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Guy Standing (economist)

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Guy Standing
FAcSS FRSA
Guy Standing in a blue chair in front of a wooden wall. His right hand is on his knee and his left arm rests on the back of the chair.
Standing in 2025
Born
Guy Maxwell Standing

(1948-02-09) 9 February 1948 (age 78)
London, England
Academic background
Education
ThesisLabour Force Participation and Underdevelopment with Special Reference to Female Economic Activity (1978)
Academic work
DisciplineLabour economist
School or tradition
Basic Income Earth Network
Institutions
Main interests
Notable ideas
Theory of the precariat
Standing's voice
Standing talking about the precariat
Recorded 19 September 2024
Website

Guy Maxwell Standing (born 9 February 1948) is a British labour economist. He is a professorial research associate at SOAS University of London. Standing co-founded the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) in 1986 and has written widely in the areas of labour economics, active labour market policies, unemployment, labour market flexibility, structural adjustment programs and social protection.

His best known book is the 2011 publication The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, which has been translated into 25 languages. In it, Standing created the term "precariat" to describe an emerging class of workers who are harmed by low wages and poor job security as a consequence of globalisation. After making The Precariat, his work has focused on the precariat, deliberative democracy, commons, and has become a major advocate of universal basic income.

Since 2015, Standing's English Wikipedia article was part of an edit war about if the image caption should be "Guy Standing sitting". As of 2026, the consensus is to exclude the word "sitting", and the controversy has become a viral internet meme. Standing was elected a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2009 and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2019.

Life and career

Guy Maxwell Standing[‡ 1] was born on 9 February 1948,[1] in Greenwich, London.[2] He gained his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Sussex in 1971. After taking a masters in labour economics and industrial relations at the University of Illinois, he received his doctorate in economics from the University of Cambridge in 1978.[‡ 2][‡ 1]

From 1975 to 2006, Standing worked at the International Labour Organization (ILO), latterly as director of the ILO's Socio-Economic Security Programme.[‡ 2][3] The programme was responsible for a major report on socio-economic security worldwide[4] and for creation of the Decent Work Index.[‡ 3] In 1986, he co-founded the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN),[5] a group of individuals and organizations to advocate Universal Basic Income (UBI).[6][7][8] It was one of the earliest groups to advocate UBI in its modern form.[5]

From April 2006 to February 2009, he held a position of Professor of Labour Economics at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.[‡ 2] In 2006, he became professor of economic security at the University of Bath,[9] leaving in 2013 to become professor of development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.[‡ 2][10] Since October 2015, he has been a professorial research associate at SOAS.[‡ 2]

From 2011 to 2012, Standing worked with Indian activist Renana Jhabvala to set up trials in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, in which more than 6,000 people were given a basic income.[11] After working on topics relating to universal basic income in India, he wrote two books relating to the precariat, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011) and A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens (2014).[10]

Standing at the Occupy D.C. protest in 2011

Standing's most-known book is The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, published in 2011.[8] In it, Standing coins the term "precariat"[12][13][14] to refer to the class of people suffering from precarity and job insecurity, which he analyses as a new emerging social class, and blames globalisation for having plunged more and more people into the precariat.[15][16][‡ 4] The book has been translated into 25 languages.[8]

According to Standing, the precariat is not only suffering from job insecurity but also identity insecurity and lack of time control, not least due to workfare social policies.[15] Standing describes the precariat as an agglomerate of several different social groups, notably immigrants, young educated people, and those who have fallen out of the old-style industrial working class.[17] In his 2014 book entitled A Precariat Charter he argued that all citizens have a right to socially inherited wealth.[18] After writing his book, Standing's work has focused on UBI, deliberative democracy, and the commons.[‡ 5]

On 27 March 2015, 19 economists including Standing, Steve Keen, Ann Pettifor and Robert Skidelsky signed a letter to the Financial Times calling on the European Central Bank to adopt a more direct approach to its quantitative easing plan announced earlier in February.[19] In 2020, Standing collaborated with the English band Massive Attack for their EP Eutopia. Standing was one of three political speakers for the EP, along with Christiana Figueres and Gabriel Zucman. Each of the album's tracks discusses a political issue; Standing's track is about universal basic income.[20][21] In 2021, Standing was appointed deputy chair of the Welsh government’s advisory panel on a basic income pilot for care leavers in Wales.[22][‡ 6]

Screenshot from a vandalized version of Standing's English Wikipedia article c. 2015, which caused an edit war over its caption, and has become a viral internet meme

