International Annual Conference "Problematic Objects of Property – Form, Materiality, Politics"
At the conference in Jena, we will discuss tensions that arise in the formatting of property objects, result from their specificity and are at stake in political disputes.
The conference in Erfurt focuses on democracy as a practice that has evolved over time and is, at the same time, a subject of contention. It explores how democratic systems came into being, what conflicts have shaped them – and how these conflicts continue to this day.
Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung; Erkner
Contesting Land: Property, Law, and Hegemony
Private landownership, the appropriation of ground rent, or the subordination of land use to economic imperatives, amongst others, are increasingly being contested by a wide range of actors, from state institutions to civil society initiatives and social movements. This workshop explores how contestations of (urban and agrarian) land are articulated, institutionalized, and embedded in wider relations of forces across different contexts.
This interdisciplinary workshop will reflect on the transformation that democracy is undergoing in the age of digitalization. Platform economies, social media, and artificial intelligence are fundamentally changing both the collective processes of decision-making and opinion-forming and the very forms of democratic life.
Dynamics of the Reproductive Economy: Propertisation and the Reorganization of Human Fertility
Since the early 2000s, the commercialization of reproductive technologies has expanded rapidly on a global scale. The current phase of the reproductive economy is characterized by intensified processes of financialization and an increasingly dense global network of transnational actors, including fertility clinics, large corporations, brokers, insurance companies, intended parents, egg donors, gamete banks, surrogates, and legal intermediaries.
