IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v56y2024i3p927-942.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Viral cash: Basic income trials, policy mutation, and post-austerity politics in U.S. cities

Author

Listed:
  • Marc Doussard

    (Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA)

Abstract

During the covid-19 pandemic, basic income pilot programs spread across U.S. cities like the novel coronavirus itself. The policy of no-strings-attached cash transfers marks a potentially significant change in the development of post-austerity politics, but only if basic income programs can endure beyond their trial phase. This paper centers the phenomenon of viral cash —cash transfer programs that mutate and multiply like the coronavirus to which they respond—as a means of assessing the possible pathways from trial programs to standing policy. Drawing on case studies of pilot programs in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Denver, I argue that basic income pilots extend beyond their end-date by creating individual and institutional constituencies invested in unconditional cash transfers. Focusing on these constituencies draws attention to basic income’s role in popularizing child tax credits, program cash stipends and other policy reforms recently enacted by cities and states. Seen this way, basic income’s virus-like susceptibility to mutation plays a key role in seeding support for urban policies and politics that counter prior austerity by centering investment in human capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • Marc Doussard, 2024. "Viral cash: Basic income trials, policy mutation, and post-austerity politics in U.S. cities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 927-942, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:3:p:927-942
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X231203083
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X231203083
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X231203083?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yunji Kim & Mildred E Warner, 2018. "Shrinking local autonomy: corporate coalitions and the subnational state," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 11(3), pages 427-441.
    2. Ron Martin, 2021. "Rebuilding the economy from the Covid crisis: time to rethink regional studies?," Regional Studies, Regional Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 143-161, January.
    3. Linda Lobao & Mia Gray & Kevin Cox & Michael Kitson, 2018. "The shrinking state? Understanding the assault on the public sector," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 11(3), pages 389-408.
    4. Yunji Kim & Austin M Aldag & Mildred E Warner, 2021. "Blocking the progressive city: How state pre-emptions undermine labour rights in the USA," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(6), pages 1158-1175, May.
    5. Jason S Spicer, 2018. "Electoral Systems, Regional Resentment and the Surprising Success of Anglo-American Populism," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 11(1), pages 115-141.
    6. Mildred E Warner & Paige M Kelly & Xue Zhang, 2023. "Challenging austerity under the COVID-19 state," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(1), pages 197-209.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Almeida, Renan P. & Hungaro, Lucas, 2021. "Water and sanitation governance between austerity and financialization," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Yuanshuo Xu & Mildred E. Warner, 2022. "Crowding Out Development: Fiscal Federalism after the Great Recession," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(2), pages 311-329, March.
    3. Mildred E Warner & Paige M Kelly & Xue Zhang, 2023. "Challenging austerity under the COVID-19 state," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(1), pages 197-209.
    4. Austin M Aldag & Yunji Kim & Mildred E Warner, 2019. "Austerity urbanism or pragmatic municipalism? Local government responses to fiscal stress in New York State," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(6), pages 1287-1305, September.
    5. David Richards & Sam Warner & Martin J Smith & Diane Coyle, 2023. "Crisis and state transformation: Covid-19, levelling up and the UK’s incoherent state," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(1), pages 31-48.
    6. Grashof, Nils, 2020. "Putting the watering can away Towards a targeted (problem-oriented) cluster policy framework," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/4, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    7. Tom Kemeny & Michael Storper, 2024. "The Changing Shape of Spatial Income Disparities in the United States," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 100(1), pages 1-30, January.
    8. Susan Baker & Matthew J. Quinn, 2022. "Populism, Austerity and Governance for Sustainable Development in Troubled Times: Introduction to Special Issue," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-14, March.
    9. Marc Doussard & Jennifer Clark, 2021. "Inclusive innovation closing essay: Problems beyond economic development," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(3), pages 265-270, May.
    10. Harald Bathelt & Maximilian Buchholz & Michael Storper, 2024. "The nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(3), pages 353-374.
    11. Haikola, Simon & Anshelm, Jonas, 2020. "Evolutionary governance in mining: Boom and bust in peripheral communities in Sweden," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    12. Hulya Dagdeviren & Ewa Karwowski, 2022. "Impasse or mutation? Austerity and (de)financialisation of local governments in Britain [Regul(ariz)ation of fringe credit: Payday lending and the borders of global financial practice]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 685-707.
    13. Hartwell, Christopher A. & Devinney, Timothy M., 2024. "The demands of populism on business and the creation of “corporate political obligations”," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2).
    14. Samaha, Amal, 2020. "Innovators, Bullshitters or Aristocrats: Towards an Explanation of Unproductive Work," MPRA Paper 107169, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Buchholz Maximilian & Bathelt Harald, 2021. "Models of Regional Economic Development: Illustrations Using U.S. Data," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 65(1), pages 28-42, March.
    16. Butzin, Anna & Flögel, Franz, 2022. "High-tech left behind? Lessons from the Ruhr cybersecurity ecosystem for approaches to develop "left behind" places," IAT Discussion Papers 22/04, Institut Arbeit und Technik (IAT), Westfälische Hochschule, University of Applied Sciences.
    17. Nick Kirsop-Taylor & Duncan Russel & Michael Winter, 2020. "The Contours of State Retreat from Collaborative Environmental Governance under Austerity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, April.
    18. Yunji Kim, 2019. "Limits of fiscal federalism: How narratives of local government inefficiency facilitate scalar dumping in New York State," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(3), pages 636-653, May.
    19. Marc Kalina & Ncebakazi Makwetu & Elizabeth Tilley, 2024. "“The rich will always be able to dispose of their waste”: a view from the frontlines of municipal failure in Makhanda, South Africa," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 17759-17782, July.
    20. Cutrini, Eleonora & Mendez, Carlos, 2023. "Convergence clubs and spatial structural change in the European Union," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 167-181.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:3:p:927-942. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.