In this ground-breaking book, Guy Standing offers a new perspective on work and citizenship, rejecting the labourist orientation of the 20th century. Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation marked the rise of industrial citizenship, which hinged on fictitious labour decommodification. Since the 1970s, this has collapsed and a Global Transformation is under way, in which inequalities and insecurities are becoming unsustainable. Guy Standing explains that while a struggle against paternalism is essential, the desirable egalitarian response to the problems caused by globalization is a strategy to build occupational citizenship. This is based on a right to universal economic security and institutions to enable everybody to develop their capabilities and work whilst respecting the ecological imperatives of the 21st century. The book also explores a phasing out of labour law and a re-orientation of collective bargaining towards collaborative bargaining, highlighting the increased importance of the relationship between groups of workers and citizens as well as between workers and capital. Work after Globalization offers a new perspective on work, rejecting the labourist orientation of the 20th century. Social scientists interested in globalization and labour market issues will warmly welcome this book. It will also strongly appeal to students, researchers, policy-makers, social activists and those connected with the international regulation of occupations.

In this ground-breaking book, Guy Standing offers a new perspective on work and citizenship, rejecting the labourist orientation of the 20th century. Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation marked the rise of industrial citizenship, which hinged on fictitious labour decommodification. Since the 1970s, this has collapsed and a Global Transformation is under way, in which inequalities and insecurities are becoming unsustainable. Guy Standing explains that while a struggle against paternalism is essential, the desirable egalitarian response to the problems caused by globalization is a strategy to build occupational citizenship. This is based on a right to universal economic security and institutions to enable everybody to develop their capabilities and work whilst respecting the ecological imperatives of the 21st century. The book also explores a phasing out of labour law and a re-orientation of collective bargaining towards collaborative bargaining, highlighting the increased importance of the relationship between groups of workers and citizens as well as between workers and capital. Work after Globalization offers a new perspective on work, rejecting the labourist orientation of the 20th century. Social scientists interested in globalization and labour market issues will warmly welcome this book. It will also strongly appeal to students, researchers, policy-makers, social activists and those connected with the international regulation of occupations.

Politicians, financiers and bureaucrats claim to believe in free competitive markets, yet they have built the most unfree market system ever created. In this Gilded Age, income is funnelled to the owners of property - financial, physical and intellectual - at the expense of society. Wages stagnate as labour markets are transformed by outsourcing, automation and the on-demand economy, generating more rental income while broadening the precariat. Now fully updated with an introduction examining the systemic issues exposed by Brexit and Covid-19, The Corruption of Capitalism argues that rentier capitalism is fostering revolt and presents a new income distribution system that would achieve the extinction of the rentier while encouraging sustainable growth.

Economic liberalisation associated with globalisation is causing a pervasive growth of economic insecurity experienced all over the world. This is placing urgent demands on policymakers to rethink old policies and institutions. This book sets out a new approach to the assessment of income dynamics, based on identifying the diverse components of people's income and entitlements. It defines 'social income' as a broader concept of household income which includes state, community and private benefits. It shows how those components should be measured and provides a composite picture of the structure of incomes and support systems of different societal groups. It recognises how the structure of income, as well as its distribution, has been linked to policy and development dynamics. It starts from a premise that unless the totality of incomes and income support systems is taken into account, academics and policymakers cannot expect to develop appropriate interventions. This perspective is developed though a detailed household survey conducted in rural and urban areas of Gujarat in 2007-2008. This provides an up-to-date picture of how institutions, NGOs and the state system are operating in the context of rapid restructuring of village life in India.

Economic liberalisation associated with globalisation is causing a pervasive growth of economic insecurity experienced all over the world. This is placing urgent demands on policymakers to rethink old policies and institutions.

This book sets out a new approach to the assessment of income dynamics, based on identifying the diverse components of people's income and entitlements. It defines ?social income? as a broader concept of household income which includes state, community and private benefits. It shows how those components should be measured and provides a composite picture of the structure of incomes and support systems of different societal groups. It recognises how the structure of income, as well as its distribution, has been linked to policy and development dynamics. It starts from a premise that unless the totality of incomes and income support systems is taken into account, academics and policymakers cannot expect to develop appropriate interventions.

This perspective is developed though a detailed household survey conducted in rural and urban areas of Gujarat in 2007?2008. This provides an up-to-date picture of how institutions, NGOs and the state system are operating in the context of rapid restructuring of village life in India.

