From September – November 2018 we are hosting a series of workshops to unite practitioners, policy makers and academics in an exploration of Basic Income in Scotland. This series is funded by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute (SUII) in partnership with Heriot-Watt and University of Edinburgh. We will cover issues that intersect with Basic Income, such as housing and human rights. The outputs will contribute to the public debates around the pilot authorities’ plans in Scotland, and deepen the understanding available globally for critics and proponents alike.
Late last year we were awarded a grant by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute to run a series of workshops Exploring Basic Income in Scotland. Much has happened since and significant progress has been made. Scottish Government has now allocated funds to 4 Scottish local authorities to design basic income pilots: Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow and North Ayrshire.
This programme is about bringing together academics, practitioners and policymakers. Crucially, sceptics of the concept and the potential impacts on particular groups will be involved, as well as those who fully support the implementation of a Basic Income model in Scotland. We aim to anticipate and address the challenges of implementing Basic Income, with a focus on the Scottish context.
Through robust and focused discussion and analysis the plan is for a more rigorous basis for discussing and introducing a Basic Income in Scotland, with lessons for elsewhere as well. Each workshop will have a specific theme for discussion and we will welcome attendees and speakers with expertise specific to that subject. The workshop topics are:
- Human rights and equality
- Employment and entrepreneurship
- Housing
- Care
- Implementation, evaluation and modelling
Each workshop will be informed by a pre-circulated scoping paper that we will also share publicly on our blog. You can read the first paper “Universal Basic Income in the UK”, written by Professor Paul Spicker, here. Focus groups, each a mixture of representatives from organisations and researchers with a special interest in that field, will then explore and address the challenges for different interests and concerns of Basic Income models.
We will capture the essence of the discussions to produce 6 briefing papers. The briefing papers will be published by SUII and CBINS to ensure the insight gained is widely accessible.
These workshops are unique in their approach, bringing together people from a variety of backgrounds and expertise to discuss themes identified as crucial to the effective implementation of a Basic Income. We are very excited to be facilitating the series and are grateful to SUII for funding the project.
If you would like to participate in any of these workshops please get in touch cleo.goodman@cbin.scot. Be the first to receive the outputs of this project by signing up to our mailing list.