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Publication of Series on ‘Temporary Possession’

By ucsawat, on 11 April 2019

More exciting news from members of the Emerging Subjects team!

In combination with a workshop at UCL in July 2018, Professor Rebecca Empson and Dr Lauren Bonilla recently edited and published an open-access Theorizing the Contemporary series for Cultural Anthropology on the concept of ‘Temporary Possession’. The July workshop examined the Roman property concept of usufruct—i.e. the legal category of having temporary use access to something without outright ownership—and its (re)emergent significance within contemporary economies. Combining diverse, thought-provoking contributions from the participants in this workshop—on e.g. the sharing economy (e.g. Uber and AirBnB), online data, gleaning (the historical practice of gathering ‘rests’ from harvested fields), cryptocurrency, privatised water infrastructure, urban space and more—this series proposes that modes of contingent or temporary possession are increasing in significance and usage within a global economy marked by debt, intangible property, digital currencies and financialisation.

Online, and freely accessible, here.

Image by Rebecca Empson

 

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