Private property and collective action: co-operation instead of competition
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reconsider commonly held views on the ownership and management of private property, contrasting capitalist and simple property, particularly as it relates to the impact of the firm shareholder governance model on the shape of society.
Design/methodology/approach
The author contrasts an exchange value standpoint with a use value perspective to explicate current conditions under which neither the state nor the market prevail in organizing economic activity (i.e. the co-operative form of governance and community-created brand value).
Findings
This paper offers mechanisms and recommendations regarding the formalized conditions for collective action and definitions of common guiding principles to facilitate new expressions of the principles of co-ordination. Such behaviour will allow for the development of common resources the purpose being a re-appropriation of the world.
Originality/value
This consideration is motivated by the scale and scope of the modern global crisis which combines financial, economic, social and cultural dimensions to produce world disenchantment. Dismissing the alternative of individuals simply forsaking engagement with society as it stands, it becomes necessary to revisit at this historical moment, the ideals on which modern societies are built, including the philosophy of freedom for all. This utopian concept has produced an ideology limited by capitalist notions of private property, motivating this inquiry.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
JEL Classifications — D22, D6, D7, L2, L33
Thanks to Elisabeth Nevins Caswell for her help and proof reading. A great thanks in particular to Teresa Nelson from the Simmons College in Boston who helped the author revising the paper and her useful insights; Jean-Michel Servet from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales et du Développement in Geneva and Henri Jacot from the Université de Lyon Lumière for their helpful comments, but obviously all remaining errors are the author's.
Citation
Paranque, B. (2014), "Private property and collective action: co-operation instead of competition", EuroMed Journal of Business, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 37-59. https://doi.org/10.1108/EMJB-05-2013-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited