about nuisance as a sociolegal and political concept. Bringing a normative perspective to the analysis of nuisance claims, this article seeks to draw together discussions of nuisance in very different contexts- from the tortious injuries caused by sounds, vibrations and odours crossing property boundaries to the everyday claims that particular identities or statuses represent an impediment to the pursuit of legitimate interests. In attempting to determine the common ground, if any, that exists between these different nuisance usages, the article focuses on the ways in which freedom, control, responsibility, attention, purpose and place have been articu- lated. My aim in doing so is threefold: first, to analyse the norms and values under- lying nuisance as a discourse and regulatory technique; second, to consider whether engaging in nuisance conduct has anything to offer a progressive or radical politics; and third, to consider the limits and potential in reconceptualizing nuisance to desig- nate new, counterhegemonic common senses. INTRODUCTION N AN ERA of scholarly focus on the power and significance of discourse, the neglect that nuisance has encountered is striking. Seen by many lawyers as a dry, archaic property tort, written off by the wider polity as a petty form of harm, the capacity of nuisance to articulate and promote the SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES 0964 6639 (200203) 11:1 Copyright © 2002 SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi, Vol. 11(1), 5-35; 021752