Dr Louise Haagh

Louise Haagh researches and writes about problems relating to the democratisation of human development, economic justice, modalities of institutional change, and social transformation. Louise advocates the concept of ‘basic income’ – a concept where all citizens or residents of a country receive a regular, unconditional sum of money, either from a government or some other public institution.

Louise obtained her doctorate in Politics from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and held a British Academy Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at St. Antony’s from 1998 till 2001. In 2001 she took up a lectureship at the Politics Department of the University of York where she is now a Reader.

Louise has conducted a series of surveys on the function of developmental institutions and sources of human motivation in the context of different welfare systems. Her work on basic income has featured in a range of public fora and media. In 2016 she was the key-note speaker at a public debate held in the Danish parliament on basic income, and in 2017 witness to an inquiry into the subject held by the Work and Pensions Committee of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

Since 2014 she has been the co-chair elect of the international registered charity, Basic Income Earth Network.

Louise has been a visiting fellow at a series of research institutes and universities internationally, including Cornell University (USA), Yonsei University (South Korea), and the Brazil Centre at Oxford University.