Articles by Johanna Perkiö
Journal of Social Policy, 2023
Social policy developed as a research field and academic discipline to ensure protection from soc... more Social policy developed as a research field and academic discipline to ensure protection from social risks in the era of emerging capitalism and industrialization. While welfare states have successfully increased their citizens' wellbeing, they have also contributed to the ecological crisis, while the shared scientific understanding of exceeded planetary boundaries and worsening climate change scenarios has not (yet) reshaped mainstream social policy research. In this article, we suggest that the established traditions in social policy research can nevertheless provide a solid ground for responding to the climate emergency and facilitating the sustainable transformation of society and the economy. With a focus on four of the research fields that are central in social policy scholarshiprisks, citizenship, welfare regimes, and wellbeingwe develop an ecosocial research agenda. By discussing the classic and climate-adjusted understandings of these fields, we open future pathways for social policy research and invite scholars to engage with our proposed research agenda.
Yhteiskuntapolitiikka, 2022
Yhteiskuntien kestävyysmurros vaatii sosiaalipolitiikan uudelleenajattelua. Perustuloa on esitett... more Yhteiskuntien kestävyysmurros vaatii sosiaalipolitiikan uudelleenajattelua. Perustuloa on esitetty yhdeksi ekologisia ja sosiaalisia tavoitteita yhdistävän ekososiaalisen politiikan keinoksi. Tarkastelen kirjallisuuskatsauksen pohjalta sitä, millaisena politiikkaideana perustulo näyttäytyy ekososiaalisen politiikan viitekehyksessä. Aineistonani on 14 vuosina 2010–2020 julkaistua tieteellistä artikkelia, joiden pääaihe on perustulo ekologisen kestävyyden näkökulmasta. Analyysissä kiinnitän huomiota siihen 1) millaisia tavoitteita ekososiaaliselle perustulolle esitetään ja 2) miten nämä tavoitteet ajatellaan saavutettavan.
Tarkastelun perusteella ekososiaaliseen perustuloon liittyy piirteitä, jotka tekevät siitä jossain määrin erilaisen politiikkaidean kuin perustuloehdotukset, joissa kestävyystavoitteita ei huomioida. Ekososiaalista perustuloa määrittävät ekologisesti haitallisen työn vähentämisen ja ihmisten autonomian lisäämisen tavoitteet ja se liitetään yleisesti pyrkimyksiin irrottaa hyvinvointivaltion ylläpito talouskasvusta. Rahoituskeinoiksi esitetään ekologisia haittaveroja sekä taloudellista eriarvoisuutta tasaavia veroja. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen perusteella ekososiaalinen perustulo hahmottuu melko radikaalina politiikkaideana, joka muuttaisi olennaisesti hyvinvointivaltioiden toimintaperiaatteita. Aineistossa esiintyy kuitenkin myös maltillisempia osaratkaisuja, jotka voisivat toimia askelina ekososiaalisen perustulon suuntaan.
Torry, M. (ed.) The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income. Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham., 2019
Perkiö, Rincon and van Draanen contribute to the discussion of how Basic Income is communicated i... more Perkiö, Rincon and van Draanen contribute to the discussion of how Basic Income is communicated in public and political debates by seeking to understand how Basic Income is ‘framed’ in three national contexts where the issue has been widely debated. Drawing on an analysis of mainstream media discussion on Basic Income in Canada, Finland, and Spain, the chapter presents findings concerning the differences in the framing of Basic Income in the media on the one hand and in academic texts on the other. The chapter finds both similarities and striking differences in the media framing of Basic Income between the three countries.
Social Policy and Society, 2019
Finland is widely considered a frontrunner in the European basic income debate, primarily because... more Finland is widely considered a frontrunner in the European basic income debate, primarily because of the decision by Juha Sipila ̈’s centre-right coalition government to design and conduct the first national basic income experiment (2017–2018). The Finnish basic income experiment builds on several decades of public and policy debate around the merits and problems of basic income, with the framing of basic income over time changing to fit the shift of the Nordic welfare state to embrace the activation paradigm. Underlying this discursive layer, however, we find several discrete, relatively small and unintended institutional developments that have arguably aligned the design of Finnish unemployment security closer to a partial basic income scheme. While the latter may suggest Finland has important stepping stones in place, important stumbling blocks remain and the jury is very much out on whether Finland would be the first European country to fully institute a basic income.
