Resources :

Property & Values
Alternatives to Public and Private Ownership

Edited by Charles Geisler and Gail Daneker
Island Press- 2000

Property and Values offers a fresh look at property rights issues, bringing together scholars, attorneys, government officials, community development practitioners, and environmental advocates to consider new and more socially equitable forms of ownership. This unusual book evolved from a conference organized by the Equity Trust, Inc., in cooperation with the American Bar Association's Commission on Homelessness and Poverty.

The book synthesizes much innovative thinking on ownership in land and housing, and signals how that thinking might be used across America. Contributors - including David Abromowitz, Darby Bradley, John E. Davis, Teresa Duclos, Sally Fairfax, Margaret Grossman, Michael Heller, Alice Ingerson, Jim Libby, C. Ford Runge, Joseph Singer and others - call for balance between property rights and responsibilities, between private and public rights in property, and between individual and societal interests in land. Property and Values is a thought-provoking contribution to the literature on property for planners, lawyers, government officials, resource economists, environmental managers, and social scientists as well as for students of planning, environmental law, geography, or public policy.

Property and Values
· Shows how concepts of ownership have evolved in response to broader social change in the US and abroad
· Challenges conventional definitions of ownership and the arbitrary distinction between public and private ownership
· Looks to US history as well as other cultures for new concepts of ownership
· Surveys public policy affecting property value, focusing on "givings"- a subject typically overlooked in discussions of public "takings" of private rights in land
· Synthesizes innovative thinking on new forms of ownership for perpetually affordable housing and for preserving both working and wild lands
· Documents how alternative forms of ownership have been used to achieve both social and environmental goals

Charles Geisler (rural sociology, Cornell U.) and Gail Daneker (formerly of The Campaign for Peace and Democracy, and Environmentalists for Full Employment) present 13 contributions that call for balance between property rights and responsibilities, exploring new concepts of private and public land ownership that they hope can be applied towards more socially equitable relations in the US.

The articles are organized into four sections which explain ownership as socially evolving concept, challenge conventional public-private ownership categories, survey recent studies on the impact of public policy on property values, and offer examples from other cultures of different ownership realities.

To Order from Equity Trust, Inc.: PO Box 746, Turners Falls MA 01376

Single copies: $28.00 (20% discount); shipping and handling $3.50 for the first book, $1.50 per additional book (maximum charge $10.00)

Bulk orders (20 and over): $26.00 per book Shipping and handling: $10.00 per 20 books, plus $1. per additional book.

Payment: in US dollars drawn on US banks. Orders must be prepaid by check or money order payable to Equity Trust, Inc. Canadians, please add 7% GST. For other US orders, please enquire.
[return to top]