Overview

Alarming environmental degradation makes ever more urgentthe reconciliation of political economy and sustainability. Landand the Given Economy examines how the landed basis of humanexistence converges with economics, and it offers a persuasivenew conception of land that transcends the flawed and inadequateaccounts in classical and neoclassical economics. Todd S. Mei grounds this work in a rigorous review of problematiceconomic conceptions of land in the work of John Locke,Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, HenryGeorge, Alfred Marshall, and Thorstein Veblen. Mei then draws on the thought of Martin Heidegger to posit aphilosophical clarification of the meaning of land—its ontologicalnature. He argues that central to rethinking land is recognizingits unique manner of being, described as its “givenness.” Concludingwith a discussion of ground rent, Mei reflects on specificstrategies for incorporating the philosophical account of landinto contemporary economic policies. Revivifying economic frameworks that fail to resolve the impassebetween economic development and sustainability, Landand the Given Economy offers much of interest to scholars andreaders of philosophy, environmentalism, and the full spectrumof political economy.

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Innovative and challenging, Land and the Given Economy makes an important intervention into contemporary thinking about land and economy. Jeff Malpas, author of Heidegger's Topology: Being, Place, World and Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography

Mei's ontological analysis of the land does more than just question the nature of our fundamental relation to land: it also questions the fundamental relation humans have to each other. --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Of the many crises of unfairness facing us today, the unequal distribution of benefits reaped from land is one of the most intractable and pressing. It can only get worse, as populations grow and climate changes. In response to the demand for an ethics adequate to the injustices of land ownership and privation, Todd Mei renews radical theses on land taxation. To achieve this, he develops critical readings of modern economic theories through important new interpretations of phenomenology and hermeneutics. His claims for a fundamental human relation to land are timely and testimony to the progressive power of contemporary philosophical thought. --James Williams, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation Innovative and challenging, Land and the Given Economy makes an important intervention into contemporary thinking about land and economy. --Jeff Malpas, author of Heidegger's Topology: Being, Place, World and Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography

Innovative and challenging, <i>Land and the Given Economy</i> makes an important intervention into contemporary thinking about land and economy. <b>--Jeff Malpas, author of <i>Heidegger's Topology: Being, Place, World</i> and <i>Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography</i></b>

Author Information

Todd S. Mei is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Kent.

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