Max Weber on Property: An Effort in Interpretative Understanding

Abstract

In this article, Laura Ford explores Max Weber's writings on the subject of property. Weber, in his first dissertation, articulated legally and historically, the conception of property as a phenomenon that was dependent on organised social relationships and somewhat closed to outside participation. Later, he formulated this conception sociologically and systematically connected it to additional concepts. Ford engages with Weber's work in three broad phases (the legal phase of his first dissertation, the economic-historical phase and finally the sociological phase) in order to examine if any sociological issues emerge from the same.