This book presents the new Precariat - the rapidly growing number of people facing lives of insecurity, on zero hours contracts, moving in and out of jobs that give little meaning to their lives. The delivery driver who brings your packages, the uber driver who gets you to work, the security guard at the mall, the carer looking after our elderly...these are The Precariat. Guy Standing investigates this new and growing group, finding a frustrated and angry new underclass who are often ignored by politicians and economists. The rise of zero hours contracts, encouraged by fat cat corporations as risk-free employment, and by silicon valley as a way of outsourcing costs and responsibility, has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. At the same time, in its experience of lockdown, the western world is realizing the true value of these nurses, carers and key workers. The answer? The return of income security and meaningful work - the principles 20th century capitalism was built on. By making the fears and desires of the Precariat central to economic thinking, Standing shows how concepts like Basic Income are not just desirable but inevitable, and plots the way to a better future.

How does a person organize a good life? The ancient Greeks divided time into five types: labour, work, leisure, play and aergia (contemplation). But labour was separated from work, as painful, onerous work undertaken for survival, whereas work could include caring for family members, study, or political activities. But now our jobs are supposed to provide all meaning in life and our time outside of work is thought of as simply 'time off'. Time has been political throughout history. In the Industrial Era employers sought to define labour as virtuous, and in our current era of runaway neoliberalism, salaried workers find their mental health plummeting, public services are stretched to breaking point and inequality is soaring, while the time of those in insecure employment is being stolen from them in increasingly byzantine and humiliating ways. We must recognize that time is political, a resource more precious than money, that must be defended at all costs, and revive ancient forms of tending ourselves, the planet and each other, through commoning. We can retake control of our time, but we must do it together.

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST ECONOMICS BOOK OF 2022 'A landmark book... The Blue Commons is at once a brilliant synthesis, a searing analysis, and an inspiring call to action.' - David Bollier 'With remarkable erudition, passion and lyricism, Guy Standing commands the reader to wake up to the threat posed by rentier capitalism's violent policies for extraction, exploitation and depletion of that which is both common to us all, but also vital to our survival: the sea and all within it.' - Ann Pettifor 'Shines a bright light on the economy of the oceans, directing us brilliantly towards where a sustainable future lies.' - Danny Dorling 'This is a powerful, visionary book - essential reading for all who yearn for a better world.' - Jason Hickel The sea provides more than half the oxygen we breathe, food for billions of people and livelihoods for hundreds of millions. But giant corporations are plundering the world's oceans, aided by global finance and complicit states, following the neoliberal maxim of Blue Growth. The situation is dire: rampant exploitation and corruption now drive all aspects of the ocean economy, destroying communities, intensifying inequalities, and driving fish populations and other ocean life towards extinction. The Blue Commons is an urgent call for change, from a campaigning economist responsible for some of the most innovative solutions to inequality of recent times. From large nations bullying smaller nations into giving up eco-friendly fishing policies to the profiteering by the Crown Estate in commandeering much of the British seabed, the scale of the global problem is synthesised here for the first time, as well as a toolkit for all of us to rise up and tackle it. The oceans have been left out of calls for a Green New Deal but must be at the centre of the fight against climate change. How do we do it? By building a Blue Commons alternative: a transformative worldview and new set of proposals that prioritise the historic rights of local communities, the wellbeing of all people and, with it, the health of our oceans.

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST ECONOMICS BOOK OF 2022 'A landmark book... The Blue Commons is at once a brilliant synthesis, a searing analysis, and an inspiring call to action.' - David Bollier 'With remarkable erudition, passion and lyricism, Guy Standing commands the reader to wake up to the threat posed by rentier capitalism's violent policies for extraction, exploitation and depletion of that which is both common to us all, but also vital to our survival: the sea and all within it.' - Ann Pettifor 'Shines a bright light on the economy of the oceans, directing us brilliantly towards where a sustainable future lies.' - Danny Dorling 'This is a powerful, visionary book - essential reading for all who yearn for a better world.' - Jason Hickel The sea provides more than half the oxygen we breathe, food for billions of people and livelihoods for hundreds of millions. But giant corporations are plundering the world's oceans, aided by global finance and complicit states, following the neoliberal maxim of Blue Growth. The situation is dire: rampant exploitation and corruption now drive all aspects of the ocean economy, destroying communities, intensifying inequalities, and driving fish populations and other ocean life towards extinction. The Blue Commons is an urgent call for change, from a campaigning economist responsible for some of the most innovative solutions to inequality of recent times. From large nations bullying smaller nations into giving up eco-friendly fishing policies to the profiteering by the Crown Estate in commandeering much of the British seabed, the scale of the global problem is synthesised here for the first time, as well as a toolkit for all of us to rise up and tackle it. The oceans have been left out of calls for a Green New Deal but must be at the centre of the fight against climate change. How do we do it? By building a Blue Commons alternative: a transformative worldview and new set of proposals that prioritise the historic rights of local communities, the wellbeing of all people and, with it, the health of our oceans.

