Ownership technologies

Consumer research has extensively explored digital ownership and possession, focusing on the entities owned, the owners, and their relationships to their possessions. This paper advances this literature by introducing the concept of “ownership technologies,” as an analytical lens to attend to the technological devices and techniques that mediate ownership (shape social arrangements and interpretations of what constitutes ownership, what can be owned, who can own, and how). We illustrate the utility of this lens by providing historical examples, as well as through the prism of contemporary technologies such as blockchains and NFTs. We identify three ways in which technology mediates ownership—demarcation, enclosure, and transferability—and conclude by suggesting directions for future research on digital ownership.