Technological innovation changes our world at an unprecedented speed — confronting us with new and fluid work and life realities:The “uberization of society”, a fourth industrial revolution and robots taking over more work from us than ever. These technological innovations seem to have the potential to change our social system fundamentally. But it is an open question whether for better or for worse. The critical piece to match technological innovation — social innovation — is still missing.
About the Conference
Switzerland, as the first nation in world history, will vote in June 2016 on an intersting and provoking proposal of social innovation: a “universal basic income” (UBI). The idea of universal basic income has been embraced by prominent economists and philosophers from the left and right. It currently experiences a worldwide revival: Leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are currently debating about basic income and are planning large basic income tests and experiments. The Finnish and Canadian government is planning experiments testing the potential of introducing a UBI. The Netherlands are conducting a set of experiments testing basic income in Utrecht, Maastricht and Groningen. And New Zealand as well as Namibia are discussing UBI as well.
This conference poses the question of whether technological change requires a new social policy.
It will discuss different answers to that question:
- How will we work tomorrow?
- What means industry 4.0 for society?
- What is the welfare state of the future?
- What role can the unconditional basic income play?
Schedule
From vision to action: aspects of a social policy in 21st century.
08:30 Doors, Coffee and Croissants
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9:30 Keynote
David Bosshart (CH), CEO, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Introduction into the topic – the Swiss Perspective
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09:50 Dialogue
Albert Wenger (USA), VC at Union Square Capital
Armin Steuernagel (D), President of Purpose Foundation
Social Policy 4.0 – International Perspective
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10:15 Keynote
Bruno S. Frey (CH), Economist, University of Basel
Direct Democracy as a Society Tool
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10:30 Keynote
Robert Johnson (USA), Institute for New Economic Thinking
Responses to Technology Revolution – Basic Income as a fundamental Paradigm Shift
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10:50 Coffee Break
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Room 1: “Saal”
11:20 Panel: Basic Income Experiments
Guy Standing (UK), University of London
Michael Faye (USA), givedirectly.org
Ville-Veikko Pulkka (FI), Kela, Social Insurance Institution of Finland
Amira Jehia (D), Mein Grundeinkommen
Host: John Thornhill (UK), Financial Times
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12:15 Panel: Basic income - beyond left and right?
Michael Tanner (USA), CATO Institute
Daniel J. Mitchell (USA), CATO Institute
Robert B. Reich (USA), former US-Secretary of Labour
Reiner Eichenberger (CH), Economist, Director of CREMA
Host: Alexandra Borchardt (D), Süddeutsche Zeitung
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Room 2: “Bibliothek”
11:20 Keynote
Enno Schmidt (DE/CH), Author and Co-Founder of the Swiss Basic Income Initiative
Unconditionality - the cultural dimension of basic income (German only)
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11:45 Keynote
Rick Wartzman (USA), Senior Advisor and former Executive Director, Drucker Institute
History of Guaranteed Annual Wage and Income (English only)
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12:15 Panel: Future of Work (German only)
Daniel Häni (CH), Entrepreneur and Co-initiator of the basic income initiative in Switzerland
Dirk Helbing (CH), ETH Zurich
Albert Wenger (USA), VC at Union Square Capital
Myke Näf (CH), Doodle.com
Host: Börries Hornemann (D), Founder of NEOPOLIS.network
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13:00 Networking-Lunch
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14:30 Entrepreneurs Panel: Disrupting Work
Albert Wenger (USA), VA at Union Square Capital
Natalie Foster (USA), peers.org
Robin Chase (USA), Zipcar
Betsy Masiello (USA), Uber
Host: John Thornhill (UK), Financial Times
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15:30 Keynote: ” Technological Change and the Inevitability of UBI “
Robert B. Reich (USA), former US-Secretary of Labour
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15:55 Labor Panel – Future of Trade Unions and Social Security
Andrew Stern (USA), SEIU Trade Union
Nell Abernathy (USA), Roosevelt Institute
Vania Alleva (CH), Unia Trade Union
Dorian Warren (USA), Center for Community Change
Host: Alexandra Borchardt (D), Süddeutsche Zeitung
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16:50 Coffee break
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17:20 Live-Video-Interview
Erik Brynjolfsson (USA), MIT
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17:35 Videotrailer
Christian Tod (A), Golden Girls
“What`s Wrong with a Free Lunch”
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17:45 Keynote
Anthony Painter (UK), The Royal Society of Arts
Creative Citizen, Creative State: The Principled and Pragmatic Case for a Basic Income
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18:05 Keynote
Yanis Varoufakis (GRE), former Greek Minister of Finance
When becomes a society social?
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18:40 Apéro
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