Journal of Social Policy, 2019
Policy & Politics
The idea of universal and unconditional basic income is gaining increasing traction worldwide. Ye... more The idea of universal and unconditional basic income is gaining increasing traction worldwide. Yet the proposal of unconditional cash seems to run counter to some key normative assumptions in society. This article contributes to an understanding of the political feasibility of basic income from the perspective of framing strategies to legitimise the policy. It examines a framing commonly used by Finnish parties and politicians advocating basic income, that emphasised basic income’s capacity to boost activity and labour market participation. The article finds that basic income was often defended with framing that appealed to activity as a value, and that this framing was most actively pushed by the Greens, and adopted by other parties during the upturns of the debate. The article provides an insight into a strategy of legitimising a politically controversial idea by framing it in a normatively and ideologically resonant way.
In this article, we explore the prospects of Basic Income (BI) as a development policy tool. Our ... more In this article, we explore the prospects of Basic Income (BI) as a development policy tool. Our approach is to analyse the BI as a tool for promoting micro-investments and as a general development policy instrument, thus deliberately departing from the perception of cash transfers as targeted poverty reduction tools. As experiences in testing BI systems in developing country contexts are limited to local and regional experiments in Namibia and India (Haarmann et al., 2009; Haarmann & Haarmann, 2012; Davala et al., 2015), conclusive assessments about the impacts of the BI cannot be drawn. Therefore, we aim to estimate potential impacts of the BI by synthesising existing knowledge. This estimation will not be quantitative, but rather show likely outcomes of a BI scheme. We will complement existing knowledge by exploring cognate cash transfer policies and other experiences that bear similarity to the BI.
Basic Income Studies, 2014
This article draws on innovation and agenda-setting theories to identify critical points in the r... more This article draws on innovation and agenda-setting theories to identify critical points in the realization of basic income in Finland. Our empirical data comprise 13 models of either unconditional basic income or social security reform proposals with some similarity to basic income. The models examined were published in Finland between 1984 and 2011. Using these data, we build a conceptual framework that enables us to discuss the role of the content, players, political and macro-economic context, and public interpretations in the successes and failures of the basic income initiatives.
Thesis Chapters by Johanna Perkiö
Tampere University Dissertations, 2021
This thesis employs an ideational institutionalist perspective to examine the debate on basic inc... more This thesis employs an ideational institutionalist perspective to examine the debate on basic income in Finnish politics. Basic income is an income transfer paid universally and unconditionally at regular intervals to every individual member of a political community. The idea of basic income has been discussed in Finnish politics for four decades as a proposal to reform the minimum social protection system. This dissertation draws on political documents in which the basic income proposal is discussed to examine the evolution of the idea in the Finnish political discourse and the attempts to place the proposal on the political agenda.
The basic income idea is attracting growing global scholarly and political attention. This attention stems from concerns about the increasing inequality and precarization, and from the need to restructure societies on more ecological bases. However, the political conditions for implementing new path-departing policies such as basic income are less well-known. A growing number of studies have focused on institutional and political constraints on basic income. However, most studies have paid only marginal attention to the role of ideational factors – such as political ideologies or policy paradigms, values, beliefs or moral sentiments, and political discourses and frames – as determinants of the political feasibility of basic income.
The present study sheds light on the ideational dimension of the political feasibility of basic income. Examining the role of framing and the proposed policy design in the Finnish political basic income debate, the study demonstrates how integrating an ideational perspective into the analysis enables a more nuanced understanding of the political challenges related to basic income. A systematic empirical analysis of the content of the basic income debate and the specific proposals put forward by its proponents helps clarify the roles of different political actors in the debate on basic income. Furthermore, this analysis enables the identification of constraints on the policy that relate to cognitive and normative categories through which we understand society.
The study of the political documents discussing basic income covers the period 1980-2018 and provides a comprehensive overview of the context-specific features of the basic income debate in Finnish politics.
