News

"Marx, Machines and the Beginning of the End"

As a guest on Radio F.R.E.I., Carsten Hermann-Pillath discusses Marx's machine fragment, artificial intelligence, and the concept of intellectual property. Does AI pose a challenge to capitalism, and can the market economy function entirely without exploitation?

To the programme

New blog post online!

In her blog post ‘Waste flows,’ Asfia Jamal reflects on waste in a compelling way. Waste is not produced as waste, yet it is generated everywhere. What constitutes waste and what does not is relative, and ‘from this perspective, waste is also property.’ 

Newsletter from the SFB

We now have a newsletter for anyone who wants to stay up to date on the work of the SFB. We regularly report on the latest news, upcoming and past events, and our publications.
You can read the first issue here (only available in german so far). You can also subscribe to the newsletter to receive future bilingual issues in German and English by email. 

“A socio-ecological transformation is only possible when we focus on property”

In an interview with Freitag, Hartmut Rosa discusses the relevance of property in the context of ecological transformation.

Read the interview here

New publication!

A new edited volume in the series “Structural Change in Property Ownership” on Nomad Properties has been published, edited by Anna Möllers, Dirk Schuck, and Bernhard Kleeberg. While the discourse on nomadism in the 18th and 19th centuries was intertwined with colonial contexts and notions of so-called “primitive” societies, it became more multifaceted in the 20th century with the emergence of “modern nomadism.” This anthology examines the connection between nomadic structures and property and gives voice to a wide variety of perspectives, including those of the little-known traveling minority known as the Yenish.

 

New blog post online!

In her new blogpost, Lydia von der Weth argues that engaging seriously with alternative property traditions—in this case Islamic legal thought, can help us confront some of the most pressing challenges that contemporary property regimes face.

To the blog post

New Working Paper online

Discussions on environmental, climate, or energy justice tend to focus primarily on downstream effects such as social inequality, rather than on the nature of property itself and its influence on social conditions. Similarly, the effects of socio-ecological transformation processes on property relations are rarely researched or described in detail, even though far-reaching changes and conflicts are to be expected in this area as well. Our new Working Paper 11, “Property and Socio-Ecological Transformation. Some Conceptual Considerations on a Neglected Connection,” addresses this tension.

 

Climate Action must be fair

In an interview with the Ostthüringer Zeitung,Silke van Dyk and Hartmut Rosa explain how property rights determine the success of environmental measures. An event entitled “Who owns the future?”, addressing issues of ownership and the ecological crisis, will be held on Thursday, January 15, at 6 p.m. at the Volksbad Jena.

Read the interview here

New Publication!

In their “activity-based theory of rent,” authors Marlen van den Ecker, Tilman Reitz, and Sebastian Sevignani attempt to systematize existing theoretical approaches to rent economics in digital capitalism. The authors argue that these concepts ignore various forms of human activity that underlie rent extraction: unpaid activities or activities not employed by the rentier, such as software development, academic research, and produser activities.

Read here

New publication!

The new volume ‘Property Conflicts: Conceptual and Empirical Perspectives’ in our series ‘Structural Change in Property’ has been published. Kathrin Leuze, Joachim von Puttkamer, Marion Reiser and Sylka Scholz have compiled texts that examine the various conflicts in our contemporary capitalist society. This raises the question of whether these conflicts have the potential to fundamentally transform social property structures. 

Click here for the book (open access)

New: Dossier Socio-ecological Transformation and Property

This dossier deals with our current “topic of the semester”: property and socio-ecological transformation.In addition to many other contributions, our first dossier includes an interview with Tilo Wesche about his book "Die Rechte der Natur“ as part of the video series ”DFG bewegt“, as well as a blog post by Helen Bönnighausen, Luzie Gerstenhöfer, Maria Pfeiffer, Marco Sonnberger, and Anne Tittor on ”Energy transition for all? On the complex relationship between energy transition, co-determination, and ownership structures," (in German) which is the result of an SFB workshop on the topic. 

read more

Relaunch New Library of Property

Our New Library of Property is now available on this website. An extensive database provides information on relevant publications on the subject of property, the quarterly sources give an insight into our research projects, and our thematic dossiers present a wide variety of sources on current social debates.

New publication!

