Property as a Medium of Habit Formation: On the Political Anthropology of Property in the 19th Century (A03)

• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 424638267

The project addresses theories of habit formation through private property in the social sciences and humanities. It focuses on their development from agroeconomic land ownership to urban private ownership of consumer goods. The argument is that the structural change of property is accompanied by a change in the scientific assumptions as to how private property has a habit-forming and thus civilizing effect. These assumptions also change the social characterization of those who are considered free owners. Focusing on the 19th century, the project reconstructs both the colonial entanglements of these concepts of ownership and their socioecological implications.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 294: Strukturwandel des Eigentums
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Bernhard Kleeberg; Professor Dr. Martin Mulsow