New Forms of Ownership
Workshop, Thursday, 2 July (09:30–18:00) + Friday, 3 July 2026 (10:00–14:15)
Ownership has returned as a central question in political and social philosophy. Property and ownership shape how power, resources, and decision-making are distributed, and they affect our understanding of freedom, justice, and democracy.
Our workshop brings together scholars to discuss new forms of ownership in business corporations, land, natural resources, and social infrastructure. Particular attention will be given to alternative models such as employee, cooperative, steward, public, and commons-based ownership, as well as to practical pathways for transforming existing property regimes.
Program
Thursday (July 2)
09.30h Welcome (Hannes Kuch and Paulus Kaufmann)
10h Rutger Claassen (Utrecht): “Growing up. Big Corporations, Value Extraction and the Prospects for Corporate Adulthood”
11h Coffee Break
11.15h Jenny Stupka (FU Berlin): “Public ownership and anti fascist strategies: potentials and limits of socialisation today”
12.15h Coffee Break
12.30h Jerome Warren (IfU Frankfurt): “Infrastructure Before Innovation: Building the Legal and Financial Architecture for Employee Ownership in Germany”
13.30h Lunch
14.30h Eva Weiler (Duisburg-Essen): “Democratization of ownership. On the difficulties to democratize a hierarchical structure”
15.30h Coffee Break
15.45h Sophie Bloemen (Commons Network): “Digital infrastructures, the community economy and transformative ownership”
16.45h Coffee Break
17h Niklas Angebauer (Oldenburg): “Taking Locke Seriously: Value Creation, Natural Resources, and Reproductive Labour”
18h End of Day 1
19h Dinner
Friday (July 3)
10h Mike McCarthy (UC Santa Cruz): “From Ownership to Control: A Radical Plan to Democratize Finance”
11h Coffee break
11.15h Jessica Edioke (Purpose Foundation) and Elisabeth Pichler (Stiftung Verantwortungseigentum): “Ownership Is a Design Choice: Steward Ownership in Theory and Practice”
12.15h Lunch
13.15h Tanja Schomann (LMU/HIIG) und Caroline Obolensky (TIDIT): “Steward Ownership: Organizational Implications of a Legal Innovation”
14.15h End of Day 2
Organizers
Paulus Kaufmann (LMU)
Hannes Kuch (LMU)
Venue
Center for Ethics and Philosophy in Practice
Room M 210 (LMU room finder)
LMU Main Building, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munich