The study finds that the rationale of the basic income proposal evolved over time alongside ideological shifts in Finnish politics and to incorporate new issues that appeared on the political agenda. The early period of the debate was characterized by a variety of concepts, proposals, and frames used in communicating proposals. Justification for the early proposals was based on social rights and egalitarian principles, and the discussion often evoked visionary ideas for the future. The study observed a radical shift in the rationale of the basic income debate in the aftermath of the economic crisis of the early 1990s. The crisis dramatically changed the political climate in Finland. The basic income proposal was reframed as compatible with the emerging labor activation paradigm and the new era of financial austerity of the welfare state. Over time, the framing of basic income narrowed to emphasize pragmatic labor market-related aspects of the policy. The frames that evoked alternative visions of the future or challenged the status quo were rarely used in the latter part of the debate.
The study shows that political actors played different roles in shaping the collective understanding of basic income. Individual actors played a role in putting the proposal on parties’ agendas and bringing it up in parliamentary debates. The Green Party was a key player in keeping the basic income proposal alive during the periods of silence in the general discussion and in communicating the proposal in a way that made it acceptable to a wide range of political actors. The other supportive parties – the Left Alliance, the Centre Party, and two small liberal parties in the 1990s – placed more emphasis on their own ideological perspectives on basic income. However, the study also finds that the most frequent frames used in communicating the proposal were widely shared among the parties, which suggests that there are no strong ideological conflicts among the Finnish parties endorsing basic income in terms of the key aims of the policy.
The study observes that the framing that portrayed basic income as a moderate reform in line with the mainstream economic rationales and the deep-rooted normative values in society was widely resonant among the Finnish parties. This framing particularly emphasized the activation potential of basic income. Toward the end of the examined period, the basic income proposal was increasingly discussed in the framework of the activation paradigm. This framing narrowed the communication on the policy to the technical issues concerning welfare bureaucracy and work incentives and did not enable alternative diagnoses on the nature of societal problems or a more principled discussion of a good society.
The study illustrates the difficulties of translating a new transformative policy alternative into the language of everyday policymaking. The established categories of understanding the nature of the social problems constrained the communication on basic income, a policy that would fundamentally shift the logic of providing welfare. A moderate framing in line with the prevailing paradigm of welfare helped win positive attention for the policy among mainstream political actors, but it did not provide a robust justification for an unconditional benefit. The findings of the study underline the importance of empirically studying ideational processes to develop a fuller understanding of the prospects of new policies, such as basic income.
DOWNLOAD THE THESIS HERE: https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/130360
Papers by Johanna Perkiö
Tampere University, 2021
This article draws on innovation and agenda-setting theories to identify critical points in the r... more This article draws on innovation and agenda-setting theories to identify critical points in the realization of basic income in Finland. Our empirical data comprise 13 models of either unconditional basic income or social security reform proposals with some similarity to basic income. The models examined were published in Finland between 1984 and 2011. Using these data, we build a conceptual framework that enables us to discuss the role of the content, players, political and macroeconomic context, and public interpretations in the successes and failures of the basic income initiatives.
The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), Joint Sesssions, May 27, 2021
Sosiaaliturvan laajamittaisempi uudistaminen on ollut Suomessa useiden eri hallitusten agendalla.... more Sosiaaliturvan laajamittaisempi uudistaminen on ollut Suomessa useiden eri hallitusten agendalla. Lähihistorian vakavin yritys saada aikaan kokonaisvaltaisempi uudistus oli vuosina 2007–2009 toiminut Sata-komitea, joka ei lopulta pystynyt vastaamaan siihen kohdistettuihin suuriin odotuksiin. Juha Sipilän vuonna 2015 aloittanut hallitus puolestaan kirjasi ohjelmaansa lyhyen, mutta paljon kansallista ja kansainvälistä huomiota saaneen virkkeen: ”Toteutetaan perustulokokeilu.” Viime vuosina on tehty useita toisistaan poikkeavia ehdotuksia vähimmäistoimeentuloturvan uudistamisesta. Vihreät (2007/2014) ja vasemmistoliitto (2011) ovat jo pitkään ajaneet perustulomallejaan. Jossain määrin perustulon elementtejä sisältävät myös Osmo Soininvaaran ja Juhana Vartiaisen (2013) valtioneuvoston kanslialle tekemä selvitys matalapalkkatyön tukemisesta tulonsiirroilla, ajatuspaja Liberan (2013) ehdotus lainamuotoisesta sosiaaliturvatilistä sekä uusimpina kristillisdemokraattien (2015) kannustava per...
