Project

Basic income and value orientations

Period: 2007 – 2009

Funding: Foundation “A valuable future” (German: Stiftung Wertvolle Zukunft)
Project management: Prof. Dr. Michael Opielka
Employees: Dipl. Soz. Arb./Soz. Pediatrics Matthias Müller, Mag. Sociology, Dipl.-Pol. Tim Bendixen, Dr Jesco Kreft
Publications: Michael Opielka / Matthias Müller / Tim Bendixen, Jesco Kreft, Basic Income and Value Orientation. An empirical analysis. Wiesbaden: VS Publishing House for Social Sciences 2009 (2nd edition: March 2010); Matthias Müller / Michael Opielka, The Values of the Basic Income. A qualitative analysis of group discussions, in: Manuel Franzmann (eds.), Unconditional Basic Income as a Response to the Crisis of the Working Company, Weilerswist: Velbrück Science 2010, 267-305.

The aim of this study was the qualitative interpretation pattern analysis of value orientations to a basic income in Germany. The underlying research project consisted of three elements:

  • A text-analytic reconstruction of interpretive models in current documents of German social policy literature;
  • A series of 13 expert interviews with senior executives and
  • Three group analytic settings with persons from the middle management level from business (collective bargaining), politics and social work at exemplary locations (Hamburg, Berlin, Erfurt).

Under the direction of Michael Opielka, Matthias Müller, Jesco Kreft and Tim Bendixen conducted the empirical surveys, evaluated them and prepared the final report. The aim of this scientific study was to gain an insight into the interpretations of economic and political ethics in relation to the idea of a basic income in persons who shape the image of opinion in Germany in the near future.