Search results

Is Punishment the Only Response to Violence and Poverty?

February 10, 2016

Harvard Kennedy School PolicyCast [Audio: 25 min] | Conversation with Bruce Western, Director of the Malcolm Wiener Center and Chair of its Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management.  "We estimate that in recent birth cohorts for black men, if they dropped out of high school, the chances that they'll go to prison at some point in their lives is now about two-thirds."



Capital Hill Briefing on American Families: The State of the Working Class

February 12, 2016

C-SPAN [video] | Robert Putnam, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, participated in a briefing on U.S. working class families with Andrew Cherlin (Johns Hopkins), Ron Haskins (Brookings Institution), Sara McLanahan (Princeton). Sponsored by the American Academy of Political and Social Science and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.



The Rich Can Learn from the Poor About How to Be Frugal

February 12, 2016

The New York Times | By Sendhil Mullainathan, Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics.



Reflections on the American Dream in Crisis

February 13, 2016

Harvard EdCast | Robert D. Putnam, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of  Public Policy, reflects on what educators can do to help restore a measure of social mobility to U.S. society [audio: 13 minutes].



Education gap: The root of inequality

February 15, 2016

Harvard University [video]| Interview with Ronald Ferguson, director of Harvard's Achievement Gap Initiative: "Educational inequality is, probably more than anything else, the fundamental root of broader inequality."  There is progress being made, encouraging examples to emulate, and an early start is critical, Ferguson says. A lot of hard work lies ahead, "but there's nothing more important we can do."



New Group Forms to Find Solutions to Mobility Out of Poverty

February 16, 2016

WBUR Radio Boston | Guests David Ellwood, Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy and Chair of the U.S. Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, and Elisabeth Babcock, President and CEO of the Crittenton Women's Union and a Partnership member.



Connecting to Practice: How we can put education research to work

February 23, 2016

Education Next | By Thomas J. Kane, the Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University.



Pundits and presidents complain about polarization. But it may be the sign of a healthy democracy.

February 25, 2016

Washington Post | By Torben Iversen (Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy) and David Soskice (London School of Economics). Iversen and Soskice argue in a new academic article that lack of polarization among ordinary citizens isn't necessarily a good thing. Indeed it might be a sign of serious democratic failure.... Read more about Pundits and presidents complain about polarization. But it may be the sign of a healthy democracy.



Inside The New York Times Book Review Podcast: 'Evicted'

February 26, 2016

The New York Times [audio] | Listen to Matthew Desmond talk about his new book, Evicted [begins at 15:30 mark]



Young Black People Are Radically Reimagining What Political Activism Can Be

March 1, 2016

The New York Times | By Leah Wright Rigueur, Assistant Professor, Harvard Kennedy School. Part of a Room for Debate forum: "Making Black Voices Matter."

Pages