Basic Income (April 2011)

The current Research Special sheds light on the ongoing discussion about basic income as it has been conducted for approximately the last decade in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The social science research projects and publications from the German speaking areas on this topic which are documented in SOFIS (Social Sciences Research Information System) and SOLIS (Social Science Literature Information System) form the basis of reflections on this discussion. Amongst the publications collected here there are also those summarizing the discussion of the topic since the second half of the 1970s.

The arrangement chosen serves primarily the formal structuring of the total amount of references. Content wise, the structure points at best act to highlight the main focus of the individual publications & research projects dealt with under the subject of basic income. There is no, and will not be any intention to have a strict demarcation of the documented discussion according to content. For one thing, multiple aspects of basic income are dealt with in each project and in each publication, and for another, the term “basic income” is used very differently both in content and context.

Amongst the public, there is – straight through all political and social layers – more approval than rejection for a basic income. The online petition for introducing an unconditional basic income in the German Bundestag, which was introduced by Susanne Wiest and signed by 52,973 supporters, is the online petition garnering the broadest support to date. Interest in this support was, for a time, so massive that the server in the Bundestag temporarily crashed.

The discussion conducted in recent years about an expanded working concept is also reflected in the context of the discussion on basic income. The essential idea of a basic income – the decoupling of work and income – lay in the creation phase of the discussion in another working concept (classical gainful employment) as it was currently being discussed under the aspect of “expanded work” (for example integration of family work). Less well reflected are the possible consequences of variations in this working notion for the concept of performance. With social relevance the concept of performance itself stretches beyond the work sphere (school, leisure time sport, health prevention...).

Under ethical and data protection law considerations, for example in the context of biobanks, object/subject roles of individuals along with their influence on the users of biobanks, has and will have for society are being discussed in medical and related branches. Basic income is also being considered in the context of promoting sustainability. Every living generation only borrowed, loaned the earth, as living space from the coming generation. Under this aspect it can be questioned whether the participation, for instance, in actions for abandoning atomic energy or for the prevention of CO2 compression and sequestration can be understood as a valuable action for society for finding a sensible solution for preserving living space and the life quality of present and future generations. This also goes for the respective contra position.

A concept of performance so broadly defined implies the question of whether there can be a performance or even unconditional basic income (in the sense of having done nothing to receive it). Or asked the other way around: If no member of society can live without doing anything for themselves, for their own interests and thereby equally also something valuable for society, wouldn’t there then as a logical consequence be the claim, of the rights of individuals to a lifelong existence securing and essentially degree of freedom for the self-unfolding of individually guaranteeing – however structured – basic income from the society for this basic activity without a formal labor contract? But just how helpful is such a broad concept of performance? Is it theoretically and practically at all doable? The publications and research projects presented here have approaches for controversial answers to these questions ready.

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