7 - Ownership and Absent Owners

Summary

In this chapter, we explore the phenomenon of homeless squatting on empty land through the prism of ownership and owners, and reflect on how the changing nature and conceptions of ownership have re-shaped the norms and narratives of absent ownership. We begin by examining “ownership” as a scaled concept: building on our approach in Chapter 6, we explore how the registers of scale – and, particularly, the dynamics of “upscaling” and “downscaling” – reveal the multiple layers of meaning, values and interactions within the frame of ownership: between individual (absent owners) and institutional (the law of ownership; the institution of private property) stakeholders, and between these interests, squatters, and the state. We reflect on how the character of ownership, and of owners, have changed since the 1970s, resulting in the emergence of the “investor model” of owner-occupation, and the normalization of small-scale landlordism and property development. We consider the resilience needs of absent owners, and examples of state action in relation to unlawful occupation that allocates resilience to absentee owners. Finally, we begin to reflect on the impact of absenteeism on neighborhoods, and the relationships between absentee owners and owner-neighbors.