The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income, 2019
Perkio, Rincon and van Draanen contribute to the discussion of how Basic Income is communicated i... more Perkio, Rincon and van Draanen contribute to the discussion of how Basic Income is communicated in public and political debates by seeking to understand how Basic Income is ‘framed’ in three national contexts where the issue has been widely debated. Drawing on an analysis of mainstream media discussion on Basic Income in Canada, Finland, and Spain, the chapter presents findings concerning the differences in the framing of Basic Income in the media on the one hand and in academic texts on the other. The chapter finds both similarities and striking differences in the media framing of Basic Income between the three countries.
The Politics of Ecosocialism, 2015
In recent years, social protection has risen high on the international policy agenda. It is becom... more In recent years, social protection has risen high on the international policy agenda. It is becom-ing increasingly acknowledged that economic growth and conventional development policy measures alone are insuficient to combat pover-ty as far as the unjust economic structures remain in place. Deepening inequality and slowly growing em -ployment rates
Journal of Social Policy
Social policy developed as a research field and academic discipline to ensure protection from soc... more Social policy developed as a research field and academic discipline to ensure protection from social risks in the era of emerging capitalism and industrialization. While welfare states have successfully increased their citizens’ wellbeing, they have also contributed to the ecological crisis, while the shared scientific understanding of exceeded planetary boundaries and worsening climate change scenarios has not (yet) reshaped mainstream social policy research. In this article, we suggest that the established traditions in social policy research can nevertheless provide a solid ground for responding to the climate emergency and facilitating the sustainable transformation of society and the economy. With a focus on four of the research fields that are central in social policy scholarship – risks, citizenship, welfare regimes, and wellbeing – we develop an ecosocial research agenda. By discussing the classic and climate-adjusted understandings of these fields, we open future pathways f...
Työpapereita-sarjan julkaisut ovat keskustelun avauksia tai alustavia tutkimusraportteja.
Uploads
Articles by Johanna Perkiö
Tarkastelun perusteella ekososiaaliseen perustuloon liittyy piirteitä, jotka tekevät siitä jossain määrin erilaisen politiikkaidean kuin perustuloehdotukset, joissa kestävyystavoitteita ei huomioida. Ekososiaalista perustuloa määrittävät ekologisesti haitallisen työn vähentämisen ja ihmisten autonomian lisäämisen tavoitteet ja se liitetään yleisesti pyrkimyksiin irrottaa hyvinvointivaltion ylläpito talouskasvusta. Rahoituskeinoiksi esitetään ekologisia haittaveroja sekä taloudellista eriarvoisuutta tasaavia veroja. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen perusteella ekososiaalinen perustulo hahmottuu melko radikaalina politiikkaideana, joka muuttaisi olennaisesti hyvinvointivaltioiden toimintaperiaatteita. Aineistossa esiintyy kuitenkin myös maltillisempia osaratkaisuja, jotka voisivat toimia askelina ekososiaalisen perustulon suuntaan.
Key findings briefly in this blogpost: https://socialpolicyblog.com/2019/05/14/basic-income-in-finland-how-did-a-radical-idea-become-mainstream/?fbclid=IwAR2NuGisbnBpzr5wLRrzrVBd0JqNdzmNcaY9RlFj1RMdyu9uRRbziXgAxeY
Thesis Chapters by Johanna Perkiö
The basic income idea is attracting growing global scholarly and political attention. This attention stems from concerns about the increasing inequality and precarization, and from the need to restructure societies on more ecological bases. However, the political conditions for implementing new path-departing policies such as basic income are less well-known. A growing number of studies have focused on institutional and political constraints on basic income. However, most studies have paid only marginal attention to the role of ideational factors – such as political ideologies or policy paradigms, values, beliefs or moral sentiments, and political discourses and frames – as determinants of the political feasibility of basic income.
