Property as a World Relationship: Disposal, Care, Use: A Comparative Analysis in Germany and China

This project integrates and further develops the earlier projects C01 (Herrmann-Pillath) and C06 (Rosa, Oberthür). Initial studies on sharing economy practices revealed a broader cultural and institutional shift from practices and relationships of goods ownership to practices of "(mere) usage." Additionally, it emerged that arrangements of use without ownership, particularly regarding land and property, are institutionally widespread and culturally embedded in China (Shenzhen), alongside substantial state support for sharing practices. Both projects indicated that practices of "mere use" disrupt the traditionally property-linked bundles of rights to dispose of and obligations to care for goods, resulting in complex new patterns of usage rights and care responsibilities.

To analytically address these relationships, project C01 developed a theory of "having" and "havings." These bundles vary significantly depending on whether care and usage arrangements are structured through cooperatives, commercial leasing agreements, or sharing economy institutions. If ownership fundamentally defines social functions by allocating rights of disposal and corresponding care obligations, it becomes crucial to explore how disposal and care are regulated and how rights and obligations are allocated when tangible goods (e.g., cars, properties, hardware, software) are no longer owned but only temporarily used.

In its second funding phase, this research project conducts a comparative analysis in Germany and China, examining: 1) specific practices of disposal and associated rights bundles emerging in three identified areas (leasing, sharing, cooperatives), 2) related care responsibilities and orientations, and 3) cultural and institutional differences between these two regions. The project directly addresses the overarching SFB thesis of lengthening chains between possession and ownership, exploring cultural drivers and institutional consequences.

The project's theoretical-conceptual framework adopts a sociological approach of "world relationship," employing phenomenological analyses to examine how shifts in institutional modes of "having" and "havings" reshape object, social, and self-relationships. Methodologically, it continues using the documentary method proven successful in the first research phase, combining theoretical development with focus groups and guided qualitative interviews.