BIEN founding conference, Louvain-la-Neuve, 6 September 1986 From left to right: Bill Jordan, Claus Offe, Annie Miller, Nick Douben, Greetje Lubbi, Riccardo Petrella.
Bill Jordan died in the night from 11 to 12 April 2026 in Worcester (England). He was one of the founding members of BIEN. In September 1986, he played a central role at the conference at which the Basic Income European Network (later to become the Basic Income Earth Network) was founded. His work as a sociologist, a social worker and a political theorist contributed greatly to the vigour of the incipient British and European basic income movement.
Bill was born in Dublin on the 4th of January 1941. He spent most of his childhood in South Africa and settled in England with his mother and siblings in 1955. He studied Philosophy Politics and Economics at Oxford from 1959 to 1962 and next worked for 12 years as a probation officer in British prisons. He later taught sociology and social policy at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and at East European Universities.
In his prolific career, he published many books, including Automatic Poverty (1981), The State: Authority and Autonomy (1985), The Common Good (1989), Trapped in Poverty? Labour-Market Decisions in Low-Income Households (1992) and What’s Wrong with Social Policy and How to Fix it (2010).
Having settled in the town of Newton Abbott, near Torquay (Devon), in the early 1970s, he helped build the local Claimants’ Union and campaigned for the benefit claimants’ movement to establish a national structure. In his short book, Paupers. The Making of the New Claiming Class (1973), he explained how the claimants’ revolt against the existing means-tested and repressive welfare system led them to advocate a guaranteed income.
In 1984, Bill was a founding member of BIRG, the Basic Income Research Group, based in London, together with Anne Miller, Peter Ashby and Mimi Parker, who also helped found BIEN two years later.
Bill was a trenchant critic of Margaret Thatcher’s mean-spirited social policies of the 1980s and 1990s. His politics were ‘left liberal’. In 1989, he wrote what was effectively the manifesto for the Liberal Party leader, Paddy Ashdown, published as Citizen’s Britain. It led the Liberals to support basic income for several years. His most famous student was Mark Drakeford, whose Ph.D. he supervised. Drakeford went on to become First Minister of Wales and a very popular Labour Party politician.
Bill’s values were those of a classic English social liberal. Indeed, one might say that he was a solid west-country English liberal, wedded to the parts of the country where he resided. (He spent most of his adult life in Whimple, Devon, where several of us visited him.) Those were his physical and ideological roots, traceable to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. However, he was always painfully aware that he was preaching a social liberalism that was struggling against the grain of the time.
We mourn Bill’s passing as a long-time friend and a ‘fellow traveller’, with an impressive athletic record and an unforgettable sense of humour. He believed passionately in basic income — or what he preferred to call social dividend — as an essential component of the Good Society. Without a basic income, freedom was a mirage.
Bill will be sorely missed by his many friends and by all those who keep believing that there is a far better future than the neo-liberal dystopia that defined the social context in which he wrote.
Guy Standing, Sarath Davala, Alexander de Roo, Jurgen De Wispelaere, Louise Haagh, Annie Miller, Malcolm Torry, Walter Van Trier, Karl Widerquist, Toru Yamamori, Philippe Van Parijs
(photo taken at the BIEN Congress 2023 in Seoul, South Korea)
Something historical is happening in South Korea now. For Koreans of course, but equally importantly, for the global basic income movement. Lee Jae Myung who was voted to power as the President of South Korea in the first week of June 2025 has been an ardent supporter of Basic Income and has attended and addressed several of BIEN Congresses and conferences. Basic Income Korean Network (BIKN) has been working closely with him ever since he has been the Mayor of Seongnam city where he introduced the ‘Youth Dividend’ – unconditional cash given to everyone in a specific age group – 18 to 21. Subsequently as the Governor of Gyeonggi province, he introduced several basic-income-like schemes and experiments.
Hyosang Ahn, the President of Basic Income Korea Network reflects on the prospects of basic income implementation in South Korea in the coming years.
In his reflection, Hyosang mentions Lee Jae Myung’s vision of a ‘Basic Society’ which was his 2025 election manifesto. We are attaching that document as well for your reference.
Will this be a turning point in the basic income movement in Korea? What will be the ripple effects of this development on the rest of the world? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, we as a basic income community stand by BIKN in their efforts to realise our collective vision of building a basic income society.
We congratulate President Lee Jae Myung and wish him well whole heartedly and extend our support to his efforts in making Korean society a role model for the rest of the world.
Below: An Open Letter from Basic Income Korean Network. Also included: an English translation and original Korean copy of Lee Jae Myung’s Vision for a Basic Society:
“…there are on the horizon two radical ideas that have the potential to create synergy which can revolutionize the way we are currently addressing the income vulnerability and different forms of deprivation in the world today. The two ideas are Bitcoin and Universal Basic Income: that is, providing a basic income to every human being on the planet by means of Bitcoin. What is common between these two ideas is that they are based on certain foundation human values: individual freedom and autonomy, human dignity and equity.”
Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanityintroduces Citizen Funds and a Universal Basic Dividend (UBD) as bold proposals to reduce inequality, increase wellbeing, and boost creativity and innovation in a time of social and economic upheaval.
This webinar will delve into the core concepts, potential benefits, and real-world applications of UBD as a transformative policy drawing on the experiences of our expert panel. We will explore:
The fundamentals of Universal Basic Dividend
Its potential to address economic inequality and enhance wellbeing
The potential impact of UBD on sustainability and environmental stewardship
Case studies and evidence from around the world
The panel:
Sarath Davala is an Indian sociologist, and President of Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). He is co-author of the book: Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India and contributing author to the Earth4All deep-dive paper Unconditional cash transfers and the five turnarounds: beneficiaries’ perspectives. He was Research Director of the Madhya Pradesh Basic Income Pilot (2010-2014) and is currently co-director of WorkFREE, a Basic Income pilot with waste collectors in Hyderabad. He is the co-founder of India Network for Basic Income and Mission Possible 2030 – both working on promoting informed conversation about Basic Income.
Ken Webster is a Visiting Professor at Cranfield University and a Fellow of CISL (Cambridge University Institute for Sustainability Leadership). From 2010 – 2018 he was Head of Innovation for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy pioneer organisation where he helped shape current notions of a ‘circular economy’, and is the founder of the Society for the Circular Economy. He a member of Earth4All’s Transformational Economics Commission, contributing author of Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity, and lead author of three Earth4All deep-dive papers on Universal Basic Dividend.
Caroline Whyte has a background in ecological economics and does research and advocacy for Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability. She has a particular interest in global environmental justice, Just Transition and financial system reform. She contributed to Feasta’s books Fleeing Vesuvius and Sharing for Survival. Along with four other Feasta Climate Group members she helped to launch the CapGlobalCarbon initiative at the COP-21 summit in Paris in December 2015. She is a steering group member of the Wellbeing Economy Hub for Ireland, which she represents in the European Union Wellbeing Economy Coalition, and she is a member of the Irish National Economic and Social Council.
To register andsend your questions to our panel, click here.
We are seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic Volunteer Website Manager to join us at BIEN. As the Website Manager, you will play a crucial role in ensuring our website effectively communicates our mission, values, and resources dedicated to advocating for Basic Income.
