We think of citizenship as a binary category: you’re either a citizen or you’re not. But the levels of membership can be complex. Refugees and asylum seekers often find that the criteria for acceptance change, as states devise rationales to exclude them. Three Weatherhead Center sociologists reveal the motivations behind various immigration policies, from the colonial past to the present, and discuss the ethics and impact of open borders.In this episode, Elke Winter explains the different pathways to citizenship, not only for “economic immigrants” but also for refugees and asylum seekers. From an historical perspective, Anna Skarpelis reminds us that some groups have had citizenship imposed on them, in the case of territorial annexation. In the United States, asylum and immigration laws seem to change with each new administration, and Talia Shiff documents some of the impact of the recent changes during the Trump administration.After World War II, the UN Declaration of Human Rights established that all human beings have the right to basic food, shelter, and security, and the right to freedom of movement—even if they cannot access these rights in their own countries. But nations have likely always strayed from these humanitarian values as their geopolitical goals change. Our scholars show how strategic interests and even race come into play, unofficially, to drive prevailing immigration policies. Finally, our scholars delve into the philosophical and ethical context for having more open borders and touch on the economic impact of immigration. On a philosophical level, they raise the questions: What do we owe others? Can a nation redress its colonial legacy through immigration policy? Do developed nations have a moral obligation to those in poorer regions who are trying to find a secure home?With an estimated eighty million people on Earth in flux and looking for permanent settlement, our scholars stress that no single country can resolve this crisis on its own. Host:Erin Goodman, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.Guests:Talia Shiff, Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Assistant Professor, Tel Aviv University; Lecturer in Sociology, Harvard University.Anna Skarpelis, Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. PhD, Department of Sociology, New York University.Elke Winter, William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Canada Program; Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion.Professor of Sociology, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, University of Ottawa.Producer/Director:Michelle Nicholasen, Editor and Content Producer, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.Related Links:Us, Them and Others: Pluralism and National Identity in Diverse Societies by Elke Winter (University of Toronto Press, 2011)“Multicultural Citizenship for the Highly Skilled? Naturalization, Human Capital, and the Boundaries of Belonging in Canada’s Middle-Class Nation-Building” by Elke Winter (Ethnicities, October 27, 2020)“When States Take Rights Back: Citizenship Revocation and Its Discontents” edited by Émilien Fargues, Elke Winter, Matthew J Gibney (Routledge, 2020)Country Report on Citizenship Law: Canada, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, by Elke Winter (2016)“Reconfiguring the Deserving Refugee: Cultural Categories of Worth and the Making of Refugee Policy” by Talia Shiff (Law & Society Review, January 29, 2020)“Revisiting Immutability: Competing Frameworks for Adjudicating Asylum Claims Based on Membership in a Particular Social Group” by Talia Shiff (University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, spring 2020)“Regulating Organizational Ambiguity: Unsettled screening categories and the making of US asylum policy” by Talia Shiff (Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, November 28, 2019)“What Is It Like to Be a Nazi? Racial Vision and Scientific Selves in German Portrait Photographic Practice” by Anna Skarpelis (book chapter in Against the Background of Social Reality: Defaults, Commonplaces and the Sociology of the Unmarked, edited by Carmelo Lombardo and Lorenzo Sabetta. Routledge, forthcoming)"Dresden Will Never Be Hiroshima: Morality, the Bomb and Far-Right Empathy for the Refugee" by Anna Skarpelis (book chapter in Far-Right Revisionism and the End of History: Alt/Histories, edited by Louie Dean Valencia-García. Routledge, 2020)Music credits:Rainbow Bridge by Siddhartha Corsus is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Choir by XendomArts https://pixabay.com/users/xendomarts-11117859/Follow the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs:WCFIA WebsiteEpicenter WebsiteTwitterFacebookSimplecastSoundcloudVimeo

Epicenter

The Blurry Lines of Belonging (with Talia Shiff, Anna Skarpelis, and Elke Winter)

