In The News

The Pursuit of Authenticity: Yale Insights

Áine Doris December 23, 2019
Consumers value authentic products and foods, but definitions of “authentic” can vary widely. Anyone in marketing must understand what authenticity means for their particular products and customers. Balázs Kovács, who researchers organizational behavior at Yale’s School of Management, studied what authenticity’s means among ordinary people and found big differences when the word is applied to...

Indians Protest Citizenship Law: Al Jazeera

December 19, 2019
Rules around citizenship help define a country’s values and aspirations. Large numbers of Indians are turning out to protest a new citizenship law that welcomes refugees from neighboring states but pointedly excludes Muslims. Authorities have detained hundreds of demonstrators and banned gatherings in Uttar Pradesh as well as parts of the northeast, Bihar and cities including Hyderabad and...

Pakistan’s Biggest City Crumbles: Economist

December 17, 2019
Karachi has a population of 16 million people, about double that