Sofia Bianchi Mancini and Maria Dell'Isola have published a special issue of the journal Civilità e Religioni. The articles collected in this issue on the subject of property and religion examine the concept of ‘divine property’ from the first to the ninth century AD. They show that, in a religious context, property always serves to express ideas about God, community and power. 

Link to the special issue (open access)

New blog post online!

Why have a universal basic inheritance? Coco Lina Aglibut explores this question in his latest blog post. She examines the history of ideas surrounding universal basic inheritance, presents the various positions that all relate positively to the concept, and questions its transformative potential. 

To the blog post

New blog post online!

In her recently published blog post ‘The Beginnings of Mendicant Orders and Property,’ Jana Ilnicka describes the parallel development of the first mendicant orders. They differed mainly in their different views on poverty and non-possession. 

To the blog post

Event announcement

Three SFB events will take place on 10 December: At 2 p.m., Niklas Angebauer and Tilo Wesche will give an introduction to theories of property; at 4 p.m., the sociological sub-projects of the SFB will present their research results; and at 6 p.m., Niklas Angebauer and Tilo Wesche will present their book Umkämpftes Eigentum (Contested Property), published by Suhrkamp, as part of the Social Theory Colloquium.

read more...

Die Verletzliche Gesellschaft – wie geopolitische Spannungen und soziale Ungleichheit unser Zusammenleben beeinflussen

Silke van Dyk will be a guest in Dresden on November 25 in a series of talks on social inequality and global uncertainties. Together with Julia Jirmann from Netzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit e.V., she will discuss the effects of social inequalities, such as the unequal distribution of property, education, career opportunities, and living conditions, on our collective life.

More about this event here

Event announcement

Together with the philosophy departments of the Universities of Jena and Erfurt, as well as the Cluster of Excellence ‘Imaginamics’, the SFB is organising an interdisciplinary workshop entitled ‘Figures, Types, and Images of the Social in the 19th and 20th Century: Practices of Social Imagining in the History of Knowledge and the Sciences’. The event will take place from 20 to 21 November 2025 at the International Meeting Centre (IBZ, Erfurt University) in Erfurt. 

New publication!

A new anthology in the series “Structural Change of Property” addresses the question of property in the reproductive economy. Under the title “Dimensions of Property in Reproductive Economies. Practices, Structures and Discourses,” editors Stefanie Graefe, Irina Herb, and Susanne Lettow bring together contributions that expand existing critical analyses of the reproductive economy by including the perspective of property. 

Click here for the book (open access)

Event announcement

SFB goes DGS! From September 22-26, 2025, the 42nd Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS) will take place in Duisburg on the topic of “Transitions.” Many SFB members will be presenting there, for example at our SFB ad hoc event Structural Change in Property Ownership – Transformation, Transition, Diversification, Persistence? (AdH80) on Thursday, September 25 (2:15-5:00 p.m.), which will discuss the effects and dynamics of property based on the existing ”property oblivion”. The complete program is available here (also as a PDF).

Event announcement

In addition, our SFB will be represented at the 42nd DGS Conference as follows: Katrin Leuze, Sylka Scholz, and Isabell Stamm will discuss property inequality on Tuesday, September 23 (2:15–4:00 p.m.) in the special event “Distributing Wealth, Uniting Society?” At the same time (2:15–5:00 p.m.), Lisa Vollmer and Silke van Dyk will discuss the negotiation of commons and infrastructures. Tilman Reitz will speak on September 23 at 2:15 p.m. about freedom of speech in academia, on September 25 at 5:00 p.m. about the challenges of academic publishing, and on September 26 at 9:00 a.m. about permanent employment in sociology.

Event announcement

The next session at the 42nd DGS Conference on Wednesday, September 24, will feature Robin Saalfeld and Isabell Stamm at 2:15 p.m., who will discuss property asymmetries in couple relationships based on inheritance. Lisa Vollmer will give a presentation on the transformational developments of tenant associations in Malmö and Berlin starting at 9:00 a.m., while Felicitas Sommer (associate) will analyze the effectiveness of rent controls on Friday, September 26 (9:00-11:45 a.m.). In keeping with this theme, Silke van Dyk and Luzie Gerstenhöfer will take stock of the new municipalism in Barcelona on September 26 at 9:00 a.m. For more events and the full program, click here (PDF).

