In Context
-
Harris Community Action Study Suggests Ciclovía Could Bring Economic, Health, Social Benefits to Chicago
•
Siobhan McDonough, Noah Berman, and Eliana Fram contributed to this piece. A Harris Community Action team, in coordination with the Chicago non-profit Equiticity, found evidence that implementing an open streets program similar to Bogota’s ciclovía could effectively encourage social integration, build healthy habits, and boost local businesses. Harris Community Action…
-
Remote Learning and the Widening K-12 Achievement Gap
•
As we pass the anniversary of the first round of lockdowns, Americans are longing for a return to normalcy. With COVID-19 numbers decreasing due to increased testing and vaccine distribution, schools nationwide have begun the process of returning teachers and students to the classroom. Many schools have returned to a hybrid model of teaching,…
-
Executive Underreach in the Response to COVID-19
•
Here we are, over one year later: trapped inside as news of daily deaths keeps breaching the barricade around our isolated lives. How did it come to this? As we mourn COVID-19’s first anniversary, the history of this pandemic continues to be written, and most believe it is a tale…
-
COVID-19 Halted Medicaid Work Requirements. Should They Come Back?
•
In 2018, the Trump administration announced a new policy allowing states to require certain Medicaid enrollees to do a minimum number of “community engagement” hours in order to keep their coverage. These policies, often called work requirements, differ from state to state. They usually dictate that “able-bodied” Medicaid beneficiaries in…
-
How AI is Changing Human Communication
•
In 2013, the science-fiction drama Her questioned whether communication with artificial intelligence could be indistinguishable from communication with humans. While this day is yet to come, AI is increasingly facilitating human-to-human communication. This phenomenon is AI-Mediated Communication (AI-MC), which Jeffrey T. Hancock, Mor Naaman, and Karen Levy define in their recent paper as…
-
High-Hanging Fruit: How Governments Can Respond to High Food Prices
•
On January 31, the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) released its latest food price index report, showing that food prices have trended upward since July 2020. The primary agricultural commodities — soybeans, wheat, and other cereals, corn, rice, and meat — are trading at the highest levels in a decade. The…
-
Centering Equity in Urban COVID-19 Recovery
•
Even before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, socioeconomic inequality plagued cities across the globe. The pandemic itself has both deepened those existing wounds and ripped open new ones. In the United States, neighborhoods predominantly inhabited by people of color have experienced the highest rates of both infections and deaths,…
-
The Utility of Internet Access
•
The coronavirus pandemic has proven to be the great amplifier of existing inequities in internet access across communities in the United States, driven by the need for both access and affordability. According to the Boston Consulting Group and Common Sense Media, since the pandemic began, the number of public school…
-
Could Global Warming Increase Racial Disparities in Student Achievement?
•
While much of global warming research focuses on the natural world — considering how climate change impacts ecosystems, agriculture, and biodiversity — a new wave of research studies how climate change will reshape the social and economic world. In this emerging field, a novel study suggests that global warming may…
-
Full Disclosure: Financial Profiteering in Congress
•
While the threat of the pandemic loomed, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) was busy stuffing his personal coffers. On Feb. 13, just one day after he was briefed on the severity of COVID-19, Sen. Burr sold over a million dollars in stocks. One week later, the market crashed. Even some of…
-
How COVID-19 Could Reshape International Security Policy
•
After the end of World War II, a network of international organizations was created to deal with what they determined at that time to be the biggest threats to global political stability. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949 as a means to protect member states from…