COVID-19 radically reduced global productivity, but isn’t that just what we need to combat climate change? Is there such a thing as a silver lining in this pandemic? In Episode 5, we continue the conversation about the relationship between COVID-19 and climate change. Three Weatherhead Center scholars guide us through the complex environmental and political systems that constrain efforts for systemic change, and discuss what needs to be done today.The second episode of this two-part podcast series looks more closely at the politics of COVID-19 and climate change and other countries’ efforts to reduce fossil fuel use. As mentioned in part 1, the lynchpin of these two crises is land—how much of our planet’s surface area is dedicated to raising and growing food for animals. Troy Vettese stresses that scientists have known about the dangers of close human contact with animals since the1800s and many organizations have urged the reduction of meat consumption for public health reasons. Robert Paarlberg elaborates on the origin of the virus, and describes the pandemic’s impact on the African continent. Alicia Harley sees the pandemic as a wake up to advance grassroots momentum generated by the Green New Deal.Finally, our scholars debate the practicality and caveats of the Green New Deal, and what steps a new Biden Administration can take to address environmental needs from day one.Host:Kathleen Molony, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.Guests:Alicia Harley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sustainability Science Program, Harvard Kennedy School. PhD, Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School. Robert L. Paarlberg, Weatherhead Center Associate. Associate, Sustainability Science Program, Harvard Kennedy School; Betty F. Johnson ‘44 Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Wellesley College.Troy Vettese, Weatherhead Center William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow, Canada Program. PhD, Department of History, New York University.Producer/Director:Michelle Nicholasen, Editor and Content Producer, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.Related Links:"President Biden, Please Don't Get Into Carbon Farming" by Robert Paarlberg (Wired, January 2021)Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat by Robert Paarlberg“Sustainability Science: Towards a Synthesis” by Alicia Harley and William C. Clark (Working Paper, 2019)“Debating Green Strategy” by Troy Vettese (New Left Review, May/June 2018)Half-Earth Socialism: A Manifesto to Save the Future by Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass (Verso Books, forthcoming 2022)“The Climate Crisis and COVID-19 Are Inseparable” by Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass (Jacobin, May 2020)“Covid-19, Food Systems, and Wild Animals” by Robert Paarlberg (Commentary, Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 21, 2020)Follow the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs:WCFIA WebsiteEpicenter WebsiteTwitterFacebookSimplecastSoundcloudVimeo

COVID-19 and Climate Change Part 2 (with Alicia Harley, Rob Paarlberg, and Troy Vettese)

COVID-19 forced radical change on the world, but isn’t that just what we need to combat climate change? The simple concepts of how we use land and how we eat may very well determine the future of our species—and our planet. Three Weatherhead Center scholars guide us through the complex environmental and political systems that constrain efforts for systemic change, and discuss what needs to be done today.The first episode of this two-part podcast series looks at how COVID-19 and climate change are part of the same human-made crisis. The lynchpin of these two crises is land—how much of our planet’s surface area is dedicated to raising and growing food for animals. Troy Vettese believes we will not be able to slow down the effects of climate change without giving up meat production, which is something human beings do not need to survive. But how can people be convinced to stop eating meat? Robert Paarlberg describes the vast improvements in agricultural output in recent decades and the known methods for protecting humans from animal viruses in the factory farm setting, as witnessed in Europe. Alicia Harley emphasizes the new momentum around climate change politics and demand for plant-based meats, both of which have increased during the pandemic.What a sustainable society would really look like and whether or not we can get to that goal without drastically changing our economy or our governance is a question of utmost urgency, and our scholars agree major steps must be taken in the next ten years.Host:Kathleen Molony, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.Guests:Alicia Harley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sustainability Science Program, Harvard Kennedy School; Lecturer in Environmental Science and Public Policy, Harvard College. PhD, Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School. Robert L. Paarlberg, Weatherhead Center Associate. Associate, Sustainability Science Program, Harvard Kennedy School; Betty F. Johnson ‘44 Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Wellesley College.Troy Vettese, Weatherhead Center William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow, Canada Program. PhD, Department of History, New York University.Producer/Director:Michelle Nicholasen, Editor and Content Producer, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.Related Links:Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat by Robert Paarlberg“Sustainability Science: Towards a Synthesis” by Alicia Harley and William C. Clark (Annual Review of Environment and Resources, October 2020)“Debating Green Strategy” by Troy Vettese (New Left Review, May/June 2018)Half-Earth Socialism: A Manifesto to Save the Future by Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass (Verso Books, forthcoming 2022)“The Climate Crisis and COVID-19 Are Inseparable” by Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass (Jacobin, May 2020)“Covid-19, Food Systems, and Wild Animals” by Robert Paarlberg (Commentary, Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 21, 2020)Follow the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs:WCFIA WebsiteEpicenter WebsiteTwitterFacebookSimplecastSoundcloudVimeo