The present study sheds light on the ideational dimension of the political feasibility of basic income. Examining the role of framing and the proposed policy design in the Finnish political basic income debate, the study demonstrates how integrating an ideational perspective into the analysis enables a more nuanced understanding of the political challenges related to basic income. A systematic empirical analysis of the content of the basic income debate and the specific proposals put forward by its proponents helps clarify the roles of different political actors in the debate on basic income. Furthermore, this analysis enables the identification of constraints on the policy that relate to cognitive and normative categories through which we understand society.
The study of the political documents discussing basic income covers the period 1980-2018 and provides a comprehensive overview of the context-specific features of the basic income debate in Finnish politics.
The study finds that the rationale of the basic income proposal evolved over time alongside ideological shifts in Finnish politics and to incorporate new issues that appeared on the political agenda. The early period of the debate was characterized by a variety of concepts, proposals, and frames used in communicating proposals. Justification for the early proposals was based on social rights and egalitarian principles, and the discussion often evoked visionary ideas for the future. The study observed a radical shift in the rationale of the basic income debate in the aftermath of the economic crisis of the early 1990s. The crisis dramatically changed the political climate in Finland. The basic income proposal was reframed as compatible with the emerging labor activation paradigm and the new era of financial austerity of the welfare state. Over time, the framing of basic income narrowed to emphasize pragmatic labor market-related aspects of the policy. The frames that evoked alternative visions of the future or challenged the status quo were rarely used in the latter part of the debate.
The study shows that political actors played different roles in shaping the collective understanding of basic income. Individual actors played a role in putting the proposal on parties’ agendas and bringing it up in parliamentary debates. The Green Party was a key player in keeping the basic income proposal alive during the periods of silence in the general discussion and in communicating the proposal in a way that made it acceptable to a wide range of political actors. The other supportive parties – the Left Alliance, the Centre Party, and two small liberal parties in the 1990s – placed more emphasis on their own ideological perspectives on basic income. However, the study also finds that the most frequent frames used in communicating the proposal were widely shared among the parties, which suggests that there are no strong ideological conflicts among the Finnish parties endorsing basic income in terms of the key aims of the policy.
The study observes that the framing that portrayed basic income as a moderate reform in line with the mainstream economic rationales and the deep-rooted normative values in society was widely resonant among the Finnish parties. This framing particularly emphasized the activation potential of basic income. Toward the end of the examined period, the basic income proposal was increasingly discussed in the framework of the activation paradigm. This framing narrowed the communication on the policy to the technical issues concerning welfare bureaucracy and work incentives and did not enable alternative diagnoses on the nature of societal problems or a more principled discussion of a good society.
The study illustrates the difficulties of translating a new transformative policy alternative into the language of everyday policymaking. The established categories of understanding the nature of the social problems constrained the communication on basic income, a policy that would fundamentally shift the logic of providing welfare. A moderate framing in line with the prevailing paradigm of welfare helped win positive attention for the policy among mainstream political actors, but it did not provide a robust justification for an unconditional benefit. The findings of the study underline the importance of empirically studying ideational processes to develop a fuller understanding of the prospects of new policies, such as basic income.
DOWNLOAD THE THESIS HERE: https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/130360
Papers by Johanna Perkiö
Tarkastelun perusteella ekososiaaliseen perustuloon liittyy piirteitä, jotka tekevät siitä jossain määrin erilaisen politiikkaidean kuin perustuloehdotukset, joissa kestävyystavoitteita ei huomioida. Ekososiaalista perustuloa määrittävät ekologisesti haitallisen työn vähentämisen ja ihmisten autonomian lisäämisen tavoitteet ja se liitetään yleisesti pyrkimyksiin irrottaa hyvinvointivaltion ylläpito talouskasvusta. Rahoituskeinoiksi esitetään ekologisia haittaveroja sekä taloudellista eriarvoisuutta tasaavia veroja. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen perusteella ekososiaalinen perustulo hahmottuu melko radikaalina politiikkaideana, joka muuttaisi olennaisesti hyvinvointivaltioiden toimintaperiaatteita. Aineistossa esiintyy kuitenkin myös maltillisempia osaratkaisuja, jotka voisivat toimia askelina ekososiaalisen perustulon suuntaan.
