Basic income and the freedom to lead a good life

Parijs, Philippe Van; Vanderborght, Yannick

doi:10.4324/9781315542126-13

Cited by 3 publications

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“…3 See also discussion around universal basic income (e.g. Pitts & Dinerstein, 2017;Van Parijs & Vanderborght, 2018). 4 Covid-19 and respective socioeconomic consequences.…”

Section: Orcidmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transformative perspectives on labour geographies – The role of labour agency in processes of socioecological transformations

Grenzdörffer

2021

Geography Compass

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Both geographical research on socioecological transformations and labour geography see decisive deficiencies in current capitalist structures centred around growth. To highlight possibilities of economic pluralism, both fields analyse diverse economic spaces within, next to and beyond capitalist structures. A basic assumption in transformation perspectives is that economic structures are not fixed, but can be transformed by people as economic actors. This corresponds to the concept of 'labour agency' from labour geography, i.e. that workers as active agents are able to (re)shape the structures they are embedded in.Despite those common perspectives, these threads of research coexist without having been intertwined. With a focus on wage labour, this paper addresses the potential for an integrative perspective illustrated by the example of companies owned/managed by workers. In charge of their own skills, time and resources, workers can actively break with prevalent market logics, which incentivise trading (human) resources at the lowest price possible. By rejecting core dynamics of capitalist structures, these companies illustrate the workers' potential key role in processes of socioecological transformations. Thus, the derived objectives of this paper are (1) to analyse and accentuateThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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“…3 See also discussion around universal basic income (e.g. Pitts & Dinerstein, 2017;Van Parijs & Vanderborght, 2018). 4 Covid-19 and respective socioeconomic consequences.…”

Section: Orcidmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 3 See also discussion around universal basic income (e.g. Pitts & Dinerstein, 2017; Van Parijs & Vanderborght, 2018). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformative perspectives on labour geographies – The role of labour agency in processes of socioecological transformations

Grenzdörffer

2021

Geography Compass

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“…It enables the state to remain neutral with regards to particular conceptions of the good. 46 Whether individuals achieve their conceptions of the good or not is only relevant in instances of individuals being prevented through coercion by others. Concern is for means, not ends.…”

Section: Health As Facilitativementioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the ethical underpinnings of universal basic income as a public health policy: prophylaxis, social engineering and ‘good’ lives

Johnson

2021

J Med Ethics

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At a time of COVID-19 pandemic, universal basic income (UBI) has been presented as a potential public health ‘upstream intervention’. Research indicates a possible impact on health by reducing poverty, fostering health-promoting behaviour and ameliorating biopsychosocial pathways to health. This novel case for UBI as a public health measure is starting to receive attention from a range of political positions and organisations. However, discussion of the ethical underpinnings of UBI as a public health policy is sparse. This is depriving policymakers of clear perspectives about the reasons for, restrictions to and potential for the policy’s design and implementation. In this article, we note prospective pathways to impact on health in order to assess fit with Rawlsian, capabilities and perfectionist approaches to public health policy. We suggest that Raz’ pluralist perfectionist approach may fit most comfortably with the prospective pathways to impact, which has implications for allocation of resources.

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“…The belief that UBI would offer ‘the freedom to lead a good life’ (Van Parijs and Vanderborght 2018) has been significant in guiding its advocates on the left. UK Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, for example, has spoken of ‘a whole freedom and liberation that it gives you’ (Harris 2016), while a recent Compass report has claimed ‘it is a profoundly democratic and egalitarian concept that promotes both security and genuinely effective freedom’ (Reed and Lansley 2016: 10).…”

Section: Cognitive Capitalism and Free Labour: Context For A Post-wormentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal basic income and cognitive capitalism: A post-work dystopia in the making?

Mathers

2019

Capital & Class

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The rise of the gig economy and the prospect of increased automation has led to renewed calls for the implementation of a Universal Basic Income scheme from a variety of spokespeople on the left, including notable journalists, academics and politicians. Weeks, Mason, Srnicek and Williams and others suggest that such a re-orientation of welfare distribution would not only mitigate the effects of these tectonic changes to the nature of labour, but it might in fact facilitate a break away from neoliberal capitalism and towards a post-work condition. Building upon the work of Universal Basic Income detractors such as Pitts and Dinerstein, this article brings into question the likelihood of these claims. Universal Basic Income’s advocates speak of the freedom to be unlocked by Universal Basic Income: but the freedom to do what and for whom? The article addresses the increasing significance for the process of valorisation today of digital ‘free labour’, and thus explores the idea that Universal Basic Income might have presented itself at this current juncture less to be a vehicle to a utopian future and more to be a handmaid for capitalism as its mode of production evolves. After utilising Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror to depict a dystopian imaginary of what a Universal Basic Income-future might thus really look like, the article concludes by questioning how we might rescue the scheme as a leftist project: attending to Guattari’s insights into how to resist capitalism’s subjectivation, as well as Fuchs’ vision for an ‘alternative Internet’.

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Basic income and the freedom to lead a good life

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Transformative perspectives on labour geographies – The role of labour agency in processes of socioecological transformations

Transformative perspectives on labour geographies – The role of labour agency in processes of socioecological transformations

Examining the ethical underpinnings of universal basic income as a public health policy: prophylaxis, social engineering and ‘good’ lives

Universal basic income and cognitive capitalism: A post-work dystopia in the making?

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