Counter-Cultural Groups in the Age of Covid: Ravers, Travellers and Legal Regulation
| Author | Chris Ashford,Mark O’Brien |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00220183211073641 |
| Published date | 01 August 2022 |
| Date | 01 August 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Counter-Cultural Groups in the
Age of Covid: Ravers, Travellers
and Legal Regulation
Chris Ashford
Professor of Law and Society, Northumbria University
Mark O’Brien
Associate Dean, City, University of London
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic once again brought into sharpened focus the contested relationships
of marginalised groups in the criminal law sphere, and the liminal (re-)regulation of space. Over
the course of the last four decades, the law has borne witness to an episodic yet regular inter-
twining of the fortunes of arguably two elements of Britain’s counterculture: ravers and travel-
lers, specifically ‘new age’travellers. The two groupings of peoples have had a long,
complex and often uncomfortable and fractious relationship both with English law, and also
its enforcement agencies. This is perhaps particularly evident in the criminal law provisions
and sometimes questionable enforcement of the Public Order Act 1986 and the Criminal
Justice and Public Order Act 1994, through to the social and environmental provisions of
the Caravan Sites Act 1968, Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act 1990, and subsequent
provisions.
Both the groupings of ravers and travellers have been faced with a series of legislative and
administrative measures that, directly or indirectly, curtail or otherwise restrict their choices
as to activities, lifestyles and behaviours. The article analyses how the impact of the Covid-19
pandemic has led to some long-established legal and regulatory themes being once again played
out in relation to these two counter-cultural groups.
Keywords
raves, travellers, COVID-19, counter-culture, liminality
Introduction
The Covid-19 global pandemic has presented in novel, yet paradoxically familiar terms the law’s relation-
ship with non-normative marginalised groups operating in liminal spaces, specifically in this instance the
Corresponding author:
Chris Ashford, Professor of Law and Society, Northumbria University.
E-mail: Chris.ashford@northumbria.ac.uk.
Article
The Journal of Criminal Law
2022, Vol. 86(4) 241–255
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/00220183211073641
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