Please join the Political Theory Colloquium as they host William Scheuerman, Professor of Political Science at the University of Indiana, Bloomington.
Many recent cases of politically motivated lawbreaking include instances of property damage and/or destruction (e.g., political “vandalism,” “looting,” sabotage, etc.). Despite their importance for contemporary protest politics, many scholars either sideline them or group them under broad conceptual rubrics (e.g., “resistance,” “uncivil disobedience”). In the process, they fail to capture key empirical distinctions and identify the resulting normative and political challenges. I develop a more nuanced typology of property damage’s forms before proceeding at address key political-theoretical questions, most importantly: when and why should specific political acts resulting in property damage be viewed as having, in principle, some potentially “acceptable” normative and political status? To do so, I explore some closely related questions. When, if ever, does it make sense to describe political property damage as “violent”? What might our answer to that question entail for those committed to political nonviolence? How might different views of property help us make sense not only of political property damage’s types, but also how to evaluate, as a normative and political matter, their merits and demerits?
Bill’s primary research and teaching interests are in modern political thought, German political thought, democratic theory, legal theory, and international thought. His most recent books are Property Disobedience as Protest: Rethinking Political Nonviolence (University of Pennsylvania, 2026), End of Law: Carl Schmitt in the Twenty-First Century (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020), and Civil Disobedience (Polity Press, 2018).
Ariel Sowers
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