Future of Work

Industry 4.0 and the Pursuit of Social Innovation

May 4, 2016 | 5:30 – 14:40 Download .ics

Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, Zurich |

Does the technology revolution require a new social policy?

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

9:30 Keynote
David Bosshart (CH), CEO, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Introduction into the topic – the Swiss Perspective

09:50 Dialogue
Albert Wenger (USA), VC at Union Square Capital

Armin Steuernagel (D), President of Purpose Foundation
Social Policy 4.0 – International Perspective

10:15 Keynote
Bruno S. Frey (CH), Economist, University of Basel
Direct Democracy as a Society Tool

10:30 Keynote
Robert Johnson (USA), Institute for New Economic Thinking
Responses to Technology Revolution – Basic Income as a fundamental Paradigm Shift

10:50 Coffee Break

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

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

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)

11:45 Keynote
Rick Wartzman (USA), Senior Advisor and former Executive Director, Drucker Institute
History of Guaranteed Annual Wage and Income (English only)

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

13:00 Networking-Lunch

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

15:30 Keynote: ” Technological Change and the Inevitability of UBI “
Robert B. Reich (USA), former US-Secretary of Labour

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

16:50 Coffee break

17:20 Live-Video-Interview
Erik Brynjolfsson (USA), MIT

17:35 Videotrailer
Christian Tod (A), Golden Girls
“What`s Wrong with a Free Lunch”

17:45 Keynote
Anthony Painter (UK), The Royal Society of Arts
Creative Citizen, Creative State: The Principled and Pragmatic Case for a Basic Income

18:05 Keynote
Yanis Varoufakis (GRE), former Greek Minister of Finance
When becomes a society social?

18:40 Apéro

Learn more

Event location

GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Langhaldenstrasse 21
CH-8803 Rüschlikon/Zurich

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