Defending the Wage: Visions of Work and Distribution in Namibia

Can those who cannot access wage labour imagine alternatives to it? Drawing on in-depth interviews with the long-term unemployed in rural Namibia, this chapter explores perceptions of work and redistributive policy proposals such as cash transfers and universal basic income (UBI). The chapter shows that even at the site of the 2008-9 basic income pilot in Namibia, the long-term unemployed continue to see wage work or entrepreneurship as a ‘proper’ source of income, as well as the basis for social, psychological and physical wellbeing. I argue that in thinking beyond the wage, both theorists and policy makers must consider not only income security but also alternative sources of meaning, absorption and social embeddedness in order to forge a new social, political and economic imaginary that lies beyond the confines of wage labour.