Property in question : value transformation in the global economy / edited by Katherine Verdery and Caroline Humphrey.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Verdery, Katherine, 1948-

Humphrey, Caroline

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Series:

Wenner-Gren Center international symposium series

Wenner-Gren international symposium series, 1475-536X

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Property--Philosophy.

Property.

Physical Description:

xi, 324 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Edition:

English edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Berg, 2004.

Summary:

How has it come about that indigenous cultures, body parts, and sequences of musical notes are considered property? How has the movement from collective to privatized systems affected notions of property? At what point in transaction chains do native cultures, indigenous medicines, or cyberdata become 'objects' and therefore 'propertized', and what are the social, economic, and ethical considerations for such transformations? Addressing these hotly contested issues and many more, Property in Question interrogates the very concept of property and what is happening to it in the contemporary world, in case studies ranging from Romania to Kazakhstan, Africa to North America. The book examines not only the changing character of the property concept, but also its ideological foundations and political usages. Authors address bio-transactions, music copyright, cyberspace, oil prospecting, debates over privatization of land and factories, and dilemmas arising with new forms of ownership of businesses. Offering a fresh perspective on contemporary economic transformation, this volume is a long overdue investigation of the power of the 'private property' concept, as well as an exploration of how the global economy may be subtly, even invisibly, changing what 'property' means and how we relate to it.

Contents:

Bodily transactions: regulating a new space of flows in "bio-information" / Bronwyn Parry

Heritage as property / Michael A. Brown

The selective protection of musical ideas: the "creators" and the dispossessed / Anthony Seeger

Crude properties: the sublime and slime of oil operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon / Suzana Sawyer

Prospecting's publics / Cori Hayden

The obligations of ownership: restoring rights to land in postsocialist Transylvania / Katherine Verdery

Proprietary regimes and sociotechnical systems: rights over land in Mongolia's "age of the market" / David Sneath

At home in the violence of recognition / Elizabeth Povinelli

Cultural rights and wrongs: uses of the concept of property / Michael Rowlands

The menace of hawkers: property forms and the politics of market liberalization in Mumbai / Arvind Rajagopal

Value, relations, and changing bodies: privatization and property rights in Kazakhstan / Catherine Alexander

Economic claims and the challenges of new property / Carol M. Rose

Cyberspatial properties: taxing questions about proprietary regimes / Bill Maurer.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

1859738826

1859738877

OCLC:

54416107