ABSTRACT
Members of the European association for research on citizen’s income, Basic Income European Network refer to Juan Luis Vives, Mayor of Bruges in 1526, as the first to have formulated notions of providing a guaranteed income for all citizens. The Danish debate of the 1990s around the subject showed that the political discourses both for and against a citizen’s income drew on scientific paradigms. The prime objective was to build a political alliance around the issue between the trade union movement, the Social Democratic Party, and the Socialist People’s Party. For all citizen’s-income theorists, development of the concept involves endeavours to establish a new language, including new metaphors distinct from those of the dominant scientific paradigms and political discourses. The idea of a citizen’s income had taken material root in a social movement which sought to place the issue on the political agenda.