Since February 2015, the image caption for Standing's English Wikipedia article was part of an edit war. Users debated to change it to "Guy Standing sitting". As of 2026, the consensus is to exclude the word "sitting", and the controversy has become a viral internet meme.[23][24] Annie Rauwerda, known for her social media accounts named Depths of Wikipedia, has cited the "Guy Standing sitting" image in many of her live shows about Wikipedia.[25][26] In May 2022, Standing was invited to the American podcast Reply All to discuss the "Guy Standing sitting" joke.[23] Standing expressed exasperation that so much time was taken up by the controversy that Wikipedia editors had not even updated his bibliography to list his latest book on child poverty.[26]

Views

Standing endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election in 2015[27] and endorsed Corbyn's campaign in the United Kingdom general election in 2017[28] and 2019.[29] Standing calls for politicians to make social reforms towards ensuring financial security as a right. He argues for UBI as an important step to a new approach,[‡ 7] stating that it would create more economic activity.[‡ 8] According to Standing, if politicians fail to take the necessary actions, there would be a wave of anger, violence and a rise of far-right parties.[‡ 9][30] In 2012, Standing noted that far-right groups are "growing very, very fast."[30]

In his 2016 book, The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay, Standing said that rentier capitalism has become more predominant since the 1970s.[31] In 2017, Standing described having basic income as a "matter of social justice."[5] In 2019, Standing told the BBC the amount of money for UBI "would change over time as the funding for a basic income is built up." Standing predicts that the initial payment would be about £48 per week.[32] In his 2019 book, Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth, Standing said that the post-Thatcher period was characterized by neoliberalism becoming dominant.[33]

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Standing argued in 2021 that the pandemic's consequences showed that a universal basic income was "inevitable". Standing has also endorsed a carbon tax as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.[34] In May 2022, Standing echoes the same sentiment about basic income on his appearance on the Reply All podcast, saying that the right for UBI is a "realistic possibility".[23]

Membership and honours

Standing speaking at SOAS University of London in 2013

Standing was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2009.[35][36] In 2019, Standing became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[37][‡ 10] He was assigned an honorary professor at the University of Sydney.[38] Standing is a member of the Progressive Economy Forum.[32][39]

