The Idea of Property: An Introductory Empirical Assessment

Abstract

The idea of property refers to the social imaginary of property, the informal or everyday ideas that people hold when they use or interact with resources, things, or items of social wealth. This article advances scholarship in property theory by studying this idea which, we argue, constitutes a set of norms and practices and provides insight into many pressing social and political problems. To study the idea of property, we employ an ethnographic mode of research, entering the social domain to conduct semi-structured interviews with a range of people living in Adelaide. This research reveals that people perceive that property provides them with choice and freedom over the use and allocation of scarce resources. Thus, choice (rather than responsibility or duties) represents the dominant understanding of property held by the respondents interviewed in this study.

Keywords: Property Law

JEL Classification: K1