COVID-19 and Climate Change Part 1 (with Alicia Harley, Rob Paarlberg, and Troy Vettese)

Whether or not you’ve been exposed to the virus, the COVID-19 pandemic impacts everyone’s sense of well-being. Three scholars in the field of global mental health look at the various ways loss, fear, anxiety—and on top of it, a massive global recession—weigh on the mental well-being of different groups. And they anticipate a surge in demand for mental health services as a result of the pandemic.Although the contemporary world has never seen the likes of such economic contraction as we have now, the recession of 2008 might be an instructive case. Vikram Patel, professor of global health and population, explains what is known about the mental health impacts stemming from that recent recession. Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, a sociologist and medical anthropologist, gets inside the mind and experiences of the doctors and healthcare workers who are taking care of us (and it’s not necessarily what you would expect). And psychiatrist Dr. Giuseppe Raviola gives an unflinching look at what American families and kids are struggling with during lockdown.The scholars also discuss the fraught state of mental health service delivery in the US, and advocate for adopting an approach to mental health services very different from the US’s hierarchical system of licensed specialists.Finally, our guests confront the great disparities in the hardships this pandemic creates: in short, wealthy people are doing just fine and have all the advantages, while for others, the pandemic has taken away so many of the resources they once had, causing enduring stress.Disclaimer: This podcast was recorded on May 22, 2020 when the US had approximately 1.5 million positive COVID-19 cases.Host:Kathleen Molony, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.Guests:Vikram Patel, Faculty Associate. The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Professor, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Faculty Associate. Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Department of Sociology, Harvard University. For the past thirty years, she has cohosted the Friday Morning Seminar in Culture, Psychiatry, and Global Mental Health at the Weatherhead Center.  Giuseppe (“Bepi”) Raviola, is a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, and the Director of Mental Health for Partners in Health, a Boston-based humanitarian healthcare organization that serves ten countries. Bepi is actively involved in training contact tracers in Massachusetts through Partners in Health.Producer/Director:Michelle Nicholasen, Editor and Content Producer, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.Related Links:Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Anne Case and Angus DeatonUN leads call to protect most vulnerable from mental health crisis during and after COVID-19 (UN News, May 14, 2020)“Physician Burnout, Interrupted” by Pamela Hartzband, M.D., and Jerome Groopman, M.D. (The New England Journal of Medicine, June 25, 2020)EMPOWER: Building the Mental Health Workforce, Global Health Institute, HarvardFollow the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs:WCFIA WebsiteEpicenter WebsiteTwitterFacebookSimplecastSoundcloudVimeo

Pandemic Stress (with Vikram Patel, Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, and Giuseppe Raviola)

It was a momentous day for the UK. The United Kingdom finally exited the European Union on January 31, 2020. So what happens next, and should we care? Our guests both demystify Brexit and explain the purpose of the European Union in ways you have never understood before. We know that British passports are turning from burgundy back to traditional blue, and the Union Jack was taken down from the European Council building in Brussels. But what of the trade tensions around curvy bananas and chickens rinsed in chlorine? Will trade agreements become more or less complicated as the UK goes it alone in a globalized world?Christina Davis and Jeff Frieden, professors of government and Weatherhead Center Faculty Associates from Harvard University, dive into a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion about the many ripple effects of Brexit. Somewhat philosophical and deeply intriguing is the premise around the European Union itself, which requires giving up certain aspects of sovereignty for a stake in a powerful economic bloc. But isn’t this something like the relationship between the United States and its federal government? Davis and Frieden also take on immigration in Europe, Scotland’s threats of secession, Northern Ireland’s attitude toward the Republic, and the bargaining chips in play when the UK tries to strike new trade deals with the EU and the US. Not to mention all the basics of Brexit packed up in one very engaging discussion.Disclaimer: This podcast was recorded on March 7, 2020, before the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak was a pandemic.Host:Kathleen Molony, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.Guests:Jeffry A. Frieden, Faculty Associate. Chair; Stanfield Professor of International Peace, Department of Government, Harvard University.Christina L. Davis, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; Faculty Associate. Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Professor of Government, Department of Government, Harvard University.Producer/Director:Michelle Nicholasen, Editor and Content Producer, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.Related Links:Tony Blair clipTeresa May clipNigel Farage clipMark Francois clip“State Control and the Effects of Foreign Relations on Bilateral Trade” by Christina Davis, Andrea Fuchs, and Kristina Johnson“The Political Economy of the Globalization Backlash: Sources and Implications” by Jeffry FriedenFollow the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs:WCFIA WebsiteEpicenter WebsiteTwitterFacebookSimplecastSoundcloudVimeo

