Research Agenda

Figures of Property in the Two Treatises of Government

Shanks, Torrey and Madalyn Hay. In Locke’s Two Treatises of Government: A Critical Guide, Cambridge University Press.

Property

Shanks, Torrey and Madalyn Hay. In Cambridge Dictionary of Political Thought, Cambridge University Press.

Prefiguring the Beneficiary: Community Land Trusts and the Prefigurative Politics of the Trust

Hay, Madalyn. Journal of Law and Society.

The architecture of the common law trust effects a one-sided relationship where the beneficiary is the silent recipient of the trustee’s discretion. When appropriated politically, this model has served to justify colonial and paternal forms of governance under the assumption that the governed, the beneficiary, lacks the capacity for self-rule and deliberation. This article challenges this paternal view of trust law by examining how grassroots, neighbourhood-focused Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in Canada prefigure this legal architecture to create a new form of collective property ownership and community self-governance. CLTs engage in a form of prefigurative legality by offering a radical rethinking of the capacity and agency of the beneficiary and their role within the trust. They act ‘as if’ the beneficiary is the owner of the trust property, and is a capable and agential co-participant in the trust that can demand deep accountability from the trustee. In doing so, CLTs stand as examples of prefigurative legality as they play with the language of the law, repurposing it to fit their embedded accountable form of community governance.

Participation beyond the Assembly: Mary Parker Follett’s Democratic Theory

Cardin-Trudeau, Etienne, Margaret Kohn, Madalyn Hay, and Victor Bruzzone. Contemporary Political Theory 24: 341–61.

Most participatory strands of democratic theory hold a conception of the transformative potential of democratic participation. According to those theories, involvement in deliberative or decision-making processes makes better citizens by teaching them political skills and orienting them towards the common good. This article draws from original interviews with residents of housing coops to argue that this phenomenon can also be found outside formal decision-making forums, in menial and quotidian tasks undertaken for the preservation and maintenance of the organization. Using the political theory of Mary Parker Follett, we suggest that involvement in practical concrete activities is an overlooked but significant element of democratic life. Residents of the coops we studied grew ‘power-with’ by joining others in accomplishing everyday tasks, such as blowing snow, gardening, or fixing shelves, and this collective power made them feel responsible for the organization they were a part of. Broadening our understanding of political participation to include those practical activities could be useful in assessing and devising plans for participatory reforms in small-scale local democracies, but also possibly at a larger scale that would produce the benefits of participation without requiring individuals to overly engage in demanding and complex procedures.

Nostalgic Prefiguration: Community Land Trusts and the Politics of the Past

Scholarship on prefigurative politics typically emphasizes the relationship between present and future, overlooking the past. This article challenges this trend by considering the role that affective attachments to the past play in prefigurative politics through the example of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in Canada. Drawing on original ethnographic research, I argue that nostalgia plays an essential role in mediating the political goals and practices of CLTs. Like other examples of prefiguration, CLT organizers work to create a better future in the present, but that future preserves, recreates, or revives important parts of their past. I turn to Svetlana Boym’s work (2001) on nostalgia to identify two tendencies–reflective and restorative nostalgia–that mediate CLTs prefigurative practices. Ultimately, I argue that recognizing the role of nostalgia allows us to appreciate different political practices and visions of the future still consistent with prefiguration. While prefiguration is often framed as a departure from the past, CLTs demonstrate how affective ties to the past can be productively channeled into prefigurative practices. Incorporating nostalgia helps expand the definition of prefiguration beyond traditional progressive organizations, highlighting the affective attachments that animate contemporary political life.

The (post)Colonial Origin of the Community Land Trust Movement

Locke and the Origin of Fiduciary Governance

The promise of a 100-year lease: Are Community Land Trusts the answer to our housing crisis?

By Cynthia Macdonald, A&S News.