Task

1. Read a (pre-approved) news source on a daily basis, absorbing information and skimming articles that you think make thoughtful connections with course material. By the end of the week, hone in on one article that you think best relates to the ideas we’ve been studying in class that week. It does not matter what kind of article it is—it can be an opinion piece, an informational/reporting article, a book/film review, etcetera. The important things are: (a) that the article is from the past week’s paper (hence current); (b) some aspect of the article illustrates, in a different context, something we’ve been studying.
2. Write a post of approximately 200-250 words about your article and post it in the thread labeled 'Current Events: Week __' under the Discussions tab on Canvas. Your post must consist of two parts: (a) a full introduction of the article (e.g., full name of the author and title), a brief (2-3 sentence) summary of what the article is about, a brief identification of the article’s ‘genre’ and purpose (A book review? First-person narrative? An essay?), and a URL where others can find it; (b) your analysis/explanation as to the ways the article illustrates some of the ideas we are studying in class. The more detailed and tightly woven the connections, the better. The deadline for these posts are every Friday at 6pm.
3. By Monday at 4pm, you should read through your classmates’ posts, and write a 50-word ‘comment’ to a post that you find interesting in some way. You can offer agreement (with rationale), a different way of thinking about things, a question, something you understand better as a result of reading the post, an attempt to work through a difficult concept or idea jointly with your classmate, etc., but your comments should relate and refer back to the course material. You do not necessarily need to read the article your classmate wrote on, although it would make your responses stronger if you did. Please make a point of responding to a different classmate each week.

Example

You can format your post however you wish, as long as it is formatted clearly AND your summary is distinct from your commentary and analysis. Note that you need only choose ONE article and write an analysis/explanation of that article.

Articles

1. Cohen, Patricia. "Even in Better Times, Some Americans Seem Farther Behind. Here’s Why." 14 September 2018. This article reports on the consequences of the uneven economic recovery since the Recession following the 2007-08 financial crisis. Two recent studies by academics find that the demographic groups which have shouldered the most burden have been whites without a college degree and college-educated blacks and Hispanics. Social and economic inequality has further polarized politics.
2. Plumer, Brad. "California Had Its Own Climate Summit. Now What?" 15 September 2018. The author reports on the recent meeting of states, cities, and firms in California on making commitments to combating climate change. Local actions have sought to bypass the political impasses at the federal and international level where tensions seem to be the most intense. Despite the commitment by local cities and states in the U.S. and abroad, scientists quoted in the article urge for a more rapid transition to a sustainable model of economic growth.
3. Povoledo, Elisabetta and Richard Pérez-Peña. "After Migrants Drowned at Sea, Debate Over Who Should Have Saved Them." 11 September 2018. This article details the sinking of a boat carrying migrants from Libya near the coast of an island close to Italy, an incidence reflecting wider tensions between the Italian government and Libya due to the ongoing refugee crisis. As the authors note, Italy is one of several European nations that have taken a more hardline stance on taking in refugees, spearheaded by the ascendance of a populist government.

Response

I am particularly interested in the relationship between social and economic inequality and its regional and geographical consequences. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 had an uneven demographic and geographical impact -- in particular, many metropolitan areas in central California were adversely affected by the wave of home foreclosures that followed the crisis. Cohen's article further attests to the unevenness of the impact of the financial crisis -- certain demographics are affected more than others. I believe that in order to understand why this is the case, it is important here to not simply look at individual faults, but to look at structural forces at work that may constrain individuals and groups from acting in a manner that is beneficial to their own interests -- what are the constraints, either economic, political, social, or otherwise, that have prevented the equalization of household earnings amongst different demographic groups? One such constraint here that I see is tension between local, national, and international responsibilities in human welfare. In Plumer's article, cities and states in the U.S. have attempted to tackle the problem of climate change in coordination with other countries across the world; but this problem, as a scientist notes in the article, requires massive large-scale coordination amongst nations. How will we be able to address a global issue such as climate change without global solutions? On the other hand, Povoledo and Pérez-Peña's article addresses the question of responsibility of human welfare and how many European nations, as well as the U.S., have turned inwards in order to put the nation before anyone else. This lowers any possible international cooperation amongst different national governments, and enables governments to defer responsibilities to others.