Property, Community, and the Problem of Distributive Justice
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J. E Penner
While it is often taken for granted that the concepts of property and of distributive justice are capable of working together to generate norms which can enhance positive social and political relations, in particular the value of community, this Article argues otherwise. Relying on critical tools deriving from Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and Marx’s notion of fetishism, the author claims that the Rawlsian conception of distributive justice fetishizes the institution of property, and claims to "distribute" participation in society amongst its members as if this amounted to a distribution of so many objects. Taken in this way, the concept of distributive justice has no respectable content. What social justice requires is a means to ensure that people are not "socially excluded," which requires each individual’s participation in the social and cultural enterprise. This sort of participation can no more be "distributed" than can life itself, and the realization of this point undermines the cogency of most discussions of distributive justice.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Introduction
- Community and Custom in Property
- How Property Can Create, Maintain, or Destroy Community
- The Evolution of Private and Open Access Property
- How Blackstone Became a Blackstonian
- Properties of Community
- Community and Property -- For Those Who Have Neither
- "You'll Never Walk Alone": On Property, Community, and Football Fans
- Plural Ownership, Funds, and the Aggregation of Wills
- Commons, Anticommons, and Community in Biotechnological Assets
- Property, Community, and the Problem of Distributive Justice
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Introduction
- Community and Custom in Property
- How Property Can Create, Maintain, or Destroy Community
- The Evolution of Private and Open Access Property
- How Blackstone Became a Blackstonian
- Properties of Community
- Community and Property -- For Those Who Have Neither
- "You'll Never Walk Alone": On Property, Community, and Football Fans
- Plural Ownership, Funds, and the Aggregation of Wills
- Commons, Anticommons, and Community in Biotechnological Assets
- Property, Community, and the Problem of Distributive Justice
