The Evolution of the Property Relation ― Understanding Paradigms, Debates, and Prospects

By examining the concurrent emergence of the market, the nation state, and the notion of individual private property, Evolution of the Property Relation provides insights into the related institutional structures and processes of change based on the "property concept." Such an approach constitutes a comprehensive consideration of property as paradigm, to better understand its institutional manifestations and scientific practices, and to inform any consideration of alternatives.

Davis addresses the problem of a static formalist orthodoxy in economics, which is ill-equipped to meet the challenges of institutional change, social unrest, and economic stagnation. This book defines an approach to economics which is centered on the concept of property and explores the historical evolution of the relationship of the individual, private property, and the state, and the distinctive changes wrought by the emergence of the market.

Ann E. Davis is Associate Professor of Economics at Marist College, USA, where she founded the Marist College Bureau of Economic Research. She served as Director of the National Endowment of Humanities Summer Institute on the "Meanings of Property" in June, 2014. She has served as an elected board member of the Eastern Economic Association and the Union for Radical Political Economics. She has published articles in Science and Society, Journal of Economic Issues, and Review of Radical Political Economics, as well as many book chapters.