by David Cassasas, Translated by Julie Wark
Pluto Press
1/20/2024, paperback
SKU: 9780745348636
As the rich get richer and take more of our wealth, our democratic freedoms are also in danger. The elite are gaining large profits without contributing back to society, hollowing out our public services and institutions and preventing the vast majority of us from living our lives to the fullest.
In Unconditional Freedom, David Casassas argues that for us to live freely, we need unconditional resources such as Universal Basic Income. In a sharp and lucid analysis, he shows that UBI would not only liberate us from the nightmare of social exclusion and precarious employment, it would also increase our bargaining power as individuals and collectives, opening doors to democratise our lives.
Reviews:
"David's path-breaking work throws new light on how we understand work, freedom, and emancipation in today's highly precariatised and insecure world. He is provocative and equally tender in his treatment of human condition in our particular moment of capitalist evolution, painstakingly sketching what true emancipation looks and feels like, and what role a basic income could play in the process. A must-read for students and teachers, policymakers and activists who are keen to make this world a better place for all of us." -- Sarath Davala, Sociologist, Chair, Basic Income Earth Network
"A useful, militant book, useful because it clearly, rigorously, and skilfully sets out the basic principles of the universal basic income, and militant because it doesn't hide its position, which I'd describe as radical. In this, [Casassas] follows the advice of our mutual friend and teachermentor, Antoni Domènech, for whom, 'If you don't know how to be sufficiently radical, you'll always end up in the folly of hyperrealism.'" -- Daniel Raventós, author of Basic Income: The Material Conditions of Freedom
About the Author:
David Casassas is a lecturer in social and political theory, social movements, and economic sociology at the University of Barcelona. He was the Secretary of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and he is now a member of its International Advisory Board. He has widely published on republicanism, socialism and basic income and is the author of the highly praised Spanish book The City in Flames: The validity of Adam Smith's commercial republicanism.
Julie Wark is a translator and human rights activist. She is correspondent for Europe for CounterPunch and author of The Human Rights Manifesto and Against Charity (with Daniel Raventós).