Policy Press

At the End of Property

Patents, Plants and the Crisis of Propertization

By Veit Braun

Published

Jun 25, 2024

Page count

214 pages

ISBN

978-1529233667

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Jun 25, 2024

Page count

214 pages

ISBN

978-1529233674

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Jun 25, 2024

Page count

214 pages

ISBN

978-1529233674

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press
At the End of Property

Recent decades have witnessed the creation of new types of property systems, ranging from data ownership to national control over genetic resources. This trend has significant implications for wealth distribution and our understanding of who can own what.

This book explores the idea of ownership in the realm of plant breeding, revealing how plants have been legally and materially transformed into property. It highlights the controversial aspects of turning seeds, plants and genes into property and how this endangers the viability of the seed industry.

Examining ownership not simply as a legal concept, but as a bundle of laws, practices and technologies, this is a valuable contribution that will interest scholars of intellectual property studies, the anthropology of markets, science and technology studies and related fields.

“This book is accomplished, erudite and provocative. It is a brilliant addition to an ever more important literature on what property means to us all.” Sarah Franklin, University of Cambridge

"This is a rich exploration of the crisis of the propertisation of plants. Braun argues for a more nuanced and cultural understanding of the social life of plants and property.” Jay Sanderson, University of the Sunshine Coast

Veit Braun is Research Associate in the Institute for Sociology at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: From rights to scripts: Articulating property

Chapter 3: Property and the market

Chapter 4: Re-inventing plants

Chapter 5: The values of Patents

Chapter 6: Too much property

Chapter 7: At the end of property