I am examining UBI in order to imagine a more egalitarian democracy under capitalism through the redistribution of national wealth that all labor, paid and unpaid, create. I maintain that the redistribution of capital through a UBI cannot be completely dismissed; however, the key would be to remain dedicated to emboldening individual economic agency through bottom-up initiatives while battling for infrastructural changes in a governmental, top-down fashion.
Articles by Caroline West
Caroline finished her PhD in Cultural Studies at George Mason University in 2019. She holds a MA in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Photography from Arizona State University. Her research is focused on visual culture, political economy, and theories of race and gender. Her dissertation is titled Picturing Capital: Mass Media and the Art of Visualizing Poverty.
From Company Town to Post-Industrial: Inquiry on the Redistribution of Space and Capital with a Universal Basic Income
This paper considers what effects a universal basic income could have on disrupting social and economic inequality in the tensions of urban/rural divide. She frames her inquiry on the political economy of land and labor in the collapse of coal industry “company towns” and its structural aftermath in Central Appalachia.