Guy Standing is a radical economist and the author of the counter-cultural The Plunder of the Commons and Basic Income. Both of those books looked at what we share and how we could create a more inclusive economy. His new book has the same DNA while looking more specifically at an often overlooked aspect of the economy: time.
He talks to us about his new book The Politics of Time. This describes the history of how different eras have regarded time and how there are now a host of inequalities around who has the freedom of their own time and who doesn’t, whose work is recognised as valuable and whose is taken for granted. Many of these inequalities were highlighted during the pandemic. Most importantly, the author describes some of the alternatives. In the final chapter, on ‘the emancipation of time’, as he casts his mind back from an imagined 2030s and the other side of a political transformation. All of this sounds rather close to the economy that we advocate at Joy in Enough, which is why it’s great to be able to welcome Guy Standing to our Joy in Enough talk for May.
Joy in Enough 