Property

The idea of property carries both extensive symbolic resonance and significant practical implications in contemporary Western societies. Traditional legal works on property necessarily emphasise formal legal regimes of property ownership. Traditional works on the philosophy of property, in particular those which have been produced within liberal political contexts, consider the ontology of property, its relationship to individualism, and economic justifications for its existence. My aim in this work is to produce a critique of property, examining its classical treatments in a more cultural-symbolic framework. For instance, traditional justifications of private property relate it to the nature and needs of the individual, where the individual is seen (like property) as a self-contained, exclusive entity. Feminist and race-based critiques of this property ideology emphasise the complicity of property and hegemonic conceptions of masculinity and whiteness (see, eg Jennifer Nedelsky, Cheryl Harris). One aim of the book is therefore to examine the ways in which concepts of property are symbolically and practically connected to social relations of power. A second aim is to consider and critique the 'objects' of property in changing contexts of materialism. Third, the book will explore challenges to the Western idea of property posed by colonial and post-colonial contexts, such as the disempowerment through property of whole cultures, the justifications for colonial expansion, and biopiracy. These broad themes will be considered in four central chapters dealing with the symbolism of property, its history, traditional philosophical accounts, and cultural difference.