Volume V in the acclaimed Real Utopias Project series, edited by Erik Olin Wright. Are there ways that contemporary capitalism can be rendered a dramatically more egalitarian economic system without destroying its productivity and capacity for growth? This book explores two proposals, unconditional basic income and stakeholder grants, that attempt just that. In a system of basic income, as elaborated by Philippe van Parijs, all citizens are given a monthly stipend sufficient to provide them with a no-frills but adequate standard of living. This monthly income is universal rather than means-tested, and it is unconditional - receiving the basic income does not depend upon performing any labor services or satisfying other conditions. It affirms the idea that as a matter of basic rights, no one should live in poverty in an affluent society. In a system of stakeholder grants, as discussed by Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott, all citizens upon reaching the age of early adulthood receive a substantial one-time lump-sum grant sufficiently large so that all young adults would be significant wealth holders. Ackerman and Alstott propose that this grant be in the vicinity of $80,000 and be financed by an annual wealth tax of roughly 2 percent. A system of stakeholder grants, they argue, "expresses a fundamental responsibility: every American has an obligation to contribute to a fair starting point for all."

Contemporary European politics seems to be gripped by a stifling conformism, an uninspiring uniformity of outlook which afflicts all the major parties. However, if there is one issue which does divide-though with the fault-lines within just as much as between right and left-it is the question of Europe, the future of the Union. But, for all the heat generated by the debate between Eurosceptics and Europhiles, and the vivid claims and counterclaims about federalism or the fate of national sovereignty, there is widespread public confusion about what is at issue-partly because of the opaque nature of the Community's institutions, and partly because much that is written on the subject is jargon or officalese. The Question of Europe offers an antidote, by collecting some of the liveliest and sharpest commentary on Europe, across the full political spectrum, from leading authorities in the study of history, economics, philosophy, culture and sociology. Eminent German, Italian, French, Swedish and Irish writers are included, as well as key figures from Britain and the US. Looking paranormically at the past, present and future of integration, The Question of Europe brings polemic and scholarship together to offer us a new way of approaching the Union.

'Basic Income is an idea whose time has come, and Guy Standing has pioneered our understanding of it... Standing's analysis is vital' Paul Mason 'Guy Standing has been at the forefront of the movement for nearly 4 decades, and in this superb and thorough survey he explains how it works and why it has the potential to revitalise life and democracy in our societies. This is an essential book.' Brian Eno Shouldn't everyone receive a stake in society's wealth? Could we create a fairer world by granting a guaranteed income to all? What would this mean for our health, wealth and happiness? Basic Income is a regular cash transfer from the state, received by all individual citizens. It is an acknowledgement that everyone plays a part in generating the wealth currently enjoyed only by a few. Political parties across the world are now adopting it as official policy and the idea generates headlines every day. Guy Standing has been at the forefront of thought about Basic Income for the past thirty years, and in this book he covers in authoritative detail its effects on the economy, poverty, work and labour; dissects and disproves the standard arguments against Basic Income; explains what we can learn from pilots across the world and illustrates exactly why a Basic Income has now become such an urgent necessity.

Guy Standing's immensely influential 2011 book introduced the Precariat as an emerging mass class, characterized by inequality and insecurity. Standing outlined the increasingly global nature of the Precariat as a social phenomenon, especially in the light of the social unrest characterized by the Occupy movements. He outlined the political risks they might pose, and at what might be done to diminish inequality and allow such workers to find a more stable labour identity.His concept and his conclusions have been widely taken up by thinkers from Noam Chomsky to Zygmunt Bauman, by political activists and by policy-makers. This new book takes the debate a stage further-looking in more detail at the kind of progressive politics that might form the vision of a Good Society in which such inequality, and the instability it produces is reduced. "A Precariat Charter "discusses how rights - political, civil, social and economic - have been denied to the Precariat, and at the importance of redefining our social contract around notions of associational freedom, agency and the commons. The ecological imperative is also discussed - something that was only hinted at in Standing's original book but has been widely discussed in relation to the Precariat by theorists and activists alike.

