News

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

New Working Paper online!

In this new Working Paper, we present key research results of the CRC 294 "Structural Change of Property" from the first funding phase (2021 to 2024).

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New publication!

Sofia Bianchi Mancini's paper on "Narrating Divine Property: The Case of Sacred Groves in Statian Poetry" has just been published open access.

New publication!

Maria Pfeiffer and Marco Sonnberger published a new article titled "Rushing for the gold of the energy transition: An empirical exploration of the relevance of landownership for the wind energy expansion in Germany" in Energy Research & Social Science.

Read the full article here

New publication!

Jan Dirk Harke published "Die Geburt des Eigentums", a new volume of the SFB-series, with Campus Verlag.

Event information

The projects B08, C05 and JRT06 will be hosting the workshop "Umkämpfter digitaler Kapitalismus: Neofeudalismus, Geopolitik und soziale Konflikte" on March 13 and 14 in Jena. Register via email to Florian Schadwinkel (florian.schadwinkel@uni-erfurt.de).

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We are now also on Bluesky!

You can now also find out about our events and other news from the SFB on Bluesky!

Firmly countering attacks on the freedom of research and teaching

The statement was written by a network of gender researchers in the wake of the current attacks on academic freedom and gender studies and was first published by the Gender Studies Association on February 5, 2025. The Collaborative Research Center endorses this statement and stands up for academic freedom. It strongly condemns attacks against gender researchers, but also all other scientists. You can read the full statement (in German) here!

 

New publication!

Robin Saalfeld published the article "From Renters to Investors? Residential Property and the Asset Economy in German Couples’ Lives" in Housing, Theory and Society.

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New Publication!

A collaborative effort of the first SFB funding phase has just been published in the Berlin Journal of Sociology: The special issue “StadtRaum und Eigentum”! It contains six articles from our SFB and two articles from the SFB 1265 “Re-Figuration of Spaces”.

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Job advertisement for student assistants in the SFB

As of April 1, 2025, we are looking for three research assistants to support us in the area of website/public relations, or with the New Library of Property, or to support project C05 (“Property at Universities in Germany, England and Brazil”)! The application deadline for all positions is 16.02.2025. For further information, please see the following links (in German): Job SFB Website | Job Library of Property | Job C05

Call for Papers

We invite abstracts for a workshop on "Identity-forming consumerism and socio-ecological transformation", which will take place from October 16-17, 2025 in Erfurt. Please see here for more information (in German).

New Publication!

The recently published issue of Kurswechsel (3/2024), which focuses on “Questions of Ownership”, also includes articles by members of the SFB: Agnieszka Althaber asks, “Who owns the money in a relationship?”, Stefan Schmalz and Catalina Renč address the financialization of critical digital infrastructure.

New blogpost online!

In their new blogpost Silke van Dyk, Petra Gümplová and Markus Kip provide an insight into the commons research of the Collaborative Research Centre. Commons are a main concept in discussions about alternatives to property and non-private forms of property.

 

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Vacancies for researchers in the SFB

Our second funding phase has started and a number of research projects are offering positions for researchers (doctoral and postdoc).

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Tilo Wesche in conversation with the German Research Foundation

Tilo Wesche (A06) spoke to the GRF about the question of what rights nature has in the exkurs interview format.

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Two new podcast episodes of appropriate online!

The 17th episode of our podcast appropriate documents the book presentation by Felix Krämer (A02), who together with Matthias Ruoss presented their publications on the topic of debt in the new history of capitalism.  

The 18th episode of appropriate documents the workshop “From Contested Ownership to (In)Voluntary Returns - interdisciplinary perspectives on the postcolonial fight for restitution and reparation” and includes an interview with our former Mercator Fellow Flower Manase. 

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New blogpost online!

Helen Bönnighausen, Luzie Gerstenhöfer, Maria Pfeiffer, Marco Sonnberger and Anne Tittor have published a new blog post. It evaluates the key findings of the workshop “Energy crisis, ownership and services of general interest - the energy system in transition”. The key question is what role the ownership of energy infrastructures plays for services of general interest (in Germany).

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We will be funded for another 4 years!

It is now official: the German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved funding of over 13.4 million euros for the project of the Universities of Jena and Erfurt. Silke van Dyk will be the new spokesperson for the SFB for the next four years. More information in the FSU Jena press release.

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New publication in the book series “Structural Change of Property”

The fifth volume in the Open Acess series has been published by Campus today. Exploring the economic, sociological, and philosophical implications of property, this book titled Havings aims to overcome the conceptual and ideological limitations inherited from 19th-century debates and legal developments. The author Carsten Herrmann-Pillath (C01) introduces a new conceptual framework that substitutes the term “property” with the terms “having” and the neologism “havings”, analyzed through two dimensions: the action modes of having (appropriation, recognition, and assignment) and the structural modes of havings (possession, ownership, and property).