Bibliography

  • Labour Force Participation and Development. Geneva: International Labour Office. 1978. ISBN 9789221027621.
  • Sheehan, Glen, ed. (1978). Labour Force Participation in Low-income Countries. Geneva: International Labour Office. ISBN 9789221018124.
  • Szal, Richard (1979). Poverty and Basic Needs Evidence from Guyana and the Philippines. Geneva: International Labour Office. ISBN 9789221020349.
  • Unemployment and Female Labour: A Study of Labour Supply in Kingston, Jamaica. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 1981. ISBN 9781349061488.
  • Rodgers, Gerry (1981). Child Work, Poverty and Underdevelopment: Issues for Research in Low-Income Countries. Geneva: International Labour Office. ISBN 9789221028130.
  • Peek, Peter (1982). State Policies and Migration: Studies in Latin America and the Caribbean. London: International Labour Office, World Employment Programme. ISBN 9781003459408.
  • Bilsborrow, Richard E.; Oberai, A. S. (1984). Migration Surveys in Low-Income Countries: Guidelines for Survey and Questionnaire Design. London: Chapman & Hall. ISBN 9781041274940.
  • Labour Circulation and the Labour Process. London: Croom Helm. 1985. ISBN 9780709933427.
  • Unemployment and Labour Market Flexibility: The United Kingdom. Geneva: International Labour Office. 1986. ISBN 9789221052913.
  • Unemployment and Labour Market Flexibility: Sweden. Geneva: International Labour Office. 1988. ISBN 9789221062653.
  • Lilja, Reija; Santamäki-Vuori, Tuire (1990). Unemployment and Labour Market Flexibility: Finland. Geneva: International Labour Organization. ISBN 9789221072737.
  • Tokman, Victor, ed. (1991). Towards Social Adjustment: Labour Market Issues in Structural Adjustment. Geneva: International Labour Office. ISBN 9789221077459.
  • In Search of Flexibility: The New Soviet Labour Market. Geneva: International Labour Office. 1991. ISBN 9789221077442.
  • Fischer, Georg, ed. (1993). Structural Change in Central and Eastern Europe: Labour Market and Social Policy Implications. Paris: International Labour Organisation. ISBN 9789264139909.
  • Vaughan-Whitehead, Daniel, ed. (1995). Minimum Wages in Central and Eastern Europe: From Protection to Destitution. Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 9781858660431.
  • Sender, John; Weeks, John (1996). Restructuring the Labour Market: The South African Challenge. Cape Town: International Labour Office. ISBN 9789221095132.
  • Russian Unemployment and Enterprise Restructuring: Reviving Dead Souls. Basingstoke: St. Martin's Press. 1996. ISBN 9780312161347.
  • Deshpande, Sudha (1998). Labour Flexibility in a Third World Metropolis. New Delhi: Commonwealth Publishers. ISBN 978-8171694228.
  • Global labour flexibility: seeking distributive justice. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1999. ISBN 978-0-333-77652-0.
  • Beyond the new paternalism: basic security as equality. London New York: Verso. 2002. ISBN 978-1-85984-345-1.
  • Minimum Income Schemes in Europe. Geneva: International Labour Organization. 2003. ISBN 9789221148395.
  • Standing, Guy; Samson, Michael (30 September 2003). A Basic Income Grant for South Africa. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press. ISBN 978-1-919713-86-1.
  • Standing, Guy; November, Andràs (2003). Un revenu de base pour chacun(e). Genève: Bureau international du travail. ISBN 9789222151264.
  • Promoting income security as a right Europe and North America. London: Anthem Press. 2005. ISBN 978-0-85728-732-8.
  • Work after globalization: building occupational citizenship. Cheltenham, UK Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar. 2009. ISBN 978-1-84844-778-3.
  • Standing, Guy; Jhabvala, Renana; Unni, Jeemol; Rani, Uma (2010). Social income and insecurity: a study in Gujarat. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-58574-3.
  • The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Pelican Books. 2011. ISBN 978-1474294164.
  • The Precariat. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2011. ISBN 978-1-84966-455-4.
  • A Precariat Charter: from denizens to citizens. London New York: Bloomsbury Academic. 2014. ISBN 978-1-4725-1039-6.
  • Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India (with S. Davala, R. Jhabvala and S. Kapoor Mehta. London and New Delhi: Bloomsbury Academic. 2015. ISBN 978-1-4725-8310-9.
  • The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay. London: Biteback. 2016. ISBN 978-1-78590-044-0.
  • Basic income: and how we can make it happen. London: Pelican/Penguin (A Pelican Introduction). 2017. ISBN 978-0-14-198549-7.
  • Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth. London: Penguin Books Limited. 2019. ISBN 9780241396339.
  • Battling Eight Giants: Basic Income Now. London: I.B. Tauris. 2020. ISBN 9780755600663.
  • The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class - Special Covid-19 Edition. London: Bloomsbury Publishing (published 15 July 2021). 2021. ISBN 9780755637096.
  • The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea. London: Pelican Books. 2022. ISBN 978-0-24-147-58-74.
  • The Politics of Time: Gaining Control in the Age of Uncertainty. London: Penguin Books Limited (published 26 October 2023). 2023. ISBN 9780241475935.
  • Human Capital: The Tragedy of the Education Commons. London: Penguin Books Limited. 2026. ISBN 9780241688199.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Standing, Guy". Library of Congress. Retrieved 4 July 2014. found: His Population mobility and productive relations, 1984: CIP t.p. (Guy Standing) data sheet (b. 2/9/48)
  2. ↑ Swift, Jamie; Power, Elaine M. (2021). The Case for Basic Income: Freedom, Security, Justice. Toronto: Between the Lines. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-77113-548-1. The world's most prominent Basic Income promotor is an animated English economist who grew up playing in Greenwich bomb sites downriver from London. The scars of war festered beyond urban streetscapes. When Guy Standing born in 1948,[...]
  3. ↑ Arancibia, Mercedes (22 March 2017). "«Precariado»: la nueva clase social". Periodistas en Español (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  4. ↑ Office, International Labour (2004). Economic Security for a Better World. International Labor Office. Geneva: International Labour Office. ISBN 978-92-2-115611-6.
  5. 1 2 3 Colson, Thomas. "The economist behind Universal Basic Income: Give all citizens UBI to help combat a 'neofascist wave of populism'". Business Insider. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  6. ↑ Caputo, Richard K., ed. (2012). Basic Income Guarantee and Politics: International Experiences and Perspectives on the Viability of Income Guarantee. Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-137-04530-0.
