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Beyond the Paradigm of Labor: Everyday Activism and Unconditional Basic Income in Urban Japan

In: Basic Income in Japan

Author

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  • Julia Obinger

Abstract

Unconditional basic income (UBI) is a concept intended to tackle the problem of redistributing wealth within a welfare state setting, providing citizens (or residents) of a nation a regular basic monetary transfer without preconditions on an equal basis. It is essential to discuss feasibility, theoretical background, and contexts for the possible adoption of a UBI scheme; yet, these issues lie beyond the scope of this chapter. Rather, I will focus on one singular aspect of the UBI proposal, namely, the underlying vision for a profound social transformation. More precisely, I will draw upon the theories formulated by French philosopher and UBI proponent André Gorz, who imagined the introduction of a UBI as a chance to create societies with “(…) less employment and less selling of labor and services, but with growth in collective facilities and services, in nonmonetary exchange and self-providing” (Gorz 2013 [1997]: 299). While I do not intend to discuss the validity of this perspective in detail, it provides me with a framework for analyzing the activities and lifestyle of a contemporary activist network in Tokyo, whose members, in fact, share Gorz’s vision and have found their own particular way to answer the question of how to create a “better” society, and how this idea of “living beyond the wage-based society” can be put into practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Obinger, 2014. "Beyond the Paradigm of Labor: Everyday Activism and Unconditional Basic Income in Urban Japan," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, in: Yannick Vanderborght & Toru Yamamori (ed.), Basic Income in Japan, chapter 0, pages 141-155, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:etbchp:978-1-137-34808-1_10
    DOI: 10.1057/9781137348081_10
    as

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