Diary
30 April 2012
Ashgate publishes the first FLOOR book: Land Policy by Benjamin Davy. The book examines the politics of belonging, the versatile relationship between private and common property, and the human right to minimal property.
»Good land policy provides a diversity of land uses with plural property relations. No single kind of property rules fits the purposes of all types of land uses. Neither is a detached single family house like a community garden, nor a highway like a retail chain. Each land use needs its own property fingerprint. The concept of Western ownership works with home ownership, but fails with community gardens, highways, or retail chains. Western ownership also fails in informal settings, particularly in the global South, although informality does not at all entail the absence of property relations. In everyday practice, private and common property relations often accommodate a wide variety of demands made by the owners and users of land. In a stark contrast, many theories of property and land policy fail to recognize plural property relations. The polyrational theory of planning and property reconciles practice and theory.« MORE
28 June 2011
Concluding three inspiring months of exchange at the ZiF, the cooperation group
met for a farewell dinner at Glück und Seligkeit, a Bielefeld restaurant converted
from a church.
9 June 2011
The fellows' meeting reflected on the polyrational meanings of the social, the global,
human rights, and citizenship.
19 May 2011
Discussing the human rights' approach to poverty reduction,
the ZiF groups meets Manfred Nowak.
(above, from left to right) Armando Barrientos, Lutz Leisering, Manfred Nowak,
Sony Pellissery, Hartley Dean, Ulrike Davy, Harvey Jacobs, Benjamin Davy
(below) Manfred Nowak (United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (2004–2010) and
professor of international law and human rights at the Law School of the University of Vienna)
5 May 2011
Social rights, particularly human rights, need careful interpretation.
Sometimes, however, the meaning of words evades our grasp ...
Ulrike Davy (University of Bielefeld) and Sony Pellissery (IRMA, Anand)
28 April 2011
The needs-based approach to welfare rights confirms the expectation
that needs and rights are social constructions.
Hartley Dean (London School of Economics)
21 April 2011
During the Third Meeting, the ZiF Cooperation Group discussed the impact of T.H. Marshall's
seminal essay »Citizenship and Social Class« on the emerging idea of global social citizenship.
Members of the ZiF Cooperation Group »Road to Global Social Citizenship?« and FLOOR research assistants
Lutz Leisering
Ulrike Davy and Armando Barrientos
(left to right) Moritz von Gliszczynski, Anne Casprig, Luise Buschmann, Katrin Weible, Michael Leutelt
14 April 2011
The Second Meeting of the ZiF Cooperation Group was dedicated to Thomas Paine's
»Agrarian Justice.« What is FLOOR's approach to land-based social welfare?
7 April 2011
7 April 2011: Kick-off meeting of the ZiF Cooperation Group »A Road to Global Social Citizenship?«
2 November 2010
(above/below) On 2 November 2010, the FLOOR group discussed somd basic concepts
of social policy, world culture, and human rights. And the discussion continues ...
9 September 2010
The FLOOR group assembled for their first meeting at the University of Bielefeld on
9 September 2010. The meeting concluded with a short stroll through the Teutoburger Forest
and a coffee-and-cake at the Bauernhaus Museum.