[Air-L] NEW BOOK on the digital economy and universal basic income

[Andrew White]

NEW BOOK – Inequality in the Digital Economy. The case for a universal
basic income


Dear colleagues

The Palgrave Studies in Digital Inequalities (series eds Massimo Ragnedda
and Laura Robinson) has just released my monograph on the universal basic
income:

White, A. (2024) Inequality in the Digital Economy. The Case for a
Universal Basic Income. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-69718-0
https://link.springer.com/series/16770

*Abstract*
This book will make the case for the introduction of a universal basic
income (UBI). The structural logic of the digital economy as presently
constituted widens inequality and, through its use of automation for
increasingly complex, as well as mundane, tasks, threatens jobs. The book
will investigate the extent of this disruption to traditional labour
markets and of individual livelihoods, and argue that alternative means of
supporting people financially, like UBI, can mitigate the digital economy’s
most baleful impacts. The book will also highlight the positive social and
environmental benefits that would accrue from the introduction of UBI, as
unconditional financial support would reduce workers’ anxiety in insecure
labour markets, and the expending of valuable resources would be lessened
if energy consumption was determined by society’s needs rather than by the
requirements of labour markets tasked primarily with maximising employment.
An explanation as to why arguments against its introduction on the grounds
of cost and its supposed encouraging of idleness, are, while superficially
compelling, ultimately without foundation, will form the centrepiece of the
concluding political argument for UBI.

*From the Back Cover*
“Andrew White has brought together expertise in the digital economy and in
Universal Basic Income to create a scholarly discussion of the relationship
between Universal Basic Income and the digital economy that concludes that
a smaller unconditional income would be a useful step towards an
unconditional income sufficient to live on. Scholars in both the digital
economy and Universal Basic Income should read this book, and so should
policymakers."

– Dr Malcolm Torry, Visiting Fellow, Institute for Policy Research,
University of Bath, and Treasurer, Basic Income Earth Network.


Dr Andrew White

Senior Lecturer, Department of Culture Media and Creative Industries

King’s College London
The Strand
London

WC2R 2LS

*pr**on**ou**ns:* *he**/**him*


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