Who we are

The Collaborative Research Center Transregio SFB/TRR 294 “Structural Change of Property” at the Universities of Jena (host university) and Erfurt has been funded by the German Research Foundation since January 2021 and entered its second funding phase in January 2025. In the Collaborative Research Center, researchers from sociology, political science and history, philosophy, law and economics, Chinese and South Asian studies and religious studies are conducting research in a total of 19 projects and 3 junior research teams to explore the history, present and future of property. In addition to the main locations of Jena and Erfurt, the following universities are also involved in the SFB with projects: Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Technische Universität Darmstadt and the Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research Erkner.

The SFB/TRR 294 investigates the socially fundamental institution of property with a focus on its fundamental capacity for change, the changes it is currently undergoing, and the consequences of these dynamics. The initial observation that private property, in particular, has gained in importance globally on the one hand, but is challenged by a multitude of developments and resistances on the other, has been turned into studies on the historical genesis of today's property systems, current conflicts and alternative forms of ownership during the first funding phase.