Brexited! (with Jeffry Frieden and Christina Davis)

Despite the decline in global poverty rates over the past five or six decades, the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow ever wider, especially in the industrialized West. Three scholars—Michèle Lamont, Peter A. Hall, and Paul Pierson—discuss how housing and education can actually reinforce inequality, and who in our society is seen as “deserving” of getting help, or not, and how that has changed over time.Paul Pierson has studied “superstar cities,” such as San Francisco and New York, that have become places that concentrate wealth and opportunities for advancement but have exorbitant housing costs. He compares those cities to Paris or London, which have a different policy landscape for affordable housing. Peter Hall describes how middle and upper income families in the US hoard opportunities for their children, a process that actually begins in preschool. And he offers a method for making university admissions more equitable. Michèle Lamont describes the power of institutional or state narratives in shaping the collective understanding of who’s welcome and deserving of support.Our guests represent three different disciplines—sociology, government, and political science—and they collaborated with other contributors for a special edition of the journal Dædalus, published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This special issue focuses on various systems of inequality in the US and Europe with insightful historical and comparative context.Lamont, Hall, and Pierson are all former directors of the Successful Societies Program at CIFAR, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, which studies the ways in which healthy societies work. Each is a current or former affiliate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, where this podcast was produced.Host:Kathleen Molony, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.Guests:Michèle Lamont, Weatherhead Center Director and Faculty Associate (on leave 2019–2020). Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies; Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies, Departments of Sociology and African and African American Studies, Harvard University.Peter A. Hall, Weatherhead Center Faculty Associate. Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies, Department of Government, Harvard University.Paul Pierson, John Gross Professor of Political Science, University of California at Berkeley.Producer/Director:Michelle Nicholasen, Editor and Content Producer, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.Related Links:View transcript on Epicenter websiteDædalus: Inequality as a Multidimensional Process (Summer 2019)"The Rise of Opportunity Markets: How Did It Happen & What Can We Do?" by David B. Grusky, Peter A. Hall, and Hazel Rose Markus (Dædalus, Summer 2019)“‘Superstar Cities’ & the Generation of Durable Inequality” by Patrick Le Galès and Paul Pierson (Dædalus, Summer 2019)“Membership without Social Citizenship? Deservingness & Redistribution as Grounds for Equality” by Irene Bloemraad, Will Kymlicka, Michèle Lamont, and Leanne S. Son Hing (Dædalus, Summer 2019)American Sociological AssociationCanadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)American Academy of Arts and SciencesGetting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil & Israel (Princeton Press, 2018)American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper (Simon & Schuster, 2016)Follow the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs:WCFIA WebsiteEpicenter WebsiteTwitterFacebookSimplecastSoundcloudVimeo

Inequality in the US and Europe (with Michèle Lamont, Peter A. Hall, and Paul Pierson)

Wrapping our minds around profound global issues can be daunting. Where does one begin to unpack responsibility for climate change or human rights? How does one account for social inequalities or the endurance of repressive regimes? In our Epicenter podcast, we bring together scholars and experienced practitioners from different disciplines to guide us through pressing global topics, to boil down the issues, to explain the research and give valuable context. The goal is to give listeners a deeper understanding of a topic to expand their everyday thinking about the world inside and outside their own borders.

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