by Toru Yamamori | Jun 9, 2017 | News
Ping Xu from UBI Taiwan has disclosed that a Basic Income pilot project is under discussion.
Xu made her remarks at her talks at Doshisha University on 21 April and at Kyoto Basic Income Weekend event during 22 and 23 April.
UBI Taiwan is laying the groundwork for a potential pilot program, although discussions are at an early stage and no determination or funding has been confirmed as of June. According to Tyler Prochazka from UBI Taiwan:
• UBI Taiwan has met with the Taichung Social Affairs Bureau to discuss a potential pilot project.
• UBI Taiwan has met with village chiefs, NGOs, and other relevant authorities to begin preparing the framework for the potential pilot program. The organization is looking at several locations in Taiwan to determine viability of the project.
• Currently, there is no funding for the pilot program. Preliminary research is being completed to create a framework for the project if funding is made available.
• UBI Taiwan will complete a comprehensive pilot program proposal by August 2017 to present to relevant authorities. The proposal will be crafted in coordination with international experts and local experts in Taiwan.
• UBI Taiwan is working with Academia Sinica to collect the first national polling of Taiwanese attitudes toward UBI.
Further updates on UBI Taiwan’s progress will be disclosed throughout the summer. In July, UBI Taiwan will begin its Summer Fellowship program, working with students to complete the preliminary research for the pilot program and increase awareness of basic income.
Reviewed by Russell Ingram
Photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Chen Tao Liao
by Toru Yamamori | May 15, 2017 | News
Rutger Bregman’s Utopia for Realists is translated to Japanese. Marking the publication, Bregman is coming to Japan and giving a talk. He will speak in English with a simultaneous translation to Japanese.
Date: 16 May 2016
Time: 19:00-20:30
Veneu: Kyoseikan 4th Floor, Hiyoshi Campus, Keio University, Yokohama.
The detail of the event can be found here (in Japanese).
Credit Picture CC Fougerouse Aenaud
by Toru Yamamori | May 13, 2017 | News
94.1 KPFA, a community radio station in Berkley, CA, USA, broadcasted Sylvia Fedetici’s talk on How Capitalism Endures on 26 April 2017. The podcast can be currently listened to here.
Federici was one of founders of the International Campaign for Wages for Housework, along with Maria Rosa Dalla Costa, Selma James, and others. She advocates an unconditional basic income. Federici mentioned that ‘the demand for a basic income has revived the interest in wages for housework’ in an interview in 2014.
Federici is the author of Caliban and The Witch: Women, the body and primitive accumulation, Autonomedia (2004) and Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, reproduction and feminist struggle (PM press, 2012).
Reviewed by Kate McFarland
by Toru Yamamori | May 8, 2017 | News
In this video, Owen Jones, a British journalist, interviews Rutger Bregman, the author of Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There.
Bregman’s book makes the technological unemployment case for a basic income. Jones asks whether this case can stand, referring to John Maynard Keynes’ likely failed prophecy of a 15 hour work week by 2030 in his Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren. Bregman says that many current jobs are unneeded.
For more on ‘bullshit jobs’, see David Graeber’s 2013 article on ‘On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs.’ For social construction of both socially necessary jobs and socially unnecessary jobs, see Toru Yamamori’s keynote speech at 2016 BIEN congress on ‘What Can We Learn From a Grassroots Feminist UBI Movement? – Revisiting Keynes’s Prophecy.’
Reviewed by Russell Ingram
by Toru Yamamori | Apr 14, 2017 | News
In Kyoto during the April 22nd -23rd weekend, local artists, community activists, students, architects, academic, etc are hosting two events for discussing on ‘what would you do if your income were taken care of’. Enno Schmidt from Switzerland and Ping Xu from Taiwan will be joining.
22nd April: DIY festival ‘Basic Income Garden’
venue: Honmachi Escola (a community and residence space for artists )
time: 11.00-17:00
The venue is located on a very old alley which creates the impression of a half century ago. The following workshops are held in a Teepee, a garden, and a hut. They cover such subjects as:
- ‘one week with a basic income’
- ‘a town with a basic income’
- ‘basic in curry’
- ‘making a zine and a wall newspaper’
Film screening, music instrument making, etc, are also planned.
23rd April: Symposium ‘Art, Commons, Feminism and a Basic Income’
venue: M1 lecture room, Meitoku-kan, Imadegawa campus, Doshisha university
time: 13.00-17.30
13.00- Enno Schmidt, Ping Xu, Toru Yamamori ‘Lessons from Switzerland and Taiwan’
14.50- Enno Schmidt, Kaori Katada, Akio Sasaki, Jun Yamaguchi ‘Art, Commons and Feminism’
16.30- Parallel sessions: ‘Shrinking Society with Basic Income’ (moderator: Kimio Ito) / ‘Taiwan and Basic Income’ (moderator: Ping Xu and Kaori Katada) / ‘How we go forward to Basic Income gradually’ (moderator: Shinji Murakami and Hayato Kobahashi)
Kyoto Basic Income Weekend is a newly formed collective with local artists, community activists, etc. It is hosting this event with BIEN Japan, The Forum on Shrinking Society, Students at Toru Yamamori Lab, Doshisha university.
Reviewed by Cameron McLeod.
