GEOG 381: Property

LECTURE

DATE CLASSFEBRUARY 6, 2013 GEOGRAPHY 381

PROPERTYPOWER, SPACE, & LAW

Tuesday, 5 February, 13

FREEWRITE: WHAT IS PROPERTY?MAKE A LIST OF 5 NOUNS AND 5 ADJECTIVES


MAKING PROPERTYCLASSIFICATION, COMMUNICATION, ENFORCEMENT


What is property?Blomley, Singer, rethink property as:

a network of social relations that governs the conduct of people with respect to the use and disposition of things.

But first, the “Classical Model”:

‘remains powerful and exerts substantial determinative force in adjudicating and developing the rules of property law’ (Singer)


The Classical ModelSingle, identifiable owner

Full bundle of rights - exclusion, transfer, sale, use

State intervention may occur, but presumed to compromise baseline rights of the owner

Owner engaged in self-regarding behaviour


Property as a “bundle of rights”


Geographies of the Classical Model

Property works with boundaries that are both real and metaphoric.

Real: Owners are set against others, behind boundaries, fences, signs.

Metaphoric: The assumption within liberal theory that clear limits should be set on the ability of states to intervene in ‘private’ ownership builds a public/private divide.

In this model, property is fundamentally concerned with things. For instance, we talk about something being ‘my property’.


Blomley on Property

Property is not a relation between a person and a thing, but a set of power relations between people in regards to a valued resource.

“It is imperative that geographers take property

seriously, exploring the effects of the dominant model...as well as

uncovering the much more interesting and complicated

realities of property.”


Property is relationalIs this

boat mine, or is my relationship to it

different than yours?

Blomley wants to think about property not simply between owner and land, but between people, namely owners and others. Property only has meaning in the way it sets up relations between people and space.


Making relationships


Geographies of Property Rights

What happens when we rent property?

How does ‘property’ frame the way people organize spatially?


Housing


Rethinking propertyProperty is not a relation between a person and a thing, but a set of power relations between people in regards to a valued resource.


Power of propertyMore important than what I can do with property, ownership says much more about what I can prevent others from doing.

Change the channel? Watch when I’m not using it? No. As owner, I can control your use of the TV set even without using it myself.


Property as contingentThe idea of property changes. No longer do we see property as a column of rights from soil to sky, but carved out of a grid.

Columns no more: Thanks to air travel, for instance, we now see our property rights as abridged, limited.


Property and the stateas guarantor of property

‘What I own depends on what you agree that I own, not what I assert that I own’ (Bromley)

‘if property is the boundary to governmental power, it is a boundary government itself draws’ (Nedelsky)

Techniques of ‘agreement’: A deed or title registers and represents a claim to ownership.


GEOG 381: Property

Education

Transcript of GEOG 381: Property