The enclosure of knowledge: Books, power and agrarian capitalism in Britain 1660-1800

This talk will introduce the key ideas from the book The Enclosure of Knowledge, highlighting elements that connect to wider themes in rural sociology. The book retells the history of agrarian capitalism as a transformation in the system of knowledge as much as changes in land, labour and markets. It argues that during the early modern period, farming books were a key tool in the appropriation of the traditional art of husbandry possessed by farm workers of all kinds. It challenges the dominant narrative of an agricultural 'enlightenment', in which books merely spread useful knowledge, by showing how codified knowledge was used to assert greater managerial control over land and labour. This talk will focus on the tension between theory and practice, competing notions of expertise, and the notion of a distinctive 'peasant epistemology'.