How to play against 1. c4?

I suggest 1...c5 and go for a hedgehog formation with pawns on a6, b6, d6 and e6. Try and trade off the c pawn for white's d pawn to get an open file for the rook on a8. Sergey Shipov has an excellent 2 volume book series called "The Complete Hedgehog". Volume one deals primarily with how to play against 1.c4.

good idea!

IF your opponent plays the english more than likely they are a 1200 who has been told by there chess club coach at school that it is a good positional opening that avoids theory.

the centre pawn triangle of c6, d5, e6 was suggested by mihail marin in his grandmaster repertoire series on the english.

black can achieve that by playing various move orders involving Nf6 and the pawn moves mentioned above

I'm surprised no one mentioned the English Defense to the the English.  1.c4 b6! leads to some really crazy positions and tactics, and if the game turns positional, it becomes a solid Queen's Indian type of position .

1.c4 Nc6!

hoping for 2.d4 e5

If 2.Nc3 or something else I play a combination of ...e5, ...Bb4, ...Bxc3, ...f5, ...Nf6, ...d6, ...0-0

and then try to play for a mating attack with moves like ...Qe8-h5, ...f4, ...Bh3, ...Ng4 etc.

I've never really studied any defense to 1.c4, I just try to get my white repertoire in reverse.

Does anybody know if white playing 1.c4 has any means to stop black from setting up a reasonable hedgehog? (I'm deeply fascinated by the setup, but I heard that white must cooperate somehow, although the hedgehog is said to be ultra flexible.)

Wow, that sound like me!

White can play g3 very early making it tricky for black to play b6, and Bb7. The typical hedgehog scenario is white playing d4, c5xd4 and after white re-captures black moving pawns to three rank, and waiting for right to re-act with pawn breaks, whilst having less space. 

                                 There can be quite amusing situations were white avoids playing d4, and waits with peices behind three rank too. A hedgehog declined, I guess, and both sides end up waiting for something to react to.  Not something would recommend inexperience players try.

                        The most simplest is putting pawn in centre with e6, d5 and develop peices. Carlsen played it in World championship match, so there isn't anything objectively wrong with it either.

Against the English I can say what I've done but have no clue what is best. Normally I play e6 then d5 and c5 aiming for a Tarrasch, which I find scores better vs English players that vs d4 players oddly. Sometimes I play Nf6 before c5 and aim for semi-Tarrasch a la Keres. When these are repetitive I go for the symmetric English [1. c4 c5]. There are several options for development there and whatever white picks I do something different. [Not the surest way to draw but less boring than defending a position with near complete symmetry a move behind white]. I dont normally play the English as white but when I do I find the development with c6 & d5 etc hardest to show an advantage against [but find it to dry to play myself]. --Bill