In this episode, we reflect on the rise, evolution, and legacy of Barcelona en Comú, the emblematic movement-party that governed the city of Barcelona from 2015 to 2023. Joined by long-time activist and former political advisor Elia Gran, as well as researchers Silke van Dyk and Luzie Gerstenhöfer (University of Jena), the conversation explores the key ambitions, successes, and tensions of this bold experiment in municipalist governance.

The episode draws from the sociological research project „Public Politics and the Future of the Commons“ to unpack strategic shifts in areas like housing, municipalization of public services as well as social and economic policies. Together, the guests consider what can be learned from the Comuns’ experience, how the party related to social movements and class politics.

Now that the Comuns are out of office, the time is ripe for a candid assessment beyond their frequent representation as a European lighthouse case for alternative local politics: What did the municipalist turn achieve—and where did it fall short? Tune in for a rich researcher-activist dialogue on the possibilities and pitfalls of transforming politics from the ground up.

Links that our guests talked about during the episode: Repensem Barcelona and the Fundació Sentit Comú.

This episode was produced in cooperation with the Urban Political Podcast.

This episode documents the workshop about interdisciplinary perspectives on the postcolonial fight for restitution and reparation. In the beginning, the organizers of the workshop, Silvan Niedermeier (University of Erfurt) and Sahra Rausch (Friedrich Schiller University Jena), will present the event. Afterwords, there is an interview with Flower Manase (National Museum of Tanzania) conducted by Aari Hönning (University of Erfurt).

The interdisciplinary workshop aimed to reassess the fight for repatriation and restitution by bringing together questions of ownership and voluntariness that are addressed in the Collaborative Research Center “Structural Change of Property” (Universities Erfurt and Jena) and the DFG-Research Unit on “Voluntariness” (Universities of Erfurt, Jena and Oldenburg). As part of the workshop, Flower Manase spoke about Restitution and the Question of “Cultural Belongings/Properties Ownership” in Tanzania. In the interview, she talks about her motivation, experiences and challenges during her work as one of the curators of the National Museum of Tanzania.

Diese Episode von appropriate dokumentiert eine gemeinsame Buchpräsentation zweier Bücher zum Thema Schulden in der neuen Kapitalismusgeschichte.

Die 2024 erschienenen Bücher Leben auf Kredit. Menschen, Macht und Schulden in den USA vom Ende der Sklaverei bis in die Gegenwart von Felix Krämer (Erfurt) und Auf Pump. Ratenkredite im industriellen Kapitalismus 1860–1910 von Matthias Ruoss (Fribourg) schreiben sich mit ihren Untersuchungen von Kreditverhältnissen und Schulden in die neue Kapitalismusgeschichte ein.

Im Rahmen einer gemeinsamen Buchpräsentation wurden die Bücher im Forschungsbau Weltbeziehungen der Universität Erfurt vorgestellt und kommentiert von Jule Govrin (Universalismus von unten. Eine Theorie radikaler Gleichheit, Suhrkamp 2025) und Friedrich Lenger (Der Preis der Welt. Eine Globalgeschichte des Kapitalismus, Beck 2023).

Klaus Bosselmann von der University of Auckland (Neuseeland) versucht in dieser Folge Privateigentum mit dem Schutz von öffentlichen Gütern zu vereinen. Global Commons, also die Atmosphäre, das Wasser, Land, Luft und die Biosphäre sind auch durch die Ausweitung des Privateigentums stark bedroht. Wie kann der Eigentumsbegriff juristisch neugedacht werden, damit das Recht effektiv zum Umweltschutz beiträgt und was kann dabei aus indigenen Ansätzen gelernt werden? Diesen Fragen wird im Vortrag von und Interview mit Rechtswissenschaftler Klaus Bosselmann nachgegangen.

In this inaugural Spanish-language episode of the Urban Lives of Property Series, Clara Salazar delves into the history and concept of the ejidos—collective forms of land ownership introduced by the Mexican Revolution in 1917. Following this, the state began redistributing land to impoverished farmers under the condition that they organize themselves into collectives. Ejidal land, which was typically rural land, could not be sold. The significance of the ejidos persists to this day, although this form of collective ownerships has been the subject of numerous struggles and controversies. In 1992, the rights to ejidal lands were liberalized to permit their sale. Concurrently, the rights associated with private property were strengthened, providing powerful private owners with nearly unmatched opportunities to manage and profit from their lands, leveraging surplus value through public infrastructure provision while offering minimal compensation in return. Meanwhile, self-managed settlements by poor urbanites dwelling informally on the outskirts of metropolises have increasingly encroached upon ejidal land, leading to a parceling of the land and a profound transformation of Mexican cities. Against this backdrop, Clara Salazar makes a compelling case for enhancing public capacities to regulate urban land and to capture surplus value—a challenge that many Latin American countries face, alongside the ongoing evolution of property forms that separate land and housing ownership. An English translation of the transcript is available for download. This episode is a collaboration with the Urban Political Podcast.

