by Karl Widerquist | Aug 22, 2014 | Research
John Danaher, NUI Galway
John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Galway and a regular blogger at Philosophical Disquisitions, has written a series of blogs about basic income. The series contains nine articles so far, post from December 23, 2013 to July 18, 2014. According to the author’s summary, “I’ve written a number of posts about the ethics and justice of the basic income grant. I thought it might be useful to provide an index to all of them in this post. Most of these posts look at whether an unconditional basic income grant can be justified from a particular theoretical perspective, e.g. feminism, libertarianism, liberal egalitarianism, and republicanism. One of them asks whether there should be a right not to work.” Items in the series include:
From Philosophical Disquisitions
John Danaher holds a PhD from University College Cork (Ireland) and is currently a lecturer in law at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His research interests range broadly from philosophy of religion to legal theory, with particular interests in human enhancement and neuroethics.
John Danaher, “Blog series: Philosophy and the Basic Income.” Philosophical Disquisitions, July 18, 2014 [December 23, 2013 – July 17, 2014]
by Josh Martin | Aug 19, 2014 | Research
Abstract:
“Basic income is a radical idea which has gained more attention in many countries in recent years, as traditional welfare states are having trouble solving the problems they were created to solve. Basic income promises to solve many of these problems in an effective and simple way. The purpose of this thesis is to study basic income in a way which can supplement the existing literature, and make it relevant in a Norwegian perspective. Hopefully this can contribute towards placing basic income on the political agenda and in the public debate. A large amount of literature is written on basic income, but by comparing the arguments used to promote a basic income with empirical data from previously implemented social policy in Norway, I hope to contribute towards an area which is not well covered.
To do this I identify the arguments used to promote a basic income, and compare them to the arguments used to promote other universal social policy in Norway at the time they were introduced. The empirical cases of the universal child benefit and the universal old age pension in Norway has been chosen, because they resemble a basic income in many ways. The study is of a qualitative nature, and the method of document analysis is used to conduct the study. The data material for basic income is mainly scholarly literature. The data materials used for the analysis of the child benefit scheme and the old age pension are government documents, mainly preparatory work for new laws, legal propositions put forward in parliament, white papers, and transcripts of debates in parliament.
This study finds that there are many similarities between the three social policies studied in this thesis. Most clearly the arguments are similar in two areas: arguments related to economic and administrative considerations, and arguments related to poverty and social justice. The main differences are related to arguments related to freedom and justice, and arguments related to feminist, green and post-productive considerations.”
Christian Siegwart Petersen, “Money for nothing? Arguments for basic income, universal pensions and universal child benefits in Norway”, University of Bergen, 2 June 2014.
by Josh Martin | Aug 3, 2014 | News
[Josh Martin]
The following organizations are leading the way for a basic income in Ireland:
Social Justice Ireland and Basic Income Ireland
- (Sources: Social Justice Ireland and Basic Income Ireland)
by Karl Widerquist | May 7, 2014 | Research
Barbara Jacobson
SUMMARY: Every month the New Internationalist invites two experts to debate, and then invite readers to join the conversation online. This April Barb Jacobson and author and Francine Mestrum debate basic income. YES: Barb Jacobson is co-ordinator of Basic Income UK. A former member of Wages for Housework, she has been active in community organizations since 1991, mainly around housing and health. She works for the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association in central London. NO: Francine Mestrum has a PhD in social sciences. Her research concerns social development, poverty, inequality, globalization and gender relations. She is co-ordinator of Global Social Justice and represents CETRI (Centre Tricontinental) in the International Council of the World Social Forum.
Francine Mestrum
Barb Jacobson and Francine Mestrum, “Should there be a basic income?” The New Internationalist Magazine, April 2014
by Karl Widerquist | Apr 20, 2014 | News
Thursday, June 26, the day before the Basic Income Earth Network Congress in Montreal, there will be a North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) Workshop.
Mural Pointe-Sainte-Charles, Le Collectif Au pied du mur -BICN
The goal of this workshop is to bring together activists, scholars, and anyone with an interest in basic income to talk about whether and how basic income can be advanced politically, and how to address media and public perceptions of basic income.
This conversation should include people interested in reducing poverty and inequality, or sharing resources more equitably, or empowering workers (both wage workers and people doing unpaid work, care work, etc.), or sharing the burdens of carbon taxation by distributing carbon dividends, or reforming taxes by means of resource taxation and citizen dividends.
Members of USBIG and others interested in the topic are encouraged to attend the workshop, whether or not they plan to attend the BIEN Congress that follows. Those wishing to attend only the workshop need not pay the full conference fee for the BIEN Congress.
For more information, see the BIEN Congress webpage on the workshop: https://biencanada.ca/congress/nabig-workshop or contact Michael.howard@umit.maine.edu.
