Dear UBI Friends and Supporters,
You may be particularly interested in our next in-person event at the HEART in Headingley:
- UBI Lab Leeds would like to invite all supporters of UBI to an in-person meeting at the Community Centre HEART in Leeds Headingley on 28 September at 18hrs. Reinhard will explain his presentation at the 22nd BIEN congress in Korea in August this year:
How should UBI be framed, financed and delivered to make it a convincing tool for a just transition to a green society?
We will discuss the presentation and explore what it means for framing, financing and delivering UBI in the UK. Everybody is welcome. Please join us next Thursday!
The next BIEN Congress in 2024 will take place in Bath in the UK!
Please find below some more UBI events and updates:
- This week is the 16th International Basic Income week with the motto ‘Basic Income: Civilization at its best’. You can find out more here.
- Will a Universal Basic Income lead to green growth, de-growth or post-growth? We will discuss this question as part of our meeting next week. You may want to study the following website Geopolitics of a Post-Growth Europe, read in Lancet Planetary Health ‘Is green growth happening? An empirical analysis of achieved versus Paris-compliant CO2–GDP decoupling in high-income countries’ and in Science Advances ‘Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries’.
- In case you have missed the documentary and Q&A session on ‘Free Money’, you can want watch the recording (50 mins) here. The video explains how the US American NGO GiveDirectly brings Universal Basic Income (UBI) to the Kenyan village of Kogutu. The documentary describes the consequences, both intended and unintended, when everyone in a Kenyan village is offered a universal basic income by a US organization.
NowThen magazine from Sheffield has reported about the event ‘Free film screening to explore impact of Universal Basic Income in Kenya’.
The film was first screened at the International Toronto Film Festival and a local news website Deadline reported ‘Toronto World Premiere: ‘Free Money’ Explores Whether A Nonprofit Charity Is “Playing God” With An Experiment In Universal Basic Income’.
You may be interested in a leadership change at GiveDirectly.
- The German Economic Institute ‘Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung’ (DIW) has calculated that a Basic Income of 1200 Euros in Germany can be financed through taxation and 83% of the population would be better off with a BI. You can download the German academic paper ‘Simulationsanalysen zur Finanzierbarkeit des bedingungslosen Grundeinkommens’ here, read the key findings here and make your own calculations here. Unfortunately everything is in German!
- Basic Income Conversation and Compass have published a report ‘Treating causes not symptoms: Basic Income as a public health measure’(July 2023). You can watch the launch event here.
- The Politics of Basic Income in South Africa (https://www.iej.org.za/projects/universal-basic-income-guarantee/) (presentation with 59 slides) examines the urgent need for a Universal Basic Income Guarantee (UBIG) as a solution to hunger, poverty, and unemployment in South Africa, highlighting the political landscape surrounding UBIG implementation and the perspectives of key stakeholders.
- You may be interested in the qualitative UBI lived Research Network.
- Guy Standing has written a short article arguing ‘Basic Income: Sufficient Evidence, Now Politics’.
- The Guardian has reported about a trial in Georgia (USA): ‘It helps with my stress’: US basic income project shows signs of success – Georgia pilot gives 650 predominantly Black women $850 a month for two years, no strings attached – and it seems to be working.
- You may be interested in this interview: Why These Leftists Oppose Free Money – A conversation with Daniel Zamora Vargas and Anton Jäger about why a “basic income” isn’t such a progressive welfare idea. They are authors of the book ‘Welfare for Markets: A Global History of Basic Income’. In my opinion they do not explain in the interview why real markets such as farmers’ markets are bad ideas for complex societies and how in their vision a true democratic state will be organised to provide full and fair welfare to all citizens and promote individual agency.
- Jane Dodds, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, proposes in the Liberal Democratic Voice: Basic Income is a liberal idea and we must reclaim it.
- UBI Lab Network member Dave Beck provides an informative interview in SociologyMag explaining key characteristics of Universal Basic Income and the trials which are happening at the moment in the UK.
- Big Issue reports about a cash transfer trial: Canada gave out free money to help homeless people. It reduced rough sleeping and busted stereotypes – “They know exactly what they need to do. All they need is cash,” said one of the researchers behind the trial.
- Our UBI Lab Network member Toby P. Lloyd has completed his PhD related to Basic Income. He presents his research in a podcast ‘All Work No Play – Episode 2 – Dr Toby P Lloyd – September 2023’ (60 mins).
You can download and read his research ‘Time or money? The potential of participatory arts practice to challenge complex societal problems and imagine alternative futures’.
Toby recommends “Chapter 7 will be most relevant to most of you. In it I explore the limits of debate and the effectiveness of empirical data gathered from pilot studies and academic research when making an argument for UBI. I contrast this with how methods used in participatory arts practice (my own and others) can present the policy to participants in ways that resonate with their own lived experience, which can then help to circumnavigate ideological barriers and confirmation bias.”
- BBC News has just reported about the BI trial for Care Leavers in Wales ‘Basic income: Care leaver says money gives independence’. A comment of Welsh Conservatives about the trial is revealing ‘it gave “false hope” to people leaving care’. My interpretation of this statement: Independence is not for disadvantaged members in society.
- Idler offers an online discussion with Guy Standing ‘How to take back our time’ on 5 October, 6-7pm BST. You can find out more and book a ticket for £7.50 here.
- The hybrid FRIBIS Annual Conference 2023 in Freiburg (Germany) from 9-11 October will focus on Care & Gender and cover research, approaches, and the possible interactions of care & gender in the context of the Unconditional Basic Income (UBI). Some English key note speakers will be
Prof. Dr. Almaz Zelleke (NYU Shanghai): “Toward a Gender-Inclusive Social Policy State” on 9 October 12.30-14hrs BST
Prof. Dr. Ben Trott: “A Queer Case for the Basic Income at Our Current Conjuncture: Political Philosophy, Individual Rights and De-Individualisation” on 10 October 13.30-15hrs BST.
You can register for the free conference as online participant and find the programme here.
Best wishes
reinhard on behalf of UBI Lab Leeds