The objective of the article is to clarify the foundations of the proposal for basic income as primary income. This proposal is based on a reexamination of the productive labour notion in the cognitive capitalism. We first position basic income as a tool for labour emancipation of the rentier logic of cognitive capitalism. It implies the analysis of the concept of cognitive capitalism and of the labour force status. Basic income appears like a means for reinforcing the process of the re-socialization of the economy, which was formed after WWII with the development of the modern social protection system. In a second time, we analyze the transformations of the new social organization of labour in cognitive capitalism. It allows us to precise ...