Like many countries in the world, India is mired in bureaucratic rigidities and hierarchical structures of exploitation and oppression, leading to a well-known problem of clogged pipes in the complex system of public welfare services. It is widely recognised that this clogged system requires innovative intervention, via transparent policies that are able to avoid political capture. This book reports on three overlapping pilot schemes in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, including a special project in tribal villages, in which over 6,000 people were provided with a modest basic income paid monthly over 18 months. The project was funded by UNICEF and UNDP and implemented by SEWA (The Indian Self-Employed Women's Association). Written by Guy Standing who designed the pilot schemes and Renana Jhabvala, the head of SEWA, who implemented them, the book examines the effects of these pilot schemes at the individual, family and local economy levels. The pilots are discussed in the context of the new Food Security Act, the government's job guarantee plan, MGNREGA, and ongoing debate over the efficacy of the Public Distribution System and its ration shops disbursing rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene.The authors look at a number of alternative options for addressing rural poverty, including subsidies, targeting, selectivity and conditionality, contrasting them with the basic income model. They argue that the provision of basic incomes not only provides economic security but has many knock-on effects, allowing families to escape the debt trap, enrich food consumption and unlock constraints to schooling and healthcare. Above all it may enable individuals, including women, the disabled, the elderly and those in excluded castes or tribes, to engage more effectively in wider society.

Guy Standing's immensely influential 2011 book introduced the Precariat as an emerging mass class, characterized by inequality and insecurity. Standing outlined the increasingly global nature of the Precariat as a social phenomenon, especially in the light of the social unrest characterized by the Occupy movements. He outlined the political risks they might pose, and at what might be done to diminish inequality and allow such workers to find a more stable labour identity.His concept and his conclusions have been widely taken up by thinkers from Noam Chomsky to Zygmunt Bauman, by political activists and by policy-makers. This new book takes the debate a stage further-looking in more detail at the kind of progressive politics that might form the vision of a Good Society in which such inequality, and the instability it produces is reduced. "A Precariat Charter "discusses how rights - political, civil, social and economic - have been denied to the Precariat, and at the importance of redefining our social contract around notions of associational freedom, agency and the commons. The ecological imperative is also discussed - something that was only hinted at in Standing's original book but has been widely discussed in relation to the Precariat by theorists and activists alike.

This volume examines the recent trends and developments in minimum income schemes in Western Europe. Today even the richest countries in the world have levels of poverty that few social thinkers would have anticipated a century ago, if told what their countries per capita income would now be. In contrast, many countries contend that the eradication of poverty is the primary goal of social and economic policy. This book investigates how current policies often fall short of those goals. The authors reveal why countries need mechanisms to reduce wage inequality and why they choose to provide universal benefits instead of systems of selective benefits targeted at the poor. Along with cross-countries comparisons, the volume also presents analysis of the minimum income schemes in effect in France, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Ireland, Belgium, and Greece. Contributors include Bea Cantillon, Ive Marx, Karel Van den Bosch, Serge Paugam, Nicolas Farvaque, Robert Salais, Alfredo Bruto da Costa, David Benassi, Enzo Mingione, Sean Healy and Brigid Reynolds, Simon Aho, Ikka Virjo, Anna Cristina DAddio, Isabelle De Greef, Michale Rosholm, and Manos Matsaganis.

This book provides a critical analysis of the feasibility and impact of a universal basic income grant for South Africans, which has been discussed extensively in parliament and the media for the past two years. The authors assess how comprehensive social security reform, including a universal grant, will impact on the severe inequality in the country and promote economic growth and employment. Their research reveals that it is affordable, and they argue that it would reduce the criminality that is associated with poverty and inequality. The implications for women and children and for the black majority would be considerable. At the Presidential Jobs Summit in 1998 COSATU negotiated an agreement with the government to investigate a universal social grant for all South Africans -- the Basic Income Grant. Government policy-makers, civil society stakeholders and South African and international thinkers recognised the merit of addressing the problem of poverty directly and efficiently. In March 2002 the South African government's Committee of Inquiry into Comprehensive Social Security completed its evaluation of policy options for addressing the severe levels of poverty afflicting the country. Accepting the findings of research commissioned from the Economic Policy Research Institute, the Committee's report stated that the Basic Income Grant has the potential, more than any other possible social protection intervention, to reduce poverty and promote human development and sustainable livelihoods'. This book provides an accessible collection of the current research on the issue, with chapters by both proponents and critics of the Basic Income Grant. Some of the issues discussed include: How can the grant be financed? In what ways will the grant promote job creation, economic growth and social development? And will the government demonstrate the political will to implement what is likely to be the single most effective policy for reducing poverty and eradicating destitution?

