Читать книгу Wealth - Yuval Elmelech - Страница 20

Of all the early works on property and wealth, Max Weber’s persuasive analysis of property is, arguably, the most comprehensive and relevant one, incorporating as it does historical, legal, and sociological perspectives. As Swedberg (2005) notes, private property in Weber’s work is best understood in the context of social relations, particularly of exclusion, as in the case of a “closed” relationship where the participation of certain persons “is excluded, limited, or subjected to conditions” (Weber 1978: 43). Material interests are among the factors that motivate social closure and guarantee the appropriation of advantages or “rights,” which benefit particular social groups and individuals (Swedberg 2005). Émile Durkheim’s work, which provided the foundation for structural–functional theory, outlines key historical changes in the social function of private property, including the shift from a collective to a private, individual-based form of ownership. By creating a social boundary between the individual and the group, exclusion emerges as a principal characteristic of property ownership: “the right of property is the right of a given individual to exclude other individual and collective entities from the usage of a given thing” (Durkheim 1992: 142; see also Beckert 2002).

Concurring that property is a “social creation” rather than a product of individual effort, American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois’s theory of social property postulates that property should benefit society instead of the individual owner (Zhang 2001: 115). Du Bois’s empirical work (1899), which drew on evidence from observations and surveys, highlighted a different dimension of private property and exclusion, shifting the focus from purely class boundaries to exclusion based on social group membership. Studying African American families’ living conditions in the seventh ward of Philadelphia in the late nineteenth century, Du Bois’s research demonstrated the detrimental effect that “color prejudice” and institutional exclusion from property ownership (homeownership) have on housing conditions and on the high rents paid by the study’s participants (see also Bobo 2000). Accordingly, Du Bois viewed wealth buildup in the form of savings, investment, and homeownership as a crucial path to upward mobility and financial independence (Du Bois 1899: 184–185). Existing research has documented the various discriminatory practices, such as redlining and steering, used by real estate intermediaries (banks, insurance companies, and realtors) to exclude potential buyers who are members of certain racial and ethnic groups from access to housing units in desirable neighborhoods (Oliver and Shapiro 1995; Dymski 2006; see esp. Chapter 5 here).