From the editors’ introduction:

As a convinced advocate of an Unconditional Basic Income (Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen – BGE), Philippe Van Parijs summarizes its basic characteristics in an English-language essay and outlines why, from his point of view, a BGE as a socio-political instrument and at the same time a mobilizing utopia of real freedom is important for an ecological transformation. Van Parijs then examines the consequences of the Corona pandemic and climate change for the chances of realizing a BGE. While additional attention for BGE-like measures has certainly emerged in the wake of the pandemic, competition for government spending and a trend toward declining labor productivity as a result of the pandemic and the greening of production considerably limit the scope for introducing a BGE. Despite these challenges, however, the author sees good reasons to hold on to the concept of the BGE as a real utopia.