Basic Income & Social Rights: Local and European Perspectives (Bologna)

Event Background

This event is part of the Green European Foundation transnational project Basic Income – European Public Debate.

Basic income has emerged in recent years as a potential tool to reverse the current issues facing society, such as lack of affordable housing and access to education and healthcare, income inequality and disparity between generations.

As basic income gradually permeates into mainstream debates and factors like technological advancements change our understanding of work, it is important to explore how such a scheme could be implemented, and the impact it would have on social rights at the local and European level.

About the Event

This workshop will be held as a side event of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) four day educational event on social rights, and organised with the support of FYEG.

It will bring together young people locally and from across Europe, with international participants including those from FYEG member organisations, social movements, and trade unions.

Participants will learn via roundtable discussions about basic income, existing pilot projects and the connection with social rights. They will identify the pressing requirements to make such a scheme a reality.

Programme

The workshop will be divided into three parts, with breaks in between:

• The presentation of the GEF publication European Green Perspectives on Basic Income will provide an introduction to the basic income concept and describe successes and limitations of past pilot projects, and discuss the results of research into the impact of basic income schemes on access to housing, education, healthcare and employment.
• Two fishbowl-style dialogues will serve as a basis to discuss the challenges and solutions to basic income implementation. This part will touch upon the need for certain infrastructure to be in place and the challenges associated with competing views of basic income.
• Finally, roundtable discussions will delve deeper into the realisation of basic income on the local and European level, with a focus on connecting the two levels together and how basic income could strengthen social rights at these levels.

Speakers

• Natalie Bennett, GEF Board of Directors
• Alex Foti, author of the General Theory of the Precariat

Registration

The workshop will be free and open to everyone but subject to registration. You can register by filling in this form. Deadline for registration is Sunday, 21 April 2019, midnight CET.

Language

The event will be held in English but whispered translation from English into Italian can be provided on the spot.

For further updates, check out the Facebook event.