UBI and Social-Ecological Transformation (UBITrans)
Universal basic income and the social-ecological transformation: do they go together?
In the face of climate change, increasing social inequality, the rise of new populisms and the spread of COVID-19, unconditional basic income is now discussed more than ever. May universal basic income help to remedy what has been diagnosed as a multidimensional crisis of capitalism? Could basic income put an end to growth-dependency of contemporary capitalist economies and lead towards more sustainable trajectories? Or may it simply reinforce neoliberal growth scenarios and lead to radical individualism?
Our approach and our goals
Given the social and political urgency of the issues at hand, we aim to address these questions and contested issues around the relationship between universal basic income and the social-ecological transformation via a series of talks and interactive debate. This series will integrate perspectives from economics, sociology and psychology as well as from civil society movements and politics.
The series will ask whether universal basic income would enable the (much needed) social-ecological transformation. It will look at both the powers and limitations of a universal basic income to affect the social and cultural transformation of contemporary capitalist societies, while taking account of a variety of potential scenarios from green growth, post-growth to degrowth.
Online lecture series starting as off June 2022
The online series (potentially hybrid later on) will start as off June 2022. Speakers will be announced soon. The series will shed light on the role of the state (e.g. macro-economic policy, financing, the citizen-state relationship, and the acceptance of social-ecological reforms) as well as the role of actors (production and consumption patterns) and subjectivities (habitus transformation) in the process of the social-ecological transformation.
UBITrans Public Seminar Lectures
17th November 2022: Mikael Malmeus - Situating Basic Income In Two Future Post Growth Scenarios
Abstract: How well a universal basic income (UBI) would fit into a post growth economy depends a lot on assumptions about the core characteristics of such an economy. Comparing UBI in a “local self-sufficiency” economy to a UBI in an “automation” economy, we show that the impact of a UBI would differ greatly between these contexts. Our analysis shows that a UBI is less compatible with a labor-intensive local self-sufficiency economy than a capital-intensive, high tech economy. We conclude that the feasibility and attractiveness of a UBI depends greatly on the specific characteristics of the economy.
12th December 2022: Ina Praetorius - Freiheit in Bezogenheit lernen. Ohne BGE - Oder besser: Mit BGE
Abstract: Dass „Freiheit“ nicht die sterile Selbstbezogenheit des „homo oeconomicus“ meint, müssen wir in Zeiten des Klimakollaps sowieso lernen: Alle Menschen sind geboren, verletzlich, sterblich, abhängig von der Natur und voneinander. Das BGE wäre eine große Unterstützung in diesem notwendigen Lernprozess. Denn es nimmt die Angst um die eigene Existenz. Und es befreit dazu, neue freie Formen der Bezogenheit und der Gegenseitigkeit zu erfinden und auszuprobieren.
6th February 2023: Frank Schulz-Nieswandt - Sozialstaatskulturen und Sozialcharakter: Psychodynamische Grundlagen von Solidaritätsverständnissen
Abstract: Wohlwissend, dass der bundesdeutsche Sozialstaat in verschiedenen Teilbereichen unterschiedlichen Gerechtigkeitskonzepten folgt und daher in der kritischen Reflexion einer differenzierten Vorstellung von Solidarität bedarf, wird die Analyse in einem ersten Schritt zugespitzt auf die Idee der unbedingten Solidarität im Lichte anthropologisch fundierter rechtsphilosophischer Überlegungen über eine responsive Gabe, das Gegeben-Sein des Anderen, die Unbedingtheit der Würde und die relationale Autonomie. In einem zweiten Schritt werden die psychodynamischen Grundlagen einer kulturellen Grammatik des Miteinanders als Miteinanderfreiheit in Miteinanderverantwortung skizziert. Mit diesem Blick auf die Herausbildung eines prosozialen Sozialcharakters wird in einem dritten Schritt deutlich, dass eine kritische Theorie der Möglichkeit eines Gestalt-wahren Lebens in einer unwahren Welt nicht ohne Psychoanalyse der Subjektivierungsformen auskommt.
27th February 2023: Ronald Blaschke - Emanzipatorisches Grundeinkommen und Postwachstumsgesellschaft
Abstract: Am Montag, dem 27. Februar 2023, hält Ronald Blaschke einen Abendvortrag zu „Emanzipatorisches Grundeinkommen und Postwachstumsgesellschaft“. Im Vortrag soll begründet werden, warum ein emanzipatorisches Grundeinkommen eine Postwachstumsgesellschaft befördern kann. Dazu werden mehrere Thesen zur Diskussion gestellt. Eingangs erfolgen Begriffsklärungen.
Research Team
Dr. Ulrich Schachtschneider
studied energy engineering, sociology and environmental policies and is working as energy consultant and freelance social scientist. His research fields are social-ecological transformation, sustainability and modern society, and policies of “Degrowth”. He is member of board of Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE) and advocating for an “Ecological Basic Income”. Lives in Oldenburg, Germany.
Hanna Ketterer
is a sociologist based at Jena University. Her research focuses on basic income’s potential to transform the capitalist way of life centred around paid work and employment. In her work, she integrates Bourdieu’s practice theory, feminist perspectives and gift theory. Her phd is based on a multi-sited ethnography on decoupling income from labour examining the day-to-day practices of rentiers, communards and pensioners. Hanna holds a BA in European studies from the University of Maastricht and a
MPhil in Sociology from the University of Cambridge. She has worked at the DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission in Brussels, at the ETH Center for Occupational Studies and at the DFG-research group on post-growth societies at Jena University. She is associated member of the collaborative research centre Structural Change of Property.
Dominik Schröder
is a PhD student at the Götz Werner Professorship at the University of Freiburg and tutor for economic policy. His focus is on the connection between UBI, digitalization and socio-ecological transformation. He has been working on concepts for an integrated, efficient and sustainable energy supply and storage in the Upper Rhine region within the RES-TMO project.
FRIBIS Team Koordinator
Dr. Bianca Blum
is a Post-Doc researcher and Lecturer at the Götz Werner Chair of Economic Policy and Constitutional Economic Theory, University of Freiburg in Germany. Her research interests centre on the political economy of sustainability, rebound effects, empirical method application and experimental design, regulation and taxation as well as the political economy of reforms. She worked on interdisciplinary research projects such as the Suslight project and the RES_TMO project with focus on energy efficiency improvements and energy consumption.
Transfer Team
Adrienne Goehler
is in series: graduate psychologist | President of the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg | Senator for Science, Research and Culture of Berlin | Curator of the Hauptstadtkulturfonds | Fellow IASS Potsdam. Today she is simultaneously: freelance publicist and curator | theorist and activist Unconditional Basic Income | initiator and artistic director EXAMPLES TO FOLLOW! expeditions in aesthetics and sustainability | Affiliate Fellow at IASS Potsdam