New publication!

Petra Gümplová has launched a series on the ethical aspects of climate change in the online magazine Kapitál. Questions of ownership are central to this topic. Click here for the first post in the series. The articles are published once a month.

Job Advertisement for PostDoc Position

A position as a postdoctoral researcher (75%) is available in subproject B10, “Embracing Capital: Normative and Corporate Law Aspects of the Capitalization of Company Ownership,” at the Technical University of Berlin, starting January 1, 2026. 

Click here for the job advertisement

New publication!

Robin Saalfeld observes in his newly published article "Zwischen Investitionsorientierung, finanzieller Sicherheit und Konsumkritik: Eine Typologie von Eigentumsarrangements in Paarbeziehungen" that couples' property arrangements vary widely: from investment-oriented couples who view property as an asset, to security-oriented couples who perceive it as joint or individualized ownership, to couples who question the relevance of private property, engage in critical negotiations over its meaning, or cope with property scarcity.

Read the article here (open access)

New publication!

The ecological and digital transformation of society is currently in full swing—and more controversial than ever before. In the volume “Contested Transformation: Conflicts over Digital and Ecological Change”, edited by Klaus Dörre, Steffen Liebig, and others,  these debates are addressed on the basis of conceptual contributions and empirical case studies, including the results of the expired SFB subproject B05 “Property, Inequality, and Class Formation in Socio-Ecological Transformation Conflicts”.

 

New publication!

What are the ownership structures in Chinese capitalism? Philipp Köncke, Stefan Schmalz and Lucas Erlbacher explore this question in their article "The anatomy of Chinese capitalism: Sectoral variation in party-state permeation and corporate governance" in the journal competition&change. Using a new dataset on China's 500 largest companies, they arrive at important conclusions:  These range from a fundamentally dual ownership structure to inter-sectoral variation. 

Read the full article here

The SFB in the media

An article in the taz newspaper on masculinity research refers to the new book by Sylka Scholz. It deals with the construction of masculinity, including in the context of employment. The article also emphasizes the East German perspective that Sylka Scholz brings to the debate on masculinity.

visit page

New publication!

The new issue of the Berlin Journal of Sociology entitled "Refiguration or Transformation? The reorganization of the world beyond globalization" has been published. This is our second cooperation with the SFB 1265, following a special issue on urban space and property. The current issue includes an article by Hartmut Rosa on “The transformation of a social formation: Reflections concerning the structural change of property” and an article by Stefan Schmalz titled "An endless financial crisis? The capitalist world economy between transformation and refiguration".

 

New publication!

Few people know that in a 1980 verdict, the Federal Constitutional Court placed social security benefits as (social) property of those entitled to them under the property protection of the Basic Law (Article 14). In an article for the journal Soziale Sicherheit, Silke van Dyk examines the role of social property in old-age provision and discusses implications for questions of (in)equality, (in)security and solidarity.

 

Read the article here (Paywall)

Event information

On July 1, Silke van Dyk will give a keynote on the topic "On lighthouses and their dark sides - transformative practice and public sociology" at the conference "Transformation Sociology Concrete" in Darmstadt. The lecture will examine the transformative potential of progressive municipalist city governments that aim to de-privatize the city on the basis of public infrastructures and common goods. The central question is what role prominent case studies play for transformative movements in other places and what the task of public sociology can be for the analysis and critique of so-called lighthouses.

New podcast episode online!

The 19th episode of our podcast appropriate, titled "Looking Back at Eight Years of Municipalist Government in Barcelona: The movement-party Barcelona en Comú" has been published. In cooperation with the Urban Political Podcast, Silke van Dyk and Luzie Gerstenhöfer are discussing the alternative approach to local politics by Barcelona en Comú with activist and former political advisor Elia Gran.

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Booklaunch "Umkämpftes Eigentum"

On May 20, starting at 6 pm, the recently published anthology “Umkämpftes Eigentum”, edited by Niklas Angebauer, Jacob Blumenfeld and Tilo Wesche, will be presented in Berlin.

visit page

Job Advertisement for PostDoc Position

Project B06 "Property Inequality in the Private Sphere: Couple-Internal and External Drivers of Change in Property Arrangements in Couple Relationships" offers a PostDoc position (100%) to be filled as soon as possible. See here for the job offer.