Basic Income at a Time of Economic Upheaval

Call for papers
Basic Income at a Time of Economic Upheaval:
A Path to Justice and Stability?

A joint conference of the USBIG Network and BIEN Canada

Hosted by Centre de recherche en ethique de l'Universite de Montreal (CREUM)
University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Thursday & Friday, April 15-16, 2010


Times of economic turmoil raise difficult questions but also offer
radical new opportunities to rethink the economic fabric of our society.
The current global economic recession is no exception. The political
challenge is how to respond to economic decline in a way that opens a
new future, while not leaving behind those citizens directly affected by
the global downturn.

This two-day conference examines whether instituting an unconditional
Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) as an economic floor, aimed at preventing
those affected by the current economic upheavals from falling below what
any modern democracy would consider a decent standard of living,
constitutes a desirable and feasible option in Canada or the United States.

The conference will feature a keynote talk by Prof. Guy Standing
(University of Bath), a leading expert on basic income, economic
development and the labour market, and a special roundtable with
political experts and policy activists.

The conference will be hosted by the Centre de recherche en ethique de
l'Universite de Montreal (CREUM-The Center for Research in Ethics at the
University of Montreal). This event will be the first joint conference
of the two North American affiliates of the Basic Income Earth Network
(BIEN) - the US Basic Income Guarantee network (USBIG) and BIEN Canada.
The conference aims to compare the prospects and challenges faced by the
BIG proposal in the context of both Canada and the US, two countries
that share many similarities and yet are profoundly different in terms
of their economic, social and political background.

The organizers invite panel presentations from academic scholars,
practitioners and policy activists on a wide variety of topics dealing
with the challenges of designing, promoting or instituting a BIG in the
current economic climate in Canada or the US. Priority will be given to
papers that explicitly discuss BIG in the context of either Canada or
the US, or that compare the distinct prospects in both countries.

The main language of the conference is English, but the organizers will
try to accommodate French speakers as much as possible.

To submit a proposal, email a title and short abstract to
bigmontreal2010@gmail.com by Friday 15 January.

The official call for papers and further information are posted on the
BIGMontreal website at http://bigmontreal.wordpress.com/, which can also
be reached by link for the USBIG website (www.usbig.net).

Admission is free. Everyone is welcome to attend, but pre-registration
is required. Details about registration and other aspects of the
conference will be announced on the conference website. If you have any
additional questions, please contact the conference organizer: Jurgen De
Wispelaere at bigmontreal2010@gmail.com.

===========================================================
KARL WIDERQUIST
Associate Professor in Residence, Philosophy
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar
Mailing address:
3300 Whitehaven Street, N.W.
Suite 2100, Harris Building
Washington, D.C. 20007-2401

PERSONAL WEBSITE: http://www.widerquist.com/