by Kate McFarland | Dec 2, 2016 | News
The Albert Shanker Institute — a Washington DC-based nonprofit organization that promotes research and discussion related to education, work, and democracy — will be hosting a conference on “The Challenge of Precarious Labor” on Monday, December 5.
BIEN cofounder Guy Standing, widely known for his writings on the precariat (the class of precariously employed workers), will participate in the first panel, “The Political Economy of Precarious Labor”.
Themes of other panels include “Precarious Labor in Labor Law and Policy”, “Organizing Precarious Labor” and “Organizing Academic Precarious Labor”. Overall, the conference’s stated aims are to “develop a deeper understanding of changes in the political economy of global capitalism that have led the increasing prevalence of precarious work,” share experiences among those involved in organizing precarious labor, from the service sector and domestic work to adjuncts in higher education,” and “discuss how to address the rise of precarious work through law and public policy.”
The event will not be streamed live; however, it will be filmed, and videos will be available after the conference.
See the following page for a complete schedule and more information:
https://www.shankerinstitute.org/precarious-labor-conference
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
Photo Credit: Enno Schmidt
by Kate McFarland | Oct 30, 2016 | News
BIEN co-founder and honorary co-president Guy Standing will be speaking about basic income as a human right at the Swedish Forum for Human Rights, which will be held in Malmö on November 16.
The Swedish Forum for Human Rights is Scandinavia’s largest annual forum about human rights–drawing over 2,000 attendees from schools, universities, businesses, government offices, non-governmental organizations, and more.
The forum was created in 2000, when a coalition of groups–the association Ordfront, the Academy of Democracy, the Foundation for Human Rights, the Stockholm School of Theology, and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs–decided to create a space in which to connect research and practice in fields related to human rights. Since 2004, the Swedish Forum for Human Rights has convened annually in November, with the location alternating between Stockholm and another Swedish city.
The theme of the 2016 forum is “It’s about your rights!”
We all share the same human rights but what are these rights and what do they entail? In what way does this affect you in everyday life? How do you gain knowledge about your rights? Today, the state’s obligation to uphold human right is often lacking and civil society and activists have to assume responsibility. How does this affect people’s opportunity to obtain their rights and what happens to the accountability? During a time when so many are seeking refuge, the right to asylum risks being threatened. How can it be protected?
For more information about the event, including a complete list of speakers, see: https://www.mrdagarna.nu/en/.
Reviewed by Ali Özgür Abalı
Photo: “Stockhom Uni subway” CC BY 2.0 Wrote
by Kate McFarland | Oct 27, 2016 | News
On November 23, BIEN co-founder and honorary co-president Professor Guy Standing (SOAS, University of London) will deliver the 14th annual Kilbrandon Lecture in Strathclyde, Scotland.
In his lecture, titled “Addressing the needs of children and young people in Scotland: The potential of a Basic Income”, Guy will discuss the impact of economic insecurity and inequality on child poverty in Scotland and argue that a universal basic income is an necessary element in an economic system that avoids these ills.
The lecture will be chaired by Jennifer Davidson, Director of the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland. It will be followed by a drinks reception.
Initiated in 1999, the annual Kilbrandon Lecture honors the legacy of the judge Lord Kilbrandon, who chaired the committee whose report led to the formation of Scotland’s children’s hearings system in 1968. The lecture series receives support from the Scottish Government and University of Strathclyde.
Attendees must register online by November 11: ewds.strath.ac.uk/expo/KilbrandonLecture2016.aspx
On November 24, Guy will deliver a lecture on his new book, The Corruption of Capitalism, at the University of Strathclyde.
Photo CC BY 2.0 Catrin Austin
by Kate McFarland | Oct 11, 2016 | News
The official launch event of Guy Standing’s new book, The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay (Biteback Publishing), will be held on October 26. It will be held at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, where Standing is a Professorial Research Associate.
From the event description:
There is a lie at the heart of global capitalism. While claiming to promote free markets, governments and international agencies have constructed the most unfree market system ever, fostering a plutocracy alongside a growing precariat mired in insecurity. This book shows how rentier capitalism, which Keynes predicted would die, is causing growing inequality. The income distribution system has broken down. A new one is needed, anchored on basic income (social dividends) and democratic wealth funds.
Guy’s talk will be followed by a “drinks reception”.
