Don't talk with strangers': Regulating property, purifying the public

Access to property conditions access to the public realm. Access to private property establishes legitimate claims to participation and membership in the pubic realm. Property and property law, however, are themselves based on an often 'invisible' moral discourse and set of normative practices. This paper explores the dialectical relationship between moral orders and legal regimes governing property as they structure the conditions of and possibilities for the formation of publics.