Social Sciences
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Framing India’s 2047 goals
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an opinion article arguing for careful decentralization of India’s government in order to reduce distorted incentives related to the way India’s democracy functions.
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Heat, storms, mosquitoes the big threats at Alligator Alcatraz, experts say
Assistant Professor Carlos Martinez said that what he has seen so far of the facility is “alarming and disturbing.” While many of the health concerns about Alligator Alcatraz are the same as those for any detention center — overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and food, inadequate medical care — he said some, like the heat and mosquitoes,…
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In the Central Valley, residents fight against California policies that incentivize pollution marketed as renewable energy
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies J. Mijin Cha is skeptical of a state funding program to build digesters that produce methane fuel from cow waste. “Any time you build this new infrastructure, you’re entrenching us even further into the fossil fuel economy,” she said.
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Undocumented day laborers cleared debris after the Eaton Fire. Now they’re afraid to work
Sociology Professor Juan Pedroza discussed the economic impacts of immigrant deportation. “We know raids and deportations harm the general labor market, including both immigrant workers and US households that rely on immigrant labor,” he said.
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What Americans can learn from the longtime playbook of U.S. imperialism abroad
Associate professor of Latin American and Latino Studies Lily Pearl Balloffet and Professor of Environmental Studies Gregory S. Gilbert argue that U.S. imperialism is now being deployed at home, and Latin America holds clues on what might come next and effective strategies to resist.
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A community remembers Mike Rotkin
Lookout Santa Cruz is working to memorialize Mike Rotkin and record the many lives he touched by collecting stories, anecdotes, and tributes from people around the community. Additional coverage by Lookout Community Voices editor Jody K. Biehl and the Santa Cruz Sentinel editorial board.
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Was Pres. Donald Trump’s order to strike Iran constitutional? Bay Area experts weigh in on what happens next
“Most polling shows the majority of the nation did not want the United States to get involved at all, let alone further involved, in the Israel and Iran conflict. So, it is quite historical to see a president really disregard public opinion in such a way, when it comes to war,” said Nolan Higdon, a…
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Mike Rotkin, former mayor and an essential figure in Santa Cruz progressive activism, dies at 79
Mike Rotkin arrived in Santa Cruz in 1969, not long after the University of California, and soon not only became a pillar of UCSC’s Community Studies Program but launched into the progressive politics that reshaped the city. Additional coverage in Santa Cruz Sentinel and on KSBW.
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In the Arizona desert, a farm raising fish raises questions about water use
The seafood industry needs to reduce its reliance on catching small wild fish to feed bigger farmed ones that humans eat, said Pallab Sarker, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studies sustainability in the aquaculture industry. He said seabirds and mammals rely on small species like anchovies and mackerel commonly…
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A dawn bus ride, a Capitol showdown and a last-minute deal: How Santa Cruz activists fought health care cuts
Students from UC Santa Cruz’s Everett Program for Technology and Social Change travelled to Sacramento to urge California lawmakers to reject Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed cuts to Medi-Cal for undocumented immigrants.
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Celebrating Pride while fighting Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies
Phil Hammack, professor of psychology & director of the Sexual & Gender Diversity Lab at UC Santa Cruz, discusses how LGBTQ+ communities are celebrating and fighting back against the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ policies.
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Scams Targeting Immigrants Take Advantage of Fears of Immigration Status and Deportation
Juan Pedroza, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said uncertainty and rapid changes to immigration laws and regulations “opens up new opportunities for scam artists to get creative.”