SFB 294 Structural Change of Property

The SFB short film:

About property in transition and the work of the SFB.

This film is the work of Catharina Göldner and Katharina Hamann.

The members of the Collaborative Research Centre in summer 2023

Image: Marlen van den Ecker

Welcome to the website of the Collaborative Research Centre TRR 294 "Structural Change of Property"!

The Collaborative Research Centre pursues the goal of investigating the fundamental structural change of property that could be observed at the latest since 1989. The Collaborative Research Centre contains a total of 23 subprojects at five locations in Germany: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (Sprecher*innenhochschule), Universität Erfurt, Freie Universität Berlin, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Technische Universität Darmstadt.

While private property has gained in importance worldwide since 1989 under conditions of increasing concentration and deregulation, the resulting property system has proved to be both crisis-prone and highly controversial in the face of new economic, political and technological challenges. It isn't challenged only by the global financial and economic crises, but also by political conflicts over the appropriation, distribution and containment of private property, as well as by the dynamics of the knowledge and bio-economies, which are linked to alternative concepts of common property, shared use and free access to resources.

News

Oct. 13, 2025

New Working Paper online

In the recently published 10th Working Paper of the SFB, “Challenges for Re-Embedding Intellectual Property Rights on Genetic Resources. Reflections on access and benefitsharing in Brazil,” Anne Tittor, Eduardo Relly, Leoni Schlender, and Maria Backhouse share the results of their research on property rights on genetic ressources in Brazil.

Oct. 6, 2025

Event announcement

On 17 October, Florian Peters will give a lecture at the conference ‘Dynamics of Property Change in Eastern Europe’ organised by the German Association for Eastern European Studies. His lecture is entitled "(Neo)liberals Against Property Claims: Contentious Privatisation and Protracted Restitution in Post-Socialist Poland".

Sept. 29, 2025

New blog post online!

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.

Sept. 23, 2025

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.

Sept. 22, 2025

Job Advertisement research assistant/doctoral candidate

In project C02 ‘Dynamics of the Reproduction Economy: Forms of Appropriation in Global Fertility Chains,’ a three-year fixed-term position as a research assistant/doctoral candidate is available as of 1 January 2026. The application deadline is 15 October 2025.

Click here for the job advertisement

Sept. 17, 2025

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).

Sept. 17, 2025

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.

Sept. 17, 2025

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).

Sept. 17, 2025

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.

To the News archive...

Events

Oct. 21, 2025, 8 p.m.

Kino am Markt; Jena

Movie series "Property in view"

On October 21 we will show "Hütten sind für alle da" (D 2023) (OV). Afterwards, there will be a discussion with director Birk Poßecker.

Semester Opening with Eva Nadai and Jens Borchert

The opening of the winter semester will focus on the theme “Research and Comparison.”

Nov. 13, 2025 - Nov. 14, 2025

Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek (ThULB); Jena

Open Access, Reputation und Bewertungskrise in der Wissenschaft – Wie kann die Analyse von Fachkulturen zu einer Neuausrichtung beitragen?

Wie lässt sich „Reputation“ in den einzelnen Fächern begreifen? Wo ist sie eher an klassisch-geschlossene, wo an offene Publikationsformate geknüpft? Wie wird sie aufgebaut, was sind ihre Formen und Funktionen, wie verhält sie sich zur Bewertung wissenschaftlicher Leistungen? Und wie verändert sich dieser Zusammenhang im Zeitalter digitaler Wissenschaft? Diese Fragen sollen in den Fokus unserer zweiten Tagung rücken.

Movie series "Property in view"

On November 18, we will show the anime film Princess Mononoke (J 1997).