Dr Todd Mei, Lecturer and Head of the Department of Philosophy, has just published a new book, Land and the Given Economy: The Hermeneutics and Phenomenology of Dwelling (Northwestern University Press, 2017).

Alarming environmental degradation makes ever more urgent the reconciliation of political economy and sustainability. Todd’s book examines how the landed basis of human existence converges with economics, and it offers a persuasive new conception of land that transcends the flawed and inadequate accounts in classical and neoclassical economics.

Todd grounds this work in a rigorous review of problematic economic conceptions of land in the work of John Locke, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Henry George, Alfred Marshall, and Thorstein Veblen.

Todd then draws on the thought of Martin Heidegger to posit a philosophical clarification of the meaning of land its ontological nature. He argues that central to rethinking land is recognising its unique manner of being, described as its ‘givenness’. Concluding with a discussion of ground rent, he reflects on specific strategies for incorporating the philosophical account of land into contemporary economic policies.

Revivifying economic frameworks that fail to resolve the impasse between economic development and sustainability, Land and the Given Economy offers much of interest to scholars and readers of philosophy, environmentalism, and the full spectrum of political economy.

For more details, please see the publisher’s page.