Annual conference "Beyond (Private) Property"

Information from the organiser

As a basic institution of capitalist societies, private property plays a crucial role in the social, ecological, infrastructural, and political crises of the present day. At the same time, the strong orientation towards continually expanding private sector dynamics has itself entered into crisis. But what might social relations or a whole society beyond (private) property look like? Where, in the present, can we observe developments and new arrangements that point in this direction? What challenges and difficulties do these efforts face? And what can be learned from the successes and failures of similar attempts in the past, as well as from utopian and dystopian visions?

The focus of the conference is not solely on private property but also on other forms of property, as well as on critical engagements with the concept of property itself. Even where private property is the dominant social form of property, it always exists alongside and in conjunction with other forms—most notably state and common property—or within arrangements that regulate the control over things but have not (yet) taken the form of property. Moreover, private property serves different functions, depending on whether it pertains to personal property, which is primarily intended for consumption or livelihood, or to private ownership of societal means of production and infrastructure. Alternative forms of property, in turn, can perpetuate the problems associated with private property. It is reasonable to assume that the distinction fundamental to modern conceptions of property—between the (property) subject and the (property) object—is generally linked with a logic of control and possession. When this logic governs social relationships, interactions with non-human nature, or our own self- and world-relations, more horizontal ways of relating to the world are curtailed.

The conference is organized around three interconnected thematic streams: (A) Making the diversity of property visible, (B) Are there alternatives to property? and (C) Societies beyond private property. Central topics include: (global) commons, sharing economies, property relations in digital capitalism, indigenous and multi-species perspectives on property, provisioning infrastructures and infrastructural socialism, genetic resources and resistances to propertization, as well as the challenges of socio-ecological transformation.

The conference is aimed at scholars, practitioners, activists and students with an interest in property-related issues.