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Theories of Social Property Relations, Space and Power (Student Driven) - 4 ECTS
Course Coordinator:
Tenure Track Assistant Professor Alexander Dobeson,
Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS
STUDENT DRIVEN COURSE
Pre-requisites and requirements
Each participant is required to submit a reflection essay of no more than five pages, presenting and positioning their PhD project in relation to the course literature. The essay could, e.g., include participants’ reflections on how the course’s theories and concepts relate to and may inform their projects. Participants are encouraged to write exploratory and open-ended essays and are free to choose their own style and format of submission. Based on this essay, each student is further required to carry out an oral presentation on the relation between their PhD project and the themes, theories, and concepts introduced in the course. Essays must be in English. Deadline for submission is Monday 24th of August, 2026.
Only PhD students can participate in the course, and it is a precondition for receiving the course diploma that the PhD student attends the whole course.
Learning objectives
To become familiar with seminal theories and concepts on global capitalist restructuring processes within critical geographical traditions and global labour studies.
- To develop a deep understanding of capitalism as a fundamentally social system constituted by historically determinate social relations of property.
- To gain knowledge on the interconnections between power relations, spatiality, and changing global divisions of labour.
- To understand how resistance exercised by global labour movements has challenged and reconfigured capitalist structures on a global scale.
- To critically assess and reflect on the theories and concepts presented in the course and their applicability to contemporary issues in the global economy.
- To gauge the relevance of the presented theories and concepts to individual student projects and reflect on possible ways of incorporating them in the thesis.
- To write about and orally present student projects with a focus on exploring the commensurability and tensions between the theoretical frameworks of individual student projects and the theoretical frameworks presented during the course.
Aim
Since at least the 1960s, there have been sustained debates within the social sciences around globalization and its consequences for economic ownership structures, the organization of production, and divisions of labour in various regions of the world. Given the affordances of digital technologies in the contemporary global economy for organizing production across geographical boundaries, theories of social property relations, global divisions of labour, and the response of labour movements to globalization, have only become increasingly important. To understand the significance of these developments, it is essential to consult some of the foundational works in the social sciences of social property relations, space, power and resistance.
Centered around seminal works in economic geography, labour movement studies, and Marxist theories of capitalist social relations, this PhD course introduces students to theories and concepts on property relations, ownership, land rights, global divisions of labour, spatiality as well as power and resistance. The course takes its point of departure in the seminal works Land and Capital and Spatial Divisions of Labour by the feminist-Marxist geographer Doreen Massey, as well as the influential work, Forces of Labour by Beverly Silver. These works have inspired generations of scholars within critical economic geography to study the global expansion of capitalism and the changing structures and dynamics of ownership, divisions of labour, and labour movement resistance entailed by this expansion.
Taking its cue from Massey’s Land and Capital, the first day of the course introduces PhD students to foundational theories of social property relations in capitalist social systems, various forms of property and ownership, the relation between ownership and spatial relations, as well as theories of land-ownership and coloniality. The second day is dedicated to theories and concepts around global divisions of labour, capitalist restructuring, theorizations of space and place, and the role of gender in capital accumulation on a global scale. Finally, the third day focuses on resistance against capitalist and colonial domination, and the role of labour movements in shaping the global geographies of capital accumulation and expansion.
While the above-mentioned classic works provide the central orientation of the course, students will also have the possibility to engage with articles and works by scholars that explore other timely topics like geopolitical tensions, racial regimes of ownership, counter-hegemony, as well as newer academic literature that uses the theories and concepts presented on contemporary issues such as digital work and the gig economy.
Some central questions that will be explored during the course are:
- Which forms do social relations of property and ownership take under capitalist modes of production?
- What is the relation between various forms of ownership, property relations and the geographical expansion of capitalism?
- What is the relation between capital accumulation and uneven geographical development?
- How do global production processes manifest themselves in specific localities?
- What is the relationship between general dynamics of capitalist competition and the specificities of local labour processes?
- How have spatial divisions of labour developed in modern capitalism?
- What is the relation between spatial divisions of labour, gender, and race?
- What is the importance of space for politics?
- How have labour movements responded to the globalization of production?
- How do the struggles of labour movements affect the dynamics of capital accumulation?
Given the student-driven format of the course with a small number of participants, there is a strong focus on in-depth discussions of canonical works, as well as the usefulness of theories, concepts and methods from global labour studies and critical, economic geography for the students’ own research projects. The course will include time to explore, investigate and discuss analytical options for each individual project.
Lecture Plan
|
DAY 1 |
Introduction to theories of social property relations and ownership |
|
09.00 – 09.30 |
Welcome and introductions |
|
09.30 - 11.00 |
Presentation and discussion by assistant prof. Alexander Dobeson on critical geographical analyses of property relations, land ownership and global production. |
|
11.00 - 12.00 |
Writing session:Inspired by the facilitator’s presentation: How do the theories relate to my project and how can it help me to further develop my project? |
|
12.00 - 13.00 |
Lunch |
|
13.00 – 14.00 |
Presentation and discussion of student projects. |
|
14.00 – 15.30 |
Plenum discussion of Doreen Massey’s Land and Capital and its relevance for studying global production processes today. |
|
15.30 – 16.30 |
Individual reflection on the usefulness of theories, concepts and methods for student projects and ways to implement learnings. |
|
16.30 – 17.00 |
Shared wrap up and reflections on the day. |
|
DAY 2 |
Theorizing spatiality, power, and global divisions of labour |
|
09.00 – 09.30 |
Re-cap of yesterday |
|
09.30 - 11.00 |
Presentation and discussion by assistant prof. Alexander Dobeson of theories and concepts in Spatial Divisions of Labour and their applicability today. |
|
11.00 - 12.00 |
Writing session Inspired by the facilitator’s presentation: What thoughts come out of the presentation and how can they help me to advance my project? |
|
12.00 - 13.00 |
Lunch |
|
13.00 – 14.00 |
Presentations and discussion of student projects |
|
14.00 - 15.30 |
Plenum discussion of the usefulness and relevance of the work of Doreen Massey as well as its complementarity with the other course readings. |
|
15.30 – 16.30 |
Individual reflection on the usefulness of theories, concepts and methods for student projects and ways to implement learnings. |
|
16.30 - 17.00 |
Shared wrap up and reflections on the day. |
|
DAY 3 |
Theories and conceptualizations of resistance and global labour movements |
|
09.00 – 09.30 |
Re-cap of yesterday. |
|
09.30 - 11.00 |
Collective discussion of the classical works, their critiques and the relevance of the works in studying global production, ownership, and labour struggles today. |
|
11.00 - 12.00 |
Presentation and discussion of questions/ideas/struggles in individual PhD projects that came out of the last two days. |
|
12.00 - 13.00 |
Lunch |
|
13.00 - 14.00 |
Walk-and-talk: How to study global production, ownership, and divisions of labour? What empirical data and methods can be used? How to connect theory and method? |
|
14.00 - 15.30 |
Plenum discussion of how to utilize data analysis strategies from the works that have so-far been discussed. |
|
15.30 - 17.00 |
Wrap-up, reflections, course evaluation |
Readings
Please find attached the overview of planned readings for the course.
Registration Deadline and Conditions
The registration deadline is 31 July 2026. If you wish to cancel your registration, it must be done by this date. By this deadline, we determine whether there are enough registrations to run the course or decide who should be offered a seat if we have received too many registrations.
Information about the Event
Date and time Wednesday 2 September 2026 at 09:00 to Friday 4 September 2026 at 16:00
Registration Deadline Friday 31 July 2026 at 23:55
Location
Dalgas Have - room DHV 2.69, 2.70 & 2.71 (second floor)
Dalgas Have 15
Frederiksberg
DK-2000
Organizer
Nina Iversen, CBS PhD School
Phone +45 3815 2475
ni.research@cbs.dk
Event Location
About CBS PhD School
Copenhagen Business School (CBS) offers a range of PhD courses, covering the scientific disciplines of the school. The courses include research design, publication techniques, research methods such as qualitative or quantitative methods, and specialisation courses in eg. organisational analysis, marketing and political science.
Most courses are organised as intensive week-long courses, but other formats are applied as well. The courses are open to PhD students from other countries and institutions, but some prerequisites may apply. Please see the individual course descriptions.
The PhD courses are offered in English and are for PhD students only.
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Event Location
About CBS PhD School
Copenhagen Business School (CBS) offers a range of PhD courses, covering the scientific disciplines of the school. The courses include research design, publication techniques, research methods such as qualitative or quantitative methods, and specialisation courses in eg. organisational analysis, marketing and political science.
Most courses are organised as intensive week-long courses, but other formats are applied as well. The courses are open to PhD students from other countries and institutions, but some prerequisites may apply. Please see the individual course descriptions.
The PhD courses are offered in English and are for PhD students only.