The crisis of waged work and the option of a universal basic income grant for South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12716844 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hein Marais (0000-0002-3482-3414, Independent Writer and Researcher, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 352-379 |
| Publication date | 2019-08-29 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Globalizations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1474-7731 • E-ISSN: 1474-774X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14747731.2019.1652469 |
| OpenAlex | W2970569258 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 33 |
Waged work is widely seen as a sufficient basis for meeting basic needs, achieving social inclusion and realizing essential social rights. Yet waged work that provides a livable income on reasonably secure terms is rare in ‘developing’ economies and increasingly scarce in ‘developed’ economies. This trend is likely to persist and worsen as the disruptive impacts of economic volatility and climate change intensify and labour market restructuring continues. Aggravating the impact is the diminishing access to livelihood options outside the wage economy. South Africa is an extreme example of this trend, with a very large proportion of the working age population superfluous to the formal economy, high levels of poverty and severe inequality. This paper describes this crisis at the global level and then specifically in South Africa, before considering the option of a universal basic income grant (UBIG). It examines the critiques and the potential merits and risks of such an intervention. To realize its transformative potential, a UBIG would have to be deployed as part of a broad transformation strategy that is led by an active state and driven by a mobilized civil society
Basic income · Development economics · Economic growth · Economic inequality · Economics · Inequality · Informal sector · Market economy · Population · Poverty · Precarity · Restructuring · Social protection · Sociology · Workfare · Working poor · Employment and Welfare Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Social Policy and Reform Studies
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Labour market trends in South Africa in 2009–19
The South African labour movement
Introduction
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New Horizons for Human Solace
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Reclaiming Work
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
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Planet of Slums
The State of Social Safety Nets 2015
The Political Thought of Andre Gorz
Democracy and the Left
Describing and decomposing post-apartheid income inequality in South Africa
The Town with No Poverty
Labour market restructuring in South Africa
Does unemployment increase suicide rates? The OECD panel evidence
Finance Capital. A Study of the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development
Unhappiness and Unemployment
The Undeserving Poor
The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality
Great Expectations
Formalities of Poverty
Eroding the Core
Work Restructuring in Post-Apartheid South Africa
The Universal Basic Income
A capitalist road to communism
| Citations per year | 1.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2024 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |