by Jurgen De Wispelaere | Dec 4, 2024 | News
“Researchers are conducting the UK’s first major scientific trials to establish whether giving homeless people cash is a more effective way of reducing poverty than traditional forms of help.
Poverty campaigners have long believed that cash transfers are the most cost-effective way of helping people, but most studies have examined schemes in developing countries.
The new study, funded by the government and carried out by King’s College London (KCL) and the homelessness charity Greater Change, will recruit 360 people in England and Wales. Half will continue to get help from frontline charities. The other half will get additional help from Greater Change, whose support workers will discuss their financial problems then pay for items such as rent deposits, outstanding debts, work equipment, white goods, furniture or new clothes. They do not make direct transfers to avoid benefits being stopped due to a cash influx.’
To read the full article, click here.
by Jurgen De Wispelaere | Nov 4, 2024 | Research
Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash
Article by Jurgen De Wispelaere, Joe Chrisp, and Leticia Morales in Global Policy
Abstract: This short paper reflects on the key lessons we can learn from the political debate around and policy experimentation with (emergency) basic income schemes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic crisis initially seems to have opened up a policy window for introducing a basic income as a crisis instrument, theoretical arguments and empirical observations strongly suggest the reliance of some basic income advocates on crisis events, such as the pandemic, to push forward their policy ideas involves wishful thinking rather than political reality. A feasible roadmap towards introducing basic income requires the hard work of raising public awareness, constructing broad constituencies, and building robust political coalitions rather than waiting for the next crisis to come around the corner.
To read the full paper, click here.
by Jurgen De Wispelaere | Sep 13, 2024 | Featured, News
At its most recent congress, BIEN launched UBIdata, an innovative new tool with a mission to match reliable information about basic income with a rapidly growing global user base of individuals and organisations eager to learn more.
UBIdata gathers, processes and displays data about basic income pilots and experiments, survey and micro-simulations, political and media debates, and the development of grassroots organisations and networks. When completed, UBIdata will feature different interfaces and tools for interested audiences to engage with available information to meet their diverse needs and demands.
UBIdata is an ambitious project which is currently in its prototype starting phase. The current beta-version focuses on collecting and disseminating key data of a small selection of pilots and experiments in six countries. In its starting phase, the goal is to demonstrate and test the utility and user experience of the project on a small scale.
You can get involved and support us by sharing UBIdata with your networks, by trying out the tool, and by providing feedback at contact@ubidata.io. Your input and suggestions are vital for making UBIdata a helpful tool for everyone interested in the basic income idea.
Visit us at http://ubidata.io.
by Jurgen De Wispelaere | Mar 22, 2024 | News
Hi All,
We are an international group of PhD students interested in questions surrounding basic income. And we are very happy to announce a new initiative: the UBI PhD Network. Our goal is to connect young researchers working on UBI (and closely related topics) internationally. We aim to provide a platform for people to meet, have exchanges with like-minded researchers, and discuss their work.
The network is not bound to any academic institution and is run by PhD students for PhD students. However, we are supported by BIEN and plan to become a proper BIEN affiliate once our network is fully established. There will be a meeting at the next BIEN congress in Bath at the end of August for PhD students to get more information and discuss how to move this project forward. For now, we are launching an email list so we can communicate with each other. If you wish to join, you can fill out the application through this link: https://forms.gle/hg7TrKGmuEF7WSmU8. Please note, this email list is for internal purposes only and will not be shared with other organisations.
Please share this email or the link in your networks and forward it to other people you know who are doing a PhD on UBI. Let’s bring everyone together!
If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at ubiphdnetwork@gmail.com.
Best,
The UBI PhD Network team
Elise Aerts (University of Antwerp)
Stella Gabuljah (Bangor University)
Chloe Halpenny (Queen’s University Kingston)
Fabienne Hansen (University of Freiburg)
Jasmina Jerant (University of Ljubljana)
Nick Langridge (University of Bath)
Jieun Lee (Chung-Ang University)
Jéssica Maldonado (Federal Fluminense University)
by Jurgen De Wispelaere | Mar 7, 2023 | Events, News
The photo above is of President Aragonès (ERC) next to Salvador Illa (PSC) after ratifying the agreement on the Catalan anual budget. (C) Joan Mateu Parra.
The Catalan Basic Income Pilot project, which plans to conduct one of the largest basic income experiments featuring 5000 individuals in several locations across Catalunya, is currently under threat. On Friday the Catalan Parliament will vote on the budget for the upcoming year, including an amendment to defund (and by implication cancel) the pilot project. There are several initiatives under way to support the continuation of the project. The Scientific Committee today published an open letter in support of the Catalan Basic Income Pilot project, published in elDiario.es.
Read an English translation of the letter here.
