Guy Standing: Reviving the Commons

As artificial intelligence transforms the world of work and wealth, we need to ensure that technological progress benefits everyone rather than deepening inequality.

Economist and social justice campaigner Guy Standing, author of the influential The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class,Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen and Plunder of the Commons, argues that the economy must be restructured. He calls for a revival of the “commons” – the shared resources on which we all depend – and “commoning”, while giving the precariat greater security and freedom. Besides preparing for the existential challenge of AI, such an agenda is essential in the fight against global burning and the breakdown of the income distribution system, which is leaving the precariat bereft of ‘hope’.

Drawing on decades of research, Standing will explore why a Basic Income is an imperative. Rather than a welfare proposal, he sees it as a matter of common justice: a way to encourage creativity, strengthen communities, reduce insecurity and give people the confidence and quality time to adapt to rapid technological change, while helping combat the ecological destruction accelerated by rapacious finance.