Bread and Roses: Social re-presentations for Unconditional Basic Income in the Basque Country

The social debate on Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) has been growing in recent years. While the academic literature on social attitudes towards UBI has exploded, qualitative studies analysing the nuances and ideological conflicts that shape public debate remain scarce. Drawing on (action-oriented) social representations theory and conceptions of social order, this study aims to delve into the shared meanings and arguments through which UBI is socially re-presented, as well as the ideological objectives pursued by these arguments. To do so, we conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of 26 individual interviews conducted in the Basque Country. We generated four main themes: (1) Origins of social inequality; (2) The right to a good life; (3) Accessibility: Who should get a UBI; (4) Feasibility in the current system. Results indicated that the re-presentation for UBI is anchored in socially disputed values of equality and freedom, which are objectified into conceptions of distributive justice and group stereotypes. This meaning-making process seems to be conditioned by a social context marked by capitalist realism and political despair. We discuss these results from a theoretical and applied perspective, extending our understanding of how people collectively reason about UBI and what social-psychological processes underpin it.