What models of distributive justice can the 21st century promote to challenge the spread of insecurity, inequality and social fragmentation? The 20th century was dominated by competition between two labour models of society state socialism and welfare state capitalism, which promoted forms of labour security. Since the 1970s, globalization and flexible labour markets have increased insecurity and inequalities. After a period dominated by libertarianism, politicians and social thinkers must find ways of promoting distributive justice, based on basic security and new forms of voice representation and regulation. Dismissing the approach of the "new paternalists", this book presents a vision combining security of income and representation without moralistic state control.

The century of labouring man has come to an end, and yet governments continue to link social entitlements to the performance of labour. This book argues that the era of market regulation has ended in an era of fiscal regulation: new social and economic insecurities have spread around the world, boosted by globalisation and flexible labour markets, and compounded by privatisation and increased selectivity of social policy. This global insecurity has spawned growing and underestimated inequalities, while governments are making social policy more paternalistic and directive, using the language of duty and responsibility. This context requires new systems of regulation, social protection and redistribution. Guy Standing argues for a complex egalitarianism, in which basic income security is a right for all, workers' representation is strengthened in new ways, and economic democracy is promoted. Work (including community and care work), not labour, must be the basis of the "good society", so policies should be judged by their capacity to promote occupational security-good opportunity for all to pursue their own sense of occupation.

Today in one the richest countries in the world, 60% of households in poverty have people in jobs, inequality is the highest it has been for 100 years, climate change threatens our extinction and automation means millions are forced into a life of precarity. The solution? Basic Income. Here, Guy Standing, the leading expert on the concept, explains how to solve the new eight evils of modern life, and all for almost zero net cost. There is a better future, one that makes certain all citizens can share in the wealth of the modern economy. Far from being a new idea, Standing shows how the roots of basic income go back to the Charter of the Forest, one of two foundational documents of the state - the other, sealed on the same day, being the Magna Carta. All citizens have a right to the wealth created by capitalism, and all - left or right, rich or poor - can benefit from a dynamic and ecologically grounded economy created by the guarantee of subsistence to all.

This book is about an idea that has a long and distinguished pedigree, the idea of a right to a basic income. This means having a modest income guaranteed - a right without conditions, just as every citizen should have the right to clean water, fresh air and a good education. In modern societies the conditions for moving in this direction would seem to be falling into place. Yet in the era of globalization and flexible labour relations, inequalities and insecurities can be expected to remain pervasive. The early years of the 21st century have seen the supremacy of politicians who have preached a very paternalistic alternative vision. The past decade has been one of increased state intervention in social policy; it has been the period of the erosion of industrial citizenship rights whose immediate effect has been a terrible increase in social and economic insecurity.

The case for and against the right to basic income security is considered in this book. It argues that there should be a guaranteed basic income as a citizenship right, paid to each individual, regardless of marital status, work status, age or sex. Some chapters argue that existing selective schemes for income protection are ineffectual, costly and misleading; other chapters present alternative rationales and philosophical justifications for moving towards a new form of universalism based on citizenship economic rights. 'Promoting Income Security as a Right', whose contributors include many distinguished economists, philosophers and other social scientists from across Europe and the USA, will appeal to academics and policymakers alike.

'One of the most important books I've read in years' Brian Eno We are losing the commons. Austerity and neoliberal policies have depleted our shared wealth; our national utilities have been sold off to foreign conglomerates, social housing is almost non-existent, our parks are cordoned off for private events and our national art galleries are sponsored by banks and oil companies. This plunder deprives us all of our common rights, recognized as far back as the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest of 1217, to share fairly and equitably in our public wealth. Guy Standing leads us through a new appraisal of the commons, stemming from the medieval concept of common land reserved in ancient law from marauding barons, to his modern reappraisal of the resources we all hold in common - a brilliant new synthesis that crystallises quite how much public wealth has been redirected to the 1% in recent decades through the state-approved exploitation of everything from our land to our state housing, health and benefit systems, to our justice system, schools, newspapers and even the air we breathe. Plunder of the Commons proposes a charter for a new form of commoning, of remembering, guarding and sharing that which belongs to us all, to slash inequality and soothe our current political instability.