Maastricht, The Netherlands: Conference, “Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Dutch Basic Income Association”

The Dutch Basic Income Network releases the following invitation to its upcoming conference:

Dear friends in BIEN and UBIE,

We have the pleasure of inviting you to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Dutch Basic Income Association (Vereniging Basisinkomen), which will be held from 29 to 31 January 2016. in Maastricht, Maasboulevard 101, 6211 JW, The Netherlands, (tel + 31 (0)43 750 17 90).

Lately, there is much controversy and misunderstanding relating to definitions in The Netherlands about all kinds of initiatives concerning the universal basic income (UBI) among groups as different as activists, citizens, members of city councils, scholars, politicians, opion leaders. Obviously, the most prominent issues for the basic income movement in our country – as well as for UBIE and BIEN – are these days questions about the benefits and disadvantages of the introduction of a partial basic income and questions around the promises and limitations of experiments with a basic income. We hope to present an interesting programme by addressing these problems in a broader, international setting. So all our friends from The Netherlands and from abroad are invited to participate, so that we can make this twenty-fifth anniversary a real international event. We propose the following programme:

29 January

The focus will be on the members of our society and therefore the event will be in Dutch.

In the evening there will be a communal dinner served as a buffet. Afterwards there will be the possibilty of dancing at a Salsa-night.

30 January

There will be an international congress in English. All members of UBIE and BIEN who want to join this event are welcome just as all the members of our society. The main question that will be discussed during the day is What role for a modest participation income?. Short introductions will be given by Guy Standing, Philippe van Parijs, Enno Schmidt and Sjir Hoeijmakers. There will be plenty of time for discussion. See keynote speaker page.

In the evening focus will be on another urgent subject Promises and limitations of pilot projects and controlled experiments. Do we need more schemes for them or not? We hope that the issue will provoke a lively debate between the day keynote speakers and participants.

31 January

Twenty-five years ago on this same day, our association was founded. Let’s celebrate this remarkable beginning/fact with The stories we tell. Erica Scott, Sérgio Alvès and Wiebke Fercho will talk about the role of stories and narratives as crucial ingredients in communication aiming towards a sustainable society as well as of the importance of taking personal values into consideration when designing a narrative for an initiative with the intention of creating societal change. They will also present the results of their study that analysed how the narrative of the European Citizens Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income from 2013 spoke to the values of the population of the European Union. Finally, they will briefly present how we can design a better narrative for the initiative of an unconditional basic income. See keynote speaker page.

Afterwards there will be a UBIE working conference which is open to all. Of course, only UBIE members are authorized to take final decisions.

All these activities will take place in Stayokay Hostel Maastricht.

Please visit https://basisinkomen.org for more information, program, registration, travel

[Direct conference link: https://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/2015/09/celebration-of-the-25th-anniversary-of-the-dutch-basic-income-association/]