Field Notes
France: A Movement Ends, An Explosion of Rage
By Charles ReeveIt is hard to analyze an event like the banlieue youth revolt, characterized by spontaneity and improvisation. Clearly, the spontaneity is the fruit of a pre-existing situation, and the unpredictable was obviously to be predicted. But this revolt took unexpected forms and it is difficult to see its links with earlier struggles.
Why a Recession Might Not be Such a Bad Thing: Considerations on a “Hard Landing”
By Jose A. TapiaThe proper unit of analysis when discussing economic issues is not obvious... The tradition dating back to the 1930s and the economist Simon Kuznets is to focus macroeconomic discussions specifically on national economies, because the nation-state is the political unit for which attempts to deal with economic turbulence are assumed to be possible. However, it is obvious that in recent decades the process of globalization has intensified quickly, so that referring to recessions in national economies is increasingly irrelevant.
Legacy Admissions and The Myth of Social Mobility
By Adam Theron-Lee RenschIn the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent vote to end affirmative action, legacy admissions have become a convenient scapegoat for the massive inequalities that pervade higher education in The United States. Derided by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as “affirmative action for the privileged,” and by countless others as “affirmative action for white people,” legacy admissions are transparently nepotistic and contradict the self-professed meritocratic ideals of university mission statements. Education, we are told, is precisely the sort of institution where anyone can succeed by dedication and hard work alone, not by being born into a wealthy, connected family.
Optical Collusion: The Underpolitics of the Alien
By Scott W. SchwartzWe’ve seen alien activity in photos, in documentaries, and in grainy videos of peculiar aerial phenomena. However, you haven’t seen aliens. Other people sometimes claim to have seen aliens (or their traces), but the testimony of these others combined with dusty visual footage is not compelling evidence that extraterrestrial species are visiting Earth. They aren’t here and they’re not coming.
