by BIEN | Feb 1, 2019
The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) is an organisation sustained through volunteer efforts. Today, our volunteers – including members of the Executive Committee (EC) – are based all over the globe who share a passion to foster Basic Income discussion throughout the world.
If this sounds like you, please register your interest to volunteer for BIEN using this form. In doing so, you will have the opportunity to do meaningful work alongside BIEN members and connect with other BIEN volunteers.
We are eager to support ambitious BIEN volunteers to advance our movement, and frequently seek volunteers to help with news stories, social media engagement, research data, regional advocacy, website support, etc.
As of February 2026, BIEN is seeking volunteers to take on the following roles:
- Website content editor
- Develop an overview of the static pages on the BIEN website.
- Review pages and carry out background checks to verify integrity and accuracy of information.
- Work alongside our Communications Coordinator, James Grant.
- Affiliate outreach
- Touch base with BIEN affiliates and gauge activity.
- Upkeep contact information for BIEN affiliates via background checks and verification.
- Work with our secretary Fabienne.
- UBIdata promotion
- Develop and execute promotion strategy for UBIdata – BIEN’s flagship knowledge repository.
- Conduct relevant content creation work surrounding UBIdata.
- Work alongside our Research Coordinator, Jurgen De Wispelaere.
- Piloters Network liaison
- Liaise with Basic Income pilot organisers and preparing agendas to facilitate Piloters Network meetings.
- Generating news content, oversee tasks to be completed ahead of the 2026 Congress in Toronto.
- Work alongside our Congress Liaison Officer, Neil Howard.
If this is of interest to you, please email our Volunteer Coordinator (volunteers@basicincome.org) describing the suitability for the role you are interested in. We would also recommending attaching your CV for us to better screen your application for fit for these roles and opportunities.
by BIEN | Jul 2, 2018
If you are donating to BIEN’s UBIData Project, please note it within “Write us a comment“
Another way to make a donation or send a membership fee to BIEN is by direct bank transfer. Here are the details that you might require:
- Bank account name: The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
- Bank and bank address: CAF Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ, United Kingdom
- IBAN number: GB19CAFB40524000031789
- Swift number: CAFBGB21XXX
- Account number: 00031789
- Sort code: 405240
If you send a direct bank transfer then please also email the treasurer at treasurer@basicincome.org to let him know the amount that you have sent and your name and email address so that arrival of the money can be confirmed. If you have difficulty with both Paypal and direct bank transfer then please email the treasurer.
For any questions relating to BIEN’s financial affairs, please contact the treasurer, Lindsay Stirton, at treasurer@basicincome.org
by BIEN | Mar 25, 2018 | News
Tom Minogue Hastings. Credit to: Free Folk University
Tom Minogue Hastings has been promoting Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the United States. He has been doing this with a popular website devoted to UBI, also appearing on the USBIG (U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network) website while also writing for the Diane Pagen blog.
Hasting’s version for 2018 includes quotations by individuals, including Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, Dr. Paul Krugman, Dr. David Harvey, Dr. Richard Wolff, and links to Youtube lectures by Dr. Guy Standing, Dr. Yanis Varoufakis, Dr. Robert Reich, Dr. Michael Hudson, Dr. David Graeber, Dr. Paul Mason, Dr. Alex Vitale, Dr. Thomas Frank, Elon Musk and Dr. Barbara Ehrenreich.
The website also includes links to a number of lectures and videos available for free online from the likes of David Graeber, Dr. Paul Mason, and Elon Musk. The website is focused on the 99% of people, the Precariat, or those living more precarious lives than other Americans.
This website is an information resource in order to inform the reader on the important sub-topics within the UBI world.
More information at:
Tom Minogue Hastings, “Universal Basic Income For Everyone”
”, How to be the Revolution, 2018 (link)
by BIEN | Mar 23, 2018 | Research
Picture: credit to Engineers Ireland.
Steffen Hertog, Associate Professor in Comparative Politics in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has published a paper in Energy Transitions
(Hertog, 2017) which relates the efficiency in wealth sharing and basic income.
The paper makes the case that hydrocarbon producers with higher rents per capita make a unique category of the rent-dependent nations. Those that face specific development challenges not present in mid-rent nations.
With a look into the patterns of rent distributions in high-rent countries, excessive public employment, and energy subsidies, Hertog argues that these lead to lower labor productivity and the exclusion of the national population from the privatized labor market.
Hertog proposes unconditional cash payments in high-rent countries as a means to minimize the distortion patterns in the hiring of nationals for the private labor market and in labor productivity resulting from rent distribution.
More information at:
Stefan Hertog, “Making wealth sharing more efficient in high-rent countries: the citizens’ income”, Energy Transitions, December 2017
by BIEN | Mar 22, 2018 | News
Credit to: Flickr.
Anna Dent, M.Sc., published a Master’s dissertation
entitled “From Utopia to Implementation: How Basic Income has progressed from radical idea to legitimate policy solution.”
In it, Dent explores how “utopian and marginal” ideas such as basic income became part of the agendas for policy. The dissertation looks at UBI pilot projects including Finland, the Netherlands, Ontario, and Scotland.
Dent looked at policy change in progress through the dissertation’s “inductive, exploratory approach.” That is, she used case studies, documented analysis, and interviews. The four cases in the research have common aspects.
Many variables close together in time reinforce one another. Basic income was seen as a solution to policy failures, poverty, and unemployment. Each of the four cases – Finland, the Netherlands, Ontario, and Scotland – represent attempts to solve local contexts.
Dent’s research finds the pathway from obscurity to maturity of an idea, as it gains a mainstream positioning.
More information at:
Anna Dent, “From Utopia to Implementation: How Basic Income has progressed from radical idea to legitimate policy solution
”, University of Bristol, September 2017
Anna Dent is a consultant working in employment and skills policy and implementation for the public and non-profit sectors. She has particular interests in low-income workers, the changing nature of work, and welfare benefits. She holds an MSc in Public Policy from the University of Bristol, and is a fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce). She can be contacted via twitter at @anna_b_dent
