Abstract
AbstractDrawing on work from Joan Martínez Alier, this chapter discusses the contribution of ecological economics to thinking concrete utopias, with attention to the future of work. First, I note how cultural, economic, technological and environmental changes are destabilizing established conceptions of work. Second, I review alternative visions on the future of work, with an emphasis on the case for a Universal Basic Income. Next, I discuss common criticisms addressed to these visions. Finally, drawing on early ecological economic texts rescued from oblivion by Martínez Alier, I discuss the case for a Universal Civil Service, a variant of basic income premised in the egalitarian distribution of the volume of work required for the reproduction of society. I call for expanding traditional emphasis in basic income debates on individual freedoms towards considerations of collective justice, and I make a case for a future of work organized around the principle of fair distribution of minimal necessary work.
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
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