[Commlist] New book on the digital economy and universal basic income

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


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



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