"Basic Income is an idea whose time has come": But why here, why now, and in what way?

That Basic Income has received increased attention recently is noted in both academic and media discourse. A critical question about this attention is whether it amounts to more than “just a fad”. Contesting the label of “fad”, this thesis argues that the contemporary attention to Basic Income emerges through interlinked debates around the social understanding of work and the extent of the State.

This argument is developed from semi-structured interviews with stakeholders who have relevant expertise in and around the Basic Income discourse, as well as thematic analysis of print media discussion of Basic Income in 2015 – 2017.

This thesis examines the significance of the attention through the framework developed by Levitas as the Imaginary Reconstitution of Society. That is, it considers the discourse around Basic Income as fragmentary utopias, containing a mixture of critiques of the present, visions of the future “good society”, and policy proposals to move between the two. This leads to the conclusions that (i) the attention to Basic Income is rather attention to a plurality of Basic Incomes, with different purposes and bases, and (ii) that Basic Income cannot be understood as a policy in isolation, but instead as a part of a broader policy platform.