Homelessness, Rights, and the Delusions of Property

Bibliographic Data

ID11670203
AuthorsNicholas Blomley (0000-0002-6882-9208, Simon Fraser University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume30
Issue6
Pages577-590
Publication date2009-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueUrban Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0272-3638 • E-ISSN: 1938-2847
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2747/0272-3638.30.6.577
OpenAlexW2038710016
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited28

Property, the legal relationship between persons in regard to valued resources, is of both analytical and ethical significance to many social issues. Yet homelessness is not often thought of in relation to property. As cities increasingly regulate the behavior of homeless people, such an analysis takes on a heightened urgency. The work of Jeremy Waldron is an important exception, however. He offers a geographically informed analysis that condemns the regulation of homeless people as a denial of fundamental liberal norms. I argue that his argument, though powerful and insightful, is flawed. Whereas it is helpful in making sense of the particular plight of the homeless in relation to dominant property relations, Waldron's treatment does not explain the ways in which homelessness itself may partly be produced, regulated, and legitimized through property. Put more simply, the predicament of the homeless, for Waldron, is that they are outside property; I suggest that their problem may be that they are utterly entangled within property. Waldron relies on a liberal geography of rights; I offer a more critical reading. Keywords: propertyhomelessnesslawrights

Argument (complex analysis · Denial · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Political science · Property (philosophy · Property rights · Reading (process · Relation (database · Sociology · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Property Rights and Legal Doctrine · Psychology

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