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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On 22 January 2026, Eva von Redecker and Penelope Deutscher will discuss the topic of ‘Reproduction, Life and Property’ at the Institute of Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin. The event is part of the series ‘Standpoints: Feminist Philosophers in Conversation’ and is being held in cooperation with the SFB/TRR project ‘The dynamics of the Reproduction Economy: Forms of Appropriation in Global Fertility Chains.’
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.
In his recently published blog post “Contested systemic relevance: On the appropriation of infrastructure in a prolonged crisis,” Oliver Prausmüller takes a look at current infrastructure conflicts and how they are being addressed from the perspective of “systemic relevance.” Instead of expanding public control, infrastructure is increasingly being instrumentalized for power politics.
Event announcement
Petra Gümplová will deliver a keynote speech on the “Critical Theory of the Anthropocene” at the international conference “Navigating the Anthropocene” in Bratislava on 25 September.
Job Advertisement research assistant/doctoral candidate
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Petra Gümplová published an article in the German Law Journal in which she takes a critical look at the extension of sovereign rights to global commons.
Philipp Köncke is presenting his study "(Geo)Politische Ökonomie des chinesischen Partei-Staatskapitalismus" at an event of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and the Kritischen China-Forums der Assoziation für kritische Gesellschaftsforschung (AkG) on May 16.
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.
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.
Lunch Lecture Contested Property
Silke van Dyk will give a lecture at the University of Vienna on May 21 on the question “Infrastructures in the field of tension between private and collective property: A new politics of the public?” The occasion is a lunch lecture on the book Nach dem Privateigentum.
