by Kate McFarland | Sep 16, 2016 | News
BIEN cofounder Philippe van Parijs (Professor at the Université catholique de Louvain) delivered a TEDx talk on basic income earlier in the year. A video of the talk is now available online.
Van Parijs’ talk, “The Instrument of Freedom”, was organized as part of a TEDx event called “Bits of Love”, held in Ghent, Belgium on June 18, 2016. The topics discussed at the event were not restricted to basic income or even political and economic issues. Titles and themes of other talks range from “Why We Don’t Need Oil for Plastics” to “How Farm Dust Protects from Allergies” to “My Secret Ingredient for Classical Musicians: Stage Presence” — and many more.
In his talk, which he frames as a critique of the goal of continuous growth, Van Parijs recounts the worries that led him to conceive of basic income as a better alternative to “capitalism as we know it”, and describes how basic income is an essential part of a society that delivers “real freedom for all”:
For more information about the surrounding TEDx event, see the “Bits of Love” page at the TEDxGhent website.
TEDx Talks, “The instrument of freedom | Philippe Van Parijs | TEDxGhent“, YouTube; uploaded August 18, 2016.
Reviewed by Cameron McLeod
Philippe van Parijs photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Bibliotheek Kortrijk
This basic income news made possible in part by Kate’s supporters on Patreon
by Kate McFarland | Sep 10, 2016 | News
A debate on universal basic income (UBI) is scheduled to take place at the University of Antwerp on September 19.
Toon Vandevelde, a philosopher and economist at KU Leuven, will introduce the topic and speakers, highlighting how UBI is presented by social movements and political parties.
Up next, Philippe Van Parijs — a founding member of BIEN and Professor at Université catholique de Louvain — is the event’s keynote speaker. Van Parijs will further explain the history and current thinking surrounding UBI.
The event will conclude with a debate between the entrepreneur Roland Duchâtelet, founder of Vivant (and occasional contributor to Basic Income News), and Bart Buysse, Director General of the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium.
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
Photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Oli4.D
by Kate McFarland | Sep 8, 2016 | News
Event Announcement: BIEN’s 30th Anniversary
An event commemorating the anniversary of BIEN’s founding will take place on Saturday, October 1 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium–the location of BIEN’s first meeting 30 years ago.
The anniversary event has been organized by the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics at the Université Catholique de Louvain in collaboration with BIEN.
Participants in the conference that launched BIEN
About the Anniversary Event
The anniversary event will begin, after a short welcome, with tales of BIEN’s birth as related from several cofounders: Paul-Marie Boulanger, Annie Miller, Guy Standing, Claus Offe, and Robert van der Veen.
Two parallel sessions will take place in late morning: one on the history of basic income (featuring Pierre-Etienne Vandamme on “Voltaire before Paine”, Guido Erreygers on “Brussels 1848” and Walter Van Trier, BIEN’s first secretary, on the British interbellum period); the other on implementations of basic income (featuring Philippe Defeyt on an income-tax-funded basic income of EUR 600, David Rosseels on micro-taxes on electronic payments, and Karl Widerquist on sovereign funds).
In the afternoon sessions, Enno Schmidt, co-founder of the Swiss popular initiative on basic income, and University of Lucerne Research fellow Nenad Stojanovic will review lessons learned from the Swiss referendum campaign. Then, discussion will turn to basic income experiments of the past and future. Guy Standing will talk about his work on pilots in India. University of Tampere Research Fellow Jurgen De Wispelaere will discuss the upcoming experiment in Finland, and BIEN cofounder Alexander de Roo (now chair of the Dutch basic income network) will discuss those to come in The Netherlands.
Finally, the conference will examine where the movement is heading next, with talks from Louise Haagh (BIEN co-chair), Stanislas Jourdan (co-founder of UBI-Europe), Roland Duchatelet (former senator and founder of Vivant), and Yasmine Kherbache (member of Flemish Parliament and, previously, chief of cabinet of former Belgian Prime Minister Di Rupo).
The event will conclude with reflections from two co-founders of BIEN, Claus Offe and Gérard Roland. They will be joined by political philosopher Joshua Cohen (UC Berkeley) and sociologist Erik Olin Wright (University of Wisconsin – Madison).
The anniversary event follows a two-day conference Utopias for our Time, which marks the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia. Some participants in the BIEN anniversary event will also be speaking at this preceding event. For instance, Erik Olin Wright is to deliver a keynote address on the theme of the future of democracy, and Wright and Philippe Van Parijs will contribute to a special session on the question “Should academics engage indulge in utopian thinking?”
For more information on both events, see the event page at Université Catholique de Louvain.
Prospective attendees can register online through September 20.
Scene from BIEN’s founding meeting
About BIEN’s Founding
In 1984, three young researchers linked to the Université Catholique de Louvain–Paul-Marie Boulanger, Philippe Defeyt and Philippe Van Parijs–formed a group called the “Collectif Charles Fourier” to explore what they had chosen to call “allocation universelle”.
First written documentation of the existence of BIEN
Two years later — fueled by the unexpected earnings from a essay contest, for an essay on the “allocation universelle” — the Collectif Charles Fourier organized a international conference to discuss the idea. The conference, which convened in Louvain-la-Neuve in September 1986, gathered 60 invited speakers from throughout Europe.
Its final session would mark the genesis of the Basic Income European Network. (The name, suggested by Guy Standing, was chosen in part for the “good pun” of its acronym.)
In 2004, BIEN decided to become an inter-continental organization, owing to an increase in interest from outside of Europe. Unable to part with the acronym, the group decided simply to brand itself with the name it has today.
Read more about the history of BIEN.
Basic Income News will be providing continuing coverage of BIEN’s anniversary event.
Stay tuned for videos, photographs, and remarks from the participants, as well as other comments and reflections from current members of BIEN’s Executive Committee.
Text reviewed by Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght.
Photographs and scanned document provided by Philippe Van Parijs.
by Karl Widerquist | May 19, 2016 | News
Only days ahead of the Swiss referendum on basic income we take on the very same topic. A guaranteed basic income for every citizen: The idea sounds alluring, especially if it would replace the hotchpotch social security systems around Europe. Basic income is currently reliving somewhat of a renaissance in Europe, with the Finnish government implementing its first experimental basic income scheme and crowdfunders testing the concept in Berlin.
Would a basic income increase the number of citizens relying on government support, will it spur or lessen creativity and entrepreneurship? Will it make us more or less productive? Can the welfare state take it? It is all in the basic income model you choose and that is why we are gathering an exciting panel to talk about whether we should consider basic income a feature of paradise or of purgatory.
Date and time: 2 June 2016, 12:00-14:00
Venue: Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Avenue de Cortenbergh
71, 1000 Brussels
SPEAKERS:
MICHAEL BOHMEYER
Head of Crowdfunding, “Mein Grundeinkommen”
FABIAN DISSELBECK
Researcher, Liberal Institute, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
ROLAND DUCHÂTELET
Businessman und Verfechter des Grundeinkommens
ANTERO KIVINIEMI
Senior Specialist, Finnish Permanent Representation to the EU
MODERATION:
Niklaus Nusplinger
NZZ Correspondent, Brussels
Registration by 1 June 2016: click here.
Registrants will be forwarded to a Google Drive sheet. Should
anyone wish to register with the organizers directly send an email to
register.brussels@fnst.org. Photographs will be taken at the event for
use on the FNF website, social media, in the press, FNF marketing
materials, and other publications. By entering this event, attendees consent
to FNF photographing and using their image and likeness.
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
European and Transatlantic Dialogue
Avenue de Cortenbergh 71
B – 1000 Brussels
T: +32 2 282 09 42
F: +32 2 282 09 31
assist@fnst.org
by Karl Widerquist | Apr 9, 2016 | News
Former Brazilian Senator and long-time campaigner for basic income, Eduardo Suplicy received an honorary degrees from the Catholic University of Louvain earlier this year. The degree came for work as an “utopiste pour le temps présent” (utopian for the present). Also receiving degrees were Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales and architect Paola Vigano.
Suplicy’s acceptance speech is on line, including his famous rendition of “Blowin’ in the wind” by Bob Dylan. According to Philippe Van Parijs, who attended the event, “The rector’s speech made it sound as it the whole university was endorsing basic income, and basic income was the first item in the evening news, with Yannick Vanderborght and Suplicy briefly speaking in favour, and the bosses of the trade unions and the employers against.”
Video from this event is online at: https://www.uclouvain.be/633608.html (select the second of the four components in the top left corner).
