Roadmaps for Tomorrow: How to Improve Social Justice, Equity and Mobility

Can basic income help even out inequality by empowering the less privileged? How should education be overhauled and what skills will become central to the human capital of tomorrow? Is Life-long Learning in fact set to spark a greater momentum for social mobility? Dr. Isak Froumin, Head of the HSE Institute of Education, and Dr. Philippe Van Parijs, a co-founder of the Basic Income European Network, addressed these and other topics of building a sustainable, better future for everyone during a special session held as part of this year’s ‘OSTROV 10–21’ international foresight forum in Vladivostok, Russia.

Conceptions about how various technological and social dimensions of tomorrow should be best designed are becoming increasingly diverse today, as racing for sustainable future has switched into top gear with the progressive transition to the World of VUCA – the one of increased volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

Advances in science and technology have gained an unprecedented pace prompting socio-economic transitions that are ubiquitous and truly disruptive in nature. Globalization and industry automation have been intensifying and the modern economy has come to give more emphasis to higher-skilled non-routine labor, with the social and income status getting more starkly polarized across population groups. Confronted with the immensely complex modernity, more people today are falling behind the developments in knowledge and the economy on the whole, which poses increased threats of entire cohorts being pushed by the wayside as they get out of sync with the fast-changing world.   

Is the model of basic income fit to improve social justice by better empowering the less privileged in society? Also, how is the idea of basic income related to the right to work and the imperative for everyone to exercise effective labor? Education has become much more of a mass public good over the past decades, but has it been able to better cope with its own sub-systemic inequalities and contribute more to social equity? How should education be overhauled to prepare future-ready human capital, and what skill sets will become decisive for one’s lasting success in the world of tomorrow? Is Life-long Learning in fact key to sparking a greater momentum for social mobility?       

Watch this video of Dr. Isak Froumin, Head of the HSE Institute of Education, and Dr. Philippe Van Parijs, a co-founder of the Basic Income European Network, discussing these and other questions central to building a sustainable, better future for everyone during a special session held as part of this year’s ‘OSTROV 10–21’ international foresight forum in Vladivostok, Russia.