  7. ↑ Gill, Flora; Charlton, Andrew (2023). Work and social justice: rethinking Labour in society and the economy. Bristol: Policy Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-4473-6995-0.
  8. 1 2 3 magda (24 January 2024). "Guy Standing: "To be in the precariat is like running on sinking sand"". ETERON. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  9. ↑ Jourdan, Stanislas (1 October 2012). "Le précariat : « Une classe sociale en devenir »". Basta! (in French). Retrieved 1 May 2026.
  10. 1 2 "Professor Guy Standing | Staff | SOAS University of London". www.soas.ac.uk. SOAS University of London Department of Development Studies. Archived from the original on 17 March 2025. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  11. ↑ Perrigo, Billy (30 January 2019). "India's Main Opposition Party Is Promising a Basic Income for the Poor. Can It Work?". TIME.
  12. ↑ "Precariat | Political Science | Research Starters | EBSCO Research". EBSCO. Retrieved 6 May 2026.
  13. ↑ Boyle, David (2013). Broke: Who Killed the Middle Classes?. London: Fourth Estate. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-00-749104-9.
  14. ↑ Quart, Alissa (2018). Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America. New York: Ecco, An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-06-241227-0.
  15. 1 2 Focardi, Giulio; Salati, Lorenza, eds. (2019). Co-Manufacturing and New Economic Paradigms. Advances in finance, accounting, and economics (AFAE) book series. Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-5225-7090-5.
  16. ↑ Elliott, Larry (4 September 2016). "G20: is it time to go back to the future, before globalisation?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  17. ↑ Smoczyński, Wawrzyniec (15 September 2011). "Youthful members of the full-time precariat". Vox Europ | Polityka | Economy | Social Issues | Economic Crisis. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  18. ↑ Crocker, Geoff. "The Economic Necessity of Basic Income". Archived from the original on 24 July 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  19. ↑ "Better ways to boost eurozone economy and employment". Financial Times. 26 March 2015.
  20. ↑ Martin, Josh (10 July 2020). "Massive Attack debut stunning audio-visual EP 'Eutopia'". NME. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  21. ↑ Sacher, Andrew. "Massive Attack take on the state of the world with new EP ft. Algiers, Saul Williams, Young Fathers". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  22. ↑ "Universal basic income: Wales' trial 'should include everyone'". www.bbc.com. 26 July 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2026.
  23. 1 2 3 Alex GoldmanPJ Vogt (12 May 2022). "#188 Into the Depths". Reply All (Podcast). Gimlet Media. Event occurs at 26:53-40:04.
  24. ↑ Lindbergh, Ben (15 January 2021). "The Fight to Win the Pettiest Edit Wars on Wikipedia". The Ringer. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  25. ↑ Scotland, The Reviews Hub- (8 August 2026). "Edinburgh Fringe 2026: Depths of Wikipedia, Cowbarn at Underbelly Bristo Square, Edinburgh". The Reviews Hub. Retrieved 7 September 2026.
  26. 1 2 Mandell, Jonathan (28 August 2026). "Edinburgh Fringe Reviews: My 5-Play Day at Underbelly, from Wikipedia to Linus Karp". New York Theater. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
  27. ↑ "The Labour party stands at a crossroads". The Guardian. 14 August 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  28. ↑ "The big issue: Labour's manifesto proposals could be just what the economy needs". The Guardian. 3 June 2017. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  29. ↑ "The UK's failing economic model demands such bold ideas". Financial Times. 6 September 2019. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  30. 1 2 Presenter: Elenanor Hall (9 February 2012). "The World Today: The dangers of the rising global protest movement (interview with Guy Standing)". ABC News. Sydney. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  31. ↑ Forrester, Katrina (26 October 2016). "The Corruption of Capitalism by Guy Standing review – work matters less than what you own". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  32. 1 2 "Basic income of £48 a week in UK urged". 7 May 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  33. ↑ Anthony, Andrew (19 August 2019). "Plunder of the Commons by Guy Standing review – how to take back our shared wealth". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  34. ↑ Kang, Hyun-kyung (13 August 2021). "[INTERVIEW] UK economist calls for redirecting capitalism to make it more inclusive". koreatimes. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  35. ↑ "Fellows". Academy of Social Sciences. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  36. ↑ "CONFERMENT OF NEW ACADEMICIANS" (PDF) (Press release). Academy of Social Sciences. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2010. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  37. ↑ "Professor Guy Standing". hass.uq.edu.au. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2026.
  38. ↑ "Guy Standing - mέta". 11 October 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2026.
  39. ↑ Pendleton, Andrew. "Imagining a new social contract". New Economics Foundation. Retrieved 6 May 2026.

Primary sources

In the text, these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. 1 2 Standing, Guy Maxwell (1978). Labour Force Participation and Underdevelopment with Special Reference to Female Economic Activity (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Standing, Guy. "Career". Guy Standing. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  3. ↑ Standing, Guy; Bonnet, Florence; Figueiredo, José B. (June 2003). "A family of decent work indexes". International Labour Review. 142 (2): 213–238. doi:10.1111/j.1564-913X.2003.tb00259.x.
  4. ↑ Standing, Guy (19 August 2012). "Britain's labour figures hide the real hours we work every day". The Guardian | Comment is free. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Standing, Guy (27 January 2012). "The precariat: why it needs deliberative democracy". OpenDemocracy. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "Speeches". Guy Standing. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  7. ↑ Why the precariat requires a basic income (Prof. Guy Standing) (ENG) on YouTube Conference in Ljubljana. BKTVkanal (3 November 2012). Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  8. ↑ Standing, Guy (18 December 2014). "Basic income paid to the poor can transform lives". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Standing, Guy (1 June 2011). "Who will be a voice for the emerging precariat?". The Guardian | Comment is free. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  10. ↑ "Résumé". Guy Standing. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
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