by Yannick Vanderborght | May 23, 2012 | News
In the late 1990’s, Belgian businessman Roland Duchâtelet founded ‘Vivant’, a single-issue political movement focused on the introduction of a basic income in Belgium. Even if ‘Vivant’ never became a significant political force, Duchâtelet kept promoting basic income at various occasions. On June 7, 2012, he will give a conference on the following topic: “How can we build an harmonious and sustainable economy?”.
The conference will take place in Charleroi (BE) on June 7, 2012 at 6PM.
Location: Salle de conférence de la BNP Paribas Fortis, rue Ferrer, 600 Charleroi (entrée Boulevard Tirou 100).
Further information and registration: https://www.foficharleroi.be/
by Yannick Vanderborght | May 17, 2012 | News
Basic Income was a recent topic in the German Web-TV channel “Deutsche Welle.” Herbert Wilkens, economist and an advocate of the basic income, took the opportunity and presented the idea of an unconditional basic income.
The show – in English – can be found online at:
https://www.dw.de/dw/episode/9798/0,,15879017,00.html
The part about Basic Income starts at 00:17:30.
by Yannick Vanderborght | May 15, 2012 | News
The European Foundation Centre (EFC) is holding its 23rd annual general assembly and conference in Belfast this year, and the topic of the conference is “Peace for Social Justice – A Role for Foundations?”
As one of 236 EFC members from 40 countries around the world,the Koerber Foundation is organising a session about social justice and basic income: “Justice through unconditional basic income? A debate on European Social Policy”
Massive protests against growing social inequality and unemployment have erupted all across Europe lately. Young Europeans in particular are calling for radical political change and a new strategy for social justice. At the same time, the EU has set five ambitious objectives to be reached by 2020 – reducing the number of people in poverty by 20 million is at the top of this agenda. How can Europe reach this ambitious goal and further foster social justice?
This session aims to discuss whether the unconditional basic income can be a means of European social policy, a way to reduce social imbalance throughout Europe and a possibility to save expenditure within the European social welfare systems. More generally the session will focus on the effectiveness within the EU to develop and implement a common strategy and common standards in the field of social policy.
The session will allow for interaction between an outstanding social policy, social partnership and socio-economic expert and young citizens from several European countries, who are affiliated to FutureLab Europe, an initiative of the European Alliance for Democratic Citizenship, coordinated by the Körber Stiftung, and to the young European online magazine Europe&Me.
Organised by Körber-Stiftung
Moderator:
Almut Möller, Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies
Expert:
Guy Standing, University of Bath
Speakers:
Lukas Brück, Germany, FutureLab Europe
Christoph Johannes Delcker, Germany, FutureLab Europe
Johannes Himmelreich, Europe & Me
Eemeli Isoaho, Finland, FutureLab Europe
Estefania Almenta Lopez, Spain, FutureLab Europe
Zuzana Novakova, Slovakia, FutureLab Europe
by Yannick Vanderborght | May 15, 2012 | Research
In its latest issue (105/2012), Notizie di Politeia, one of the most important journal of political philosophy and public affairs in Italy, hosts a Forum about the Right to an inconditional basic income. It includes five contributions. Four of them, by Corrado del Bò, Nicola Riva, Maurizio Ferrara (all from University of Milan) and Andrea Fumagalli (University of Pavia) were presented at the Seminar “Subjects, Rights, Conflicts” on May 9, 2011 at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Milan. These articles focus on the normative justifications of basic income, on the social impact of an unconditional right to a basic income, and its feasibility and role in the economical transformations of the last decades. A fifth article, by Emanuele Murra (University of Salento), discusses the possible role that basic income could play in Sen’s capabilities approach.
Full references: Forum “Diritto al Reddito”, Notizie di Politeia, issue 105, year 2012, pp. 40-72 ISSN 1128-2401
Website: https://www.politeia-centrostudi.org/rivista.html
See also the summary of Murra’s paper: https://binews.org/2012/05/murra-emanuele-2012-il-basic-income-nella-prospettiva-delle-capabilities/
by Yannick Vanderborght | May 14, 2012 | Research
For the advocates of basic income as an instrument to guarantee real freedom, the capabilities approach constitutes an important challenge. It seems that a universal in-cash benefit, such as basic income, would not play any role in a theory so aware of the diversity of people and so skeptic of the idea that real freedom would be achieved only thanks to higher income. But this assumption, which appears correct at first sight, is not confirmed after a careful evaluation of Sen’s proposal. In the article, the author shows how basic income would be a good instrument to fulfil what Sen calls “protective security”. The article tackles the question regarding how basic income could take some diversity in people’s capabilities into account, thanks to the concept of undominated diversity.
Full references: MURRA, Emanuele (2012), “Il Basic Income nella prospettiva delle Capabilities. Sicurezza protettiva e diversità non dominate’, Notizie di Politeia, 105, 2012.
Website: https://www.politeia-centrostudi.org/rivista.html
