Distribution and Disruption

Iris Marion Young accuses theories of justice within the distributive paradigm of attending exclusively to the question of the "morally proper distribution of benefits and burdens among society's members". This comes at the cost of a deeper analysis of politics, detracting from the workings of power that structure the relations and processes that are the causes and sites of injustice. I argue that UBI both develops Young's criticisms and corrects for her hasty dismissal of the power generated by the (specifically unconditional) holding of resources. By developing an alternative account of resistance that builds on Young's social ontology we are able both to deepen our understanding of resistance and position UBI as an aspect of it. This helps fill out and expand on other defences of UBI that appeal to its capacity to facilitate refusals of various kind.