The scales of the “common”. Struggles to classify coastal sands, 19th-20th centuries

Using coastal sands as a case study, this article examines a blind spot in work on the commons: the scales of the “common” and their political uses. From the eighteenth century to the Second Empire, these scales were mobilised in the competition for ownership and management of the sands in terms of oppositions and variations between the “national commons” and the “communal commons”. In the first instance, the aim is to explain the public problematisation of the sands and their transmutation into a reserve of land at the service of the “national” economy. Secondly, it will show how those leading the offensive against the dunes are changing the scale of the “general interest”. Finally, the article will show how different sections of the population are resisting the offensive against the dunes in different ways, by defending different community scales of the “common”.