This episode of the Urban Lives of Property Series expands discussions geographically and conceptually: Our guest in this episode, Jean-David Gerber, helps us think property from Switzerland and other places. He speaks with the hosts Hanna Hilbrandt and Markus Kip. Starting off with the observation that there is no single understanding of property, Jean-David argues that it is important for any consideration to be context-specific and to realize that property is not the same as propriété or Eigentum. Jean-David elaborates on his approach to property on the basis of the Institutional Resource Regime framework that he has been working on with colleagues for many years. Based on his fieldwork in Ghana, Senegal and Switzerland, he discusses the application of the framework aimed to consider the combined effects of public policies and property rights on the use of resources and the users themselves. Focusing on the case of Switzerland, he talks us through the legacy and ongoing relevance of old forms of collective property in forests and shared pastures in the mountains. Moving to the debate around new (urban) commons, the episode also covers current struggles and conflicts around the land policy paradigm in Switzerland, as well as new ideas in planning to exercise greater influence in urban development in the public interest.

Unregulated restitution of property to prewar owners (or rather their legal successors) remains a major source of conflict over housing in Poland, most notably in Warsaw. This episode features Beata Siemieniako, a Warsaw lawyer and urban activist who has been supporting tenants in their struggle against ruthless developers for years. In her book ·Re-privatising Poland. The History of a Great Scam· (Reprywatyzuj·c Polsk·. Historia wielkiego przekr·tu, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej 2017), she tells the story of conflicting claims to urban property and reflects on the pitfalls of restituting past property orders while neglecting present-day social rights. Florian Peters has talked to her about law, grassroots activism, and the impossibility to achieve justice by trying to turn back time. This podcast is a co-production with the Urban Political Podcast.

In this episode, Robin K. Saalfeld engages in an insightful conversation with Lisa Adkins, a noted Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney. Their discussion traces the narrative of Adkins’s book, “The Asset Economy. Property Ownership and the New Logic of Inequality,” (2020) co-authored by Martijn Konings and Melinda Cooper. Their thought-provoking work charts the emergence of an asset economy marked by property inflation, a term used to describe the escalated rise in the value of housing assets. The unfolding of this phenomenon paves the way for a new perspective on inequality, primarily focusing on market-driven economies like Australia, the US, and Great Britain. The shift from traditional commodification to a more asset-centered approach, especially in the housing sector, forms a significant part of their narrative. The dialogue further expands as Robin K. Saalfeld introduces empirical data from the research project B06 exploring property inequality among German couples. Through extensive interviews with 50 German couples, the research highlights the crucial role residential property plays for couples. Robin K. Saalfeld and Lisa Adkins delve into the potential characteristics of an asset economy within the German population, raising pertinent questions about the interplay between gender and property ownership. This episode provides a nuanced exploration of the complex tapestry of property, economics, and couple and gender dynamics, contributing to an understanding of the evolving nature of inequality in market-centric societies.

In this episode, Hanna Hilbrandt and Markus Kip talk to Vera Smirnova, a human and political geographer to discuss property and territory from a Russian perspective. Smirnova’s genealogical account moves from the Czarist period to this day, illuminating also the current Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Smirnova offers a tour de force through Russia’s moving history of the last 150 years, addressing practices of serfdom, enclosures in the early 20th century, land collectivization following the Russian revolution and waves of privatization after 1991. Throughout this period the institution of property is shown to be fuzzy, insecure, and informal, a legacy that continues to this day as evidenced in current urban planning legislation and extra-legal practices of land grabbing. Similarly reflecting a pliability for powerful political interests, territory has been historically considered as vast, borderless and expansive. The episode is a collaboration with the Urban Political Podcast and is part of the “Urban Lives of Property” Series.

Wohnen und Energie sind Teil der öffentlichen Daseinsvorsorge. Im Zuge von Krisen wird deren Organisation und Eigentumsform diskutiert. Vorschläge sind die Überführung von privatisiertem Eigentum in öffentliches Eigentum. Im Bereich Wohnen geht die Kampagne „Deutsche Wohnen und Co. Enteignen“ noch weiter und fordert eine Vergesellschaftung von Wohnraum. Auch im Bereich Energie gibt es solche Forderungen und auch schon eine konkrete Umsetzung beim Verein BürgerEnergie Thüringen. Doch inwiefern unterscheidet sich die geforderte Vergesellschaftung von der Kommunalisierung? Welche Herausforderungen gilt es zu beachten? Und ist kommunales Eigentum immer sozial gerechter als Privateigentum? In dieser Podcastfolge kommen Perspektiven aus der Wissenschaft, Zivilgesellschaft und der Politik zu Wort. Sprecher*innen: - Silke van Dyk (Co-Sprecherin des Sonderforschungsbereiches „Strukturwandel des Eigentums“) - Raul Zelik (Schriftsteller und Sozialwissenschaftler) - Sebastian Kohl (Soziologe an der FU Berlin) - Cara Röhner (Juristin an der Hochschule RheinMain) - Joanna Kusiak (Sprecherin von DW und Co. Enteignen und Soziologin an der Cambridge University) - Reinhard Guthke (Vorstandsvorsitzender von BürgerEnergie Thüringen e. V. und Biologe am Leibniz-Institut für Naturstoff-Forschung und Infektionsbiologie und Jenaer Zentrum für Bioinformatik) - Florian Schmidt (Bezirksstadtrat B’90/ Die Grünen) Kampagne Deutsche Wohnen und Co. Enteignen: https://dwenteignen.de Verein BürgerEnergie Thüringen: http://www.buergerenergie-thueringen.de Interviews: Markus Kip, Marco Sonnberger, Eduardo Relly; Moderation und Schnitt: Charlotte Domberg