Guy Standing

Guy Standing is professorial research associate at SOAS University of London. His new book is ‘The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea’ (Pelican, 2022). He is a technical adviser to the basic income pilot being conducted by the government of Wales.

How the precariat – and UBI – can stop neoliberalism from destroying the planet

Taxes on exploiting the commons - both exhaustible and non-exhaustible resources - could be used to give people basic financial security.

By Guy Standing

/ 31 Oct 2018

Why you've never heard of a Charter that's as important as the Magna Carta

The Charter of the Forest was sealed 800 years ago today. Its defence of the property-less and of ‘the commons’, means the Right would prefer to ignore it - and progressives need to celebrate and renew it.

By Guy Standing

/ 6 Nov 2017

The left must combat rentier capitalism

Old systems of wealth redistribution cannot combat the rise of rentier capitalism. We must find new solutions.

By Guy Standing

/ 5 Sep 2016

The UK budget: King Canute and the triumph of moralism over morality

George Osborne's emergency budget reveals a government more concerned with moralising than any actual morals.

By Guy Standing

/ 20 Jul 2015

Let there be a Runnymede Left

As 800th anniversary celebrations loom, it's time for the left to reclaim the Magna Carta.

By Guy Standing

/ 1 Jun 2015

Magna Carta: what prospects for a Precariat Charter?

The events surrounding the signing of Magna Carta 800 years ago may sound more familiar to readers than they might expect...

By Guy Standing

/ 22 Jan 2015

Denizens and the Precariat

An extract from Guy Standing's new book, A Precariat Charter, from Bloomsbury, and available here.

By Guy Standing

/ 5 May 2014

Why the precariat is not a “bogus concept”

The precariat, a class-in-the-making, is the first mass class in history that has systematically been losing rights built up for citizens. So, why is it the new dangerous class and how is it differentiated from other class groups in the evolving global labour process?

By Guy Standing

/ 4 Mar 2014

The Precariat: why it needs deliberative democracy

To arrest the drift to social engineering, the voice of those subject to the steering should be inside the institutions responsible for social policy. This means more than putting token ‘community leaders’ on boards. It must be a collective democratic voice. At present, we see the opposite.

By Guy Standing

/ 27 Jan 2012