Although basic income has often been recommended as a way to boost economic growth, universal basic income has also been recommended as a way to facilitate degrowth — the deliberate reduction of production and consumption. Indeed, in May of this year, a conference convened in Hamburg on the precise topic of UBI and Degrowth.
As previously announced on Basic Income News, the 5th International Degrowth Conference will take place in Budapest from August 30 to September 3. The previous International Degrowth Conference, held in 2014 in Leipzig, attracted nearly 3000 people.
New this year, the International Degrowth Conference will be held in parallel with a Degrowth Week (also in Budapest), which will include additional workshops, presentations, jam sessions, and more.
While basic income is not mentioned amongst the themes of the conference, there will be at least one Degrowth Week event dealing explicitly with the topic: on September 2, two speakers, Lina Raquel Marinho and André Barata Nascimento, will lead a presentation at Corvinus University on unconditional basic income as a way to achieve degrowth and post-capitalistic society.
See the full schedule of Degrowth Week events here.
More about the relationship between basic income and degrowth:
Clive Lord, “Why basic income can save the planet“, Basic Income News; March 29, 2016.
Jason Burke Murphy, “Basic Income, sustainable consumption and the ‘DeGrowth’ movement“, Basic Income News; August 13, 2016.
Jason Hickel, “Time for degrowth: to save the planet, we must shrink the economy”, The Conversation; August 23, 2016.
Reviewed by Jennifer Lawson
Photo CC BY-BC 2.0 Colectivo Desazkundea
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