Basic Income Earth Network 2020 – Brisbane, Australia

Scholars, policymakers, advocates and activists are invited to submit abstracts for papers related to one or more of the thematic areas outlined below for the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) 2020 conference in Brisbane (Monday 28 to Wednesday 30 September 2020). Abstracts (250–300 words) should be submitted to the Local Organising Committee (LOC) via the ‘Submit Abstract’ form on this website by Friday January 31, 2020.

Headline theme: Basic income, the ecological crisis and a new age of automation

Can basic income play a role in tackling the multifaceted ecological and social crises confronting the world today? As climate change and the ‘new age’ of automation continue to re-shape the globe, can and should basic income form part our answer to these challenges? For instance:

• Can basic income be part of a Green New Deal or is a Job Guarantee a better way forward?
• Can basic income promote ‘de-growth’ and genuine sustainability?
• Should automation and digitisation be used as a justification for basic income? What is the evidence regarding the impact of these technological processes on the availability of jobs?
• Is basic income an adequate replacement for any technological unemployment that may occur (now or in the future)?

We invite submissions related to all aspects of our headline theme, and/or our other thematic areas below.

Other thematic areas:

• Basic income in Australia and New Zealand — What are the specific opportunities and challenges for a basic income in the Australian and New Zealand contexts?
• Political strategies for achieving basic income — What are the most effective political strategies for achieving a basic income on a national or regional level within 10 years? Are basic income experiments a dead end? Are the political campaigns built around the Swiss Referendum and Andrew Yang’s US Presidential Campaign a better way forward? Are there other alternatives?
• Basic income and gender — Can basic income be an instrument for a redefinition of traditional gender roles and a redistribution of unpaid work? Or would it just reinforce the sexual division of labour?
• Poverty, inequality and social injustice — How might basic income address structural inequalities and oppression across vulnerable groups (for example age, disability, LGBTIQ+, culture, locality) during transition and later phases? How might progressive policies, social movements, activists and other actors play a role in shaping the basic income policy agenda to redress poverty, inequality and social exclusion?
• Basic income and Indigenous communities — Can basic income play a role in reducing socio-economic inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities? Can basic income play a role in self-determination for Indigenous communities?
• Basic income and the end of workfare — What are the social, economic and health consequences of workfare regimes? What role could basic income play in ameliorating them?
• Basic income and migration — What are the appropriate criteria for deciding who should be entitled to a basic income within a particular nation state?
• Basic income and the creative arts — What role can basic income play in supporting the creative arts and artists in contemporary society?
• The macroeconomics of basic income — How would basic income affect economic growth, labour supply and inflation?
• Basic income versus basic services — Are these complementary policies or competing alternatives?
• Post-capitalism and basic income — Is basic income a pathway to a post-capitalist future?
• Modelling basic income schemes — This theme calls for specific modelling of the static costs of basic income schemes in different national and regional settings.
• Funding a basic income — What is the optimal taxation mix for funding an adequate basic income scheme in different national and regional settings?
• Challenges of implementation — How can tax and transfer systems be integrated to accommodate the introduction of basic income schemes in different national and regional settings?