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Strangers in the Neighborhood: On the Loss of "Society"

Department of Business Administration at Lund University, P.O. Box 7080, SE-220 07, Sweden, peter.svensson{at}fek.lu.se

This article is a comment and reflection on Hill’s text on unconditional basic income (this issue). It deals with a main tendency in contemporary, neoliberal societies, a tendency that—it is suggested—contributes to the experience of unconditional income as a controversial and even unrealistic proposition. Drawing inspiration from Hobbes’ Leviathan, itis argued that the harsh reception of the idea of an unconditional income is intertwined with a general erosion of the notion of society, that is, of a conception of a collective whole, a commonwealth, that transcends the individual.

Key Words: Leviathan • unconditional basic income • Gemeinschaft • neoliberalism • stranger

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