The strange revival of the allotments movement in the UK may mark the unexpected revival of a very old, but lost political tradition - the English tradition of Back to the Land, which stretches back via the Distributists to Ruskin, Morris and Cobbett and much else besides:
http://www.neweconomics.org/blog/2012/03/26/the-real-meaning-of-allotments
My new ebook on the history of allotments is now published and available.