ACFM Microdose: How Britain’s Coastal Communities are Reclaiming Power w/ Hazel Sheffield
Summary
Nadia Eidel interviews journalist Hazel Sheffield about her book *Frontierlands*, which documents self-organizing communities thriving in Britain’s post-industrial ruins. Recorded in a Hastings beach hut, they discuss how coastal towns like Watchet and Hastings are adapting to climate crisis and economic neglect through local initiatives like the Hastings Commons. Sheffield argues that these site-specific responses to precarity offer vital, non-replicable models for survival and community resilience beyond capitalist frameworks.
Topics discussed
Introduction to ACFM and Hazel's book Frontierlands
Hazel's background and the post-Brexit search for alternatives
Theoretical influences: Post-capitalism and mycelial networks
Buddleia, crisis, and the non-replicability of community models
Life in Hastings: Beach huts, sewage, and local festivals
Watchet: Isolation, social networks, and the art gallery project
Hastings' dual economy: Londoners, housing crisis, and Commons
Hastings Commons: Housing, youth clubs, and fair rents
Enclosure history and the modern loss of public space
Climate resilient hubs and retrofitting for disaster
Local government restructuring and the 'left behind' narrative
Icarus Economics, mutual aid, and the concept of 'juice'
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