Eva von Redecker on the Start of the “New Old Properties” Series
Description
The Goethe-Institut Athen’s project “New Old Properties” homes in on what may be the most significant social institution in modern-day society: property.
Why property? Property is the alpha and omega of all modern things, although it is far from being a new phenomenon. It has nonetheless become an increasingly incendiary topic in recent times. Studies show the extent to which modern ownership has ousted other forms of commons and how much this has defined the ongoing ramifications of social segregation, manifesting as racism, class issues, and gender divides. Not only that but these studies also make clear the extent to which this idea of property has contributed to a whole series of global crises that are looming ever larger, such as climate change.
Karl Marx once said, “Even a whole society, a nation, or even all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not the owners of the globe. They are only its possessors, its usufructuaries, and, like boni patres familias, they must hand it down to succeeding generations in an improved condition.” Today his statement seems more utopian than ever.
Drawing on her essay “Ownership’s Shadow” (Critical Times 3, no. 1, 2020) and her assertions on property in "Revolution für das Leben" (S. Fischer, 2020), Eva von Redecker will precisely define the term property and reflect and elaborate on the concept. She will deal with old notions and their social consequences, while focusing on new blueprints and their relevance for our coexistence in the future.
About Eva von Redecker
© Sophie Brand
Eva von Redecker, b. 1982, studied philosophy in Kiel, Tübingen, Cambridge, and Potsdam. From 2009 to 2019, she was a research associate at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, and in 2015 she spent a semester teaching in New York as a visiting lecturer at the New School for Social Research. At the end of 2020, she began a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship at the University of Verona in Italy, where she is working on a research project focused on the nature of authoritarianism. Von Redecker grew up on an organic farm and learned a great deal about direct marketing, cultivating strawberries, and breeding horses. She is now once again living in a rural setting.
Covid-19
To take part in the event the vaccination certificate or recovery certificate is necessary. Wearing a face mask is mandatory.
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