Land and the Given Economy

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.