SFB-INTERN Good Properties – Good Subjects

In how far are specific types of subjectivity embedded within historically and sociologically specific social property relations? This is true for classic civilizational figures like the farmer or the aristocrat whose ownership status entails them both to a responsibility regarding their family or their subjects. One specifically interesting topic in this regard is the historic change of and cultural differences within tenancy laws.

In how far is there a sociological and historical conjecture between specific property rights and certain kinds of habituality? As a political ideology, property rights almost always seem to have been closely tied to leadership roles within political communities. Conversely, the presumption that a person has bad habits might lead to their eventual negation of any rights to property. The political intention to reform the supposedly bad habits of deviant subjectivities might even be regarded as one of the pragmatic origins of sociology within the 19th century.

On the workshop, we aim at bringing our research findings together through the prism of these perspectives. This shall enable us to develop a more comprehensive methodological framework for our future research. Connecting questions of political agency with the question of property rights will also help us to better understand how specific emancipatorical interventions within the global discourse on property rights might be possible.