Examining the environmental implications of basic income: understanding contributions to climate resilience and impacts on material consumption

基本收入对环境有什么影响？（a）基本收入如何促进环境复原力？B）基本收入对接受者消费的规模和构成有什么影响？基本收入（BI）是无条件地向所有人单独提供的定期现金支付（BIEN n.d.）。近年来，它作为一项政策获得了支持，包括在去增长讨论中，特别是作为对COVID-19大流行的回应。BI被描述为“减少贫困的最有效的方式”和“消除不平等的总水平”，并有助于缓解无限经济增长的压力（2017）。BI的倡导者指出了社会效益：通过承认生殖工作来促进性别平等，消除福利耻辱，精简福利官僚机构，增加自由（例如Standing 2017，货车Parijs 1997，Weeks，2011，Widerquist 2013）。其中许多主张得到了在芬兰、肯尼亚和印度等不同背景下进行的试验的支持（见Give Directly 2019，Davala et al 2015）。然而，尽管至少自20世纪70年代以来吸引了绿色政党和反增长倡导者的支持，但研究BI对环境影响的实证研究却非常缺乏（MacNeill和Vibert，2019）。从理论上讲，生物多样性可以通过减少贫困作为一个关键驱动因素来提高环境的复原力。它还可以减少脆弱性的次级驱动因素，例如教育或医疗保健不足。BI还可以成为向后增长经济过渡的一部分，促进更多的时间密集型、低资源的福祉，并为人们提供将自己排除在资本主义过度消费模式之外的手段。或者，BI可以促进消费者支出和材料消耗的增加。MacNeill和Vibert认为，BI的环境影响将取决于其实施-即“绿色”BI计划的发展（2019）。工作计划第一年将通过巴斯大学的MRes国际发展中心发展研究技能。我还将开始计划以巴斯大学的WorkFree项目为案例研究，对BI和环境复原力进行研究。我将用印度基本收入网络的Sarath Davala领导的西孟加拉和奥里萨邦的进一步案例研究来补充这一点。我将在第2年继续与WorkFree合作，并开始计划我对BI和改变材料消耗的研究。我将分析来自欧洲BI试验的数据，包括在德国、西班牙和芬兰的试验，以及在英国临时拟定的试验。第三年和第四年将涉及进一步的数据分析和撰写/传播研究结果。研究将采用多种方法;结合调查、访谈、焦点小组和人种学观察，以及定量数据分析。为了与WorkFree保持一致，我将采取参与式的方法来进行我的研究，与BI接受者自己合作创建弹性指标。社会科学和政策的重要性应对环境危机的努力需要大胆，深远和变革。BI之所以具有吸引力，正是因为它是其中的每一个。然而，到目前为止，只有少数研究人员将这两个主题结合在一起，没有一个人实证研究了一个作为减轻另一个的策略的可行性。该项目有望通过阐明BI是否以及如何为应对气候和其他环境危机做出贡献来开辟新的学术领域。如上所述，可能会寻求前往达卡和海得拉巴的外地办事处。

Research QuestionWhat are the environmental implications of a basic income?Sub-questions:a) How does basic income contribute to environmental resilience?b) What impact does a basic income have on the scale and composition of recipients' consumption? (Global North focus)ContextBasic income (BI) is a periodic cash payment delivered unconditionally and individually to all people (BIEN n.d.). It has gained traction as a policy in recent years, including within de-growth discussions, particularly as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. BI has been described as the "single most effective way to reduce poverty" and "smooth out gross levels of inequality" and could contribute to relieving pressure on infinite economic growth (2017). Advocates of BI point to social benefits: advancing gender equality through recognition of reproductive work, eliminating welfare stigma, streamlining welfare bureaucracies, and increasing freedom (e.g. Standing 2017, Van Parijs 1997, Weeks, 2011, Widerquist 2013). Many of these claims have been supported by trials which have taken place in contexts as disparate as Finland, Kenya and India (see Give Directly 2019, Davala et al 2015). However, despite attracting support from green parties and de-growth advocates since at least the 1970s, there is a striking lack of empirical work examining the environmental implications of BI (MacNeill and Vibert, 2019). Theoretically, BI could increase environmental resilience by reducing poverty as a key driver. It could also reduce sub-drivers of vulnerability, such as inadequate education or healthcare. BI could also form part of the transition to a post-growth economy by facilitating more time-intensive, low-resource wellbeing and providing people with the means to exclude themselves from the capitalist hyper-consumption model. Alternatively, BI could facilitate increased consumer spending and material consumption. MacNeill and Vibert argue the environmental implications of BI will be dependent on its implementation - i.e. the development of "green" BI programmes (2019). Work PlanYear One will centre around developing research skills through an MRes International Development at the University of Bath. I will also begin planning research on BI and environmental resilience using the University of Bath's WorkFree programme as a case study. I will complement this with further case studies in West Bengal and Odisha, led by Sarath Davala of the India Network for Basic Income. I will continue my engagement with WorkFree in Year 2 and begin planning my research on BI and changing material consumption. I will analyse data from European BI trials, including in Germany, Spain and Finland, alongside those provisionally proposed in the UK. This will also allow me to connect with international academic institutions in these countries.Years 3 and 4 will involve further data analysis and write-up / dissemination of findings.The research will be multi-method; combining surveys, interviews, focus groups and ethnographic observation, as well as quantitative data analysis. In keeping with WorkFree, I will take a participatory approach to my research with the indicators for resilience being created in collaboration with BI recipients themselves.Importance for Social Science and PolicyEfforts to tackle environmental crises need to be bold, far-reaching and transformative. BI holds attraction precisely because it is each of these. Yet to date only a handful of researchers have brought these two subjects together and none has empirically investigated the viability of the one as a strategy for mitigating the other. This project promises to break new academic ground by shedding light on whether and how BI can contribute to the fight against climate and other environmental crises. As mentioned above, OFA to Dhaka and Hyderabad may be sought.