Imagined Property - thoughts from out there

Theory of strategy - strategy as theory

The components of strategy are: description, analysis, vision. Each component is part of a process leading to the development of a new strategy, which may be further action or another attempt at description, analysis or visioning. Strategy is a process but this process does not exist without movement. Strategy can only be ‘observed’ in action or in the thinking about action – the strategy is found in description, analysis and vision. This strategy needs to be understood as an ongoing unending process of thinking and action, of theory and practice – as praxis. As a process strategy begins and ends where researchers decide is appropriate. Both the beginning and the ending may be reasoned decisions or situations imposed by events. The beginning or entry point for research may be marked by a question and the end of a research project may be where the research stops. The research may stop when the money runs out or when answers are found for the research question.  The ‘end’ of a research project may be set out as the discovery of something new as new facts or theory, but the strategic process does not also end with such claim. The research may stop but the process continues. 

 

Strategy is dialectical – a dance of two steps forward and, at times, one step back  - read more under Articles "Strategy as theory".

What gets in the way

I have written a lot since my last post but have not posted anything.  Why?  There are no good reasons for not posting, given that I have committed myself to writing once a week. The bad reasons include distraction.   Since my last post dated October 21, 2008, my sister (and brother) has had a birthday, elections were held in New Zealand, United States and Vancouver (Canada's election was just before that post as well) and I have had a very bad cold.

Birthdays are important, I guess.  I am not sure that I find other folks' days as important as my own so this is not a major reason for failing to write.  The elections were, of course, a much greater distraction.  I spent hours reading stuff on line - in particular about the US election.  Both the Canadian and the New Zealand election campaigns were sad affairs - a seemingly inevitable conclusion with seemingly little passion or reason.  But the US campaign had all the excitement and drama that a billion dollars US can provide.  And then there was the 'financial meltdown'.   How does one measure the cost and loss when there are so many zeros?

And the US state of affairs continues to distract me. The amounts of money being sloshed about is awe inspiring... there is so much money that any real amount (like the amount I might earn in my lifetime) seems too small and pathetic to mention.  But what is most horrific is that the guys spilling the cash seem unaware of the cost of their actions, let alone its value.  They just spend a billion here and a billion there.  The system is broken and soon the pieces will be buried under stacks of useless paper... It would be nice to be able to blame the dismantling of the US economy on guys like Osama bin Laden  - but the guys who made the crisis possible were elected (or appointed) by the American people (which sort of gives new credence to the guy who said that patriotism was the refuge of scoundrels...).  

But what has this to do with property.  Well - the financial crisis involves the destruction of property - the end of maybe a trillion dollars worth of assets.   Reminds me of the line from March (and the book title) "all that is solid melts into air".   One could ask where did it go?  The better question is "Where did it come from?".  And this I would argue is from "ownership".   My definition of property begins with a sense that property is produced through ownership.