After the launch event, Guy will continue traveling to promote The Corruption of Capitalism. On November 1, he will head to New York City to speak about the theme of his book at a public lecture at the New School for Social Research. On November 8, back in England, he’ll present the book to an audience at the University of Huddersfield. And he’ll deliver a seminar on the book at Strathclyde University in Scotland on November 24. In addition, Guy will be speaking at the NOW Conference in Moscow (Nov 6), the Trade Union Leaders’ Summit in Nyon, Switzerland (Nov 15), and the Swedish Human Rights Conference in Malmo (Nov 16) — in addition to other talks and conferences. (Details on many of these events are forthcoming in Basic Income News.)
Guy Standing is a co-founder and honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network, and was responsible for naming the organization (originally the Basic Income European Network). His previous books include The Precariat and The Precariat Charter.
For more information about the London launch event, and to register for free, see EventBrite. The event is sponsored by Biteback Publishing and the Movements & Development Cluster of SOAS Labour.
For a teaser, read Guy’s article in openDemocracyUK based on The Corruption of Capitalism:
Guy Standing (Sep 5, 2016) “The left must combat rentier capitalism” openDemocracyUK.
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
Guy Standing photo CC BY 2.0 BICN/RCRG Basic Income Canada
by Kate McFarland | Oct 4, 2016 | News
BIEN co-founder Guy Standing will be speaking on basic income and the precariat at Oktoberdans–a well-regarded contemporary dance festival held biennially in Norway–on October 25.
Held every two years, Norway’s Oktoberdans is an internationally-regarded contemporary dance festival. The eleventh Oktoberdans will be held in Bergen from October 20-29, 2016.
Oktoberdans incorporates occasional events falling outside the usual scope of dance and performance art. This year, in connection with the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Moore’s Utopia, the festival will include a workshop called “Changing Utopia”, featuring six speakers over the course of three days (October 25-27).
A utopia is defined as a “non-place” and is itself impossible. Yet it is a concept most of us can relate to; the ultimate goal, something to strive for. Is it part of human nature to always long for the next, something better? Can this urge explain why we, as a species, have come to a point in our technological development where we are beginning to question if we are making the human workforce unnecessary?
Is it viable to argue that the discussion about what we want with our world has stopped? Is it possible to discuss a utopia for community and a utopia for the individual in the same breath? …
In this discursive program we will plunge fearlessly into the above-mentioned questions, hoping to generate new perspectives for artists, students, and a general audience attending Oktoberdans 2016.
The opening speaker on the first day will be economist Guy Standing, a co-founder and honorary co-president of BIEN. Standing will speak about the “precariat revolt” anticipated in his latest book, The Corruption of Capitalism. Specifically, he will explain what this revolt entails with respect to “reversing the trends of insecurity, inequality and the growth of the precariat.”
Rune Salomonsen, an organizer of the workshop, states that the organizers asked Standing to focus on his “politics of paradise”. Explaining the decision to invite a researcher and advocate of basic income, Salomonsen says,
The subject of basic income needs definitely a more frequent highlighting within the art field, but then again this subject is of universal importance, and this utopia as we now call it, has other important ingredients in addition to the basic income, it involves essential democratic structures.
Salomonsen mentions philosopher Jacques Rancière’s speech at the 2004 Summer Academy in Frankfurt as a precedent in which a thinker from outside the arts world delivered a presentation at major arts conference to great results. In this case, Rancière’s speech led to his book The Emancipated Spectator, which has become influential in both philosophy and the arts (especially performance art).
To enhance the dramaturgical elements of the presentation, the organizers have asked Standing to deliver his speech without printed notes and stand atop two Euro-pallets–creating a setting like a Speaker’s Corner.
Other speakers at Changing Utopia include Norwegian journalist Linn Stalsberg, Swiss artist Christophe Meierhans (who “showcased a complete political system” for a recent performance), and Wolfgang Heuer of the Institute for Political Science at the Free University of Berlin.
At the time of this writing, two speakers have yet to be announced (although they are specified to be “very exciting”).
BIT Teatergarasjen presents the Changing Utopia seminar in collaboration with House on Fire.
For more information, see the homepage of the 2016 Oktoberdans and the page for the Changing Utopia seminar.
Information, photo, and proofreading from Rune Salomonsen (Bit Teatergarasjen).