Key findings briefly in this blogpost: https://socialpolicyblog.com/2019/05/14/basic-income-in-finland-how-did-a-radical-idea-become-mainstream/?fbclid=IwAR2NuGisbnBpzr5wLRrzrVBd0JqNdzmNcaY9RlFj1RMdyu9uRRbziXgAxeY
The basic income idea is attracting growing global scholarly and political attention. This attention stems from concerns about the increasing inequality and precarization, and from the need to restructure societies on more ecological bases. However, the political conditions for implementing new path-departing policies such as basic income are less well-known. A growing number of studies have focused on institutional and political constraints on basic income. However, most studies have paid only marginal attention to the role of ideational factors – such as political ideologies or policy paradigms, values, beliefs or moral sentiments, and political discourses and frames – as determinants of the political feasibility of basic income.
The present study sheds light on the ideational dimension of the political feasibility of basic income. Examining the role of framing and the proposed policy design in the Finnish political basic income debate, the study demonstrates how integrating an ideational perspective into the analysis enables a more nuanced understanding of the political challenges related to basic income. A systematic empirical analysis of the content of the basic income debate and the specific proposals put forward by its proponents helps clarify the roles of different political actors in the debate on basic income. Furthermore, this analysis enables the identification of constraints on the policy that relate to cognitive and normative categories through which we understand society.
The study of the political documents discussing basic income covers the period 1980-2018 and provides a comprehensive overview of the context-specific features of the basic income debate in Finnish politics.
The study finds that the rationale of the basic income proposal evolved over time alongside ideological shifts in Finnish politics and to incorporate new issues that appeared on the political agenda. The early period of the debate was characterized by a variety of concepts, proposals, and frames used in communicating proposals. Justification for the early proposals was based on social rights and egalitarian principles, and the discussion often evoked visionary ideas for the future. The study observed a radical shift in the rationale of the basic income debate in the aftermath of the economic crisis of the early 1990s. The crisis dramatically changed the political climate in Finland. The basic income proposal was reframed as compatible with the emerging labor activation paradigm and the new era of financial austerity of the welfare state. Over time, the framing of basic income narrowed to emphasize pragmatic labor market-related aspects of the policy. The frames that evoked alternative visions of the future or challenged the status quo were rarely used in the latter part of the debate.
The study shows that political actors played different roles in shaping the collective understanding of basic income. Individual actors played a role in putting the proposal on parties’ agendas and bringing it up in parliamentary debates. The Green Party was a key player in keeping the basic income proposal alive during the periods of silence in the general discussion and in communicating the proposal in a way that made it acceptable to a wide range of political actors. The other supportive parties – the Left Alliance, the Centre Party, and two small liberal parties in the 1990s – placed more emphasis on their own ideological perspectives on basic income. However, the study also finds that the most frequent frames used in communicating the proposal were widely shared among the parties, which suggests that there are no strong ideological conflicts among the Finnish parties endorsing basic income in terms of the key aims of the policy.
The study observes that the framing that portrayed basic income as a moderate reform in line with the mainstream economic rationales and the deep-rooted normative values in society was widely resonant among the Finnish parties. This framing particularly emphasized the activation potential of basic income. Toward the end of the examined period, the basic income proposal was increasingly discussed in the framework of the activation paradigm. This framing narrowed the communication on the policy to the technical issues concerning welfare bureaucracy and work incentives and did not enable alternative diagnoses on the nature of societal problems or a more principled discussion of a good society.
The study illustrates the difficulties of translating a new transformative policy alternative into the language of everyday policymaking. The established categories of understanding the nature of the social problems constrained the communication on basic income, a policy that would fundamentally shift the logic of providing welfare. A moderate framing in line with the prevailing paradigm of welfare helped win positive attention for the policy among mainstream political actors, but it did not provide a robust justification for an unconditional benefit. The findings of the study underline the importance of empirically studying ideational processes to develop a fuller understanding of the prospects of new policies, such as basic income.
DOWNLOAD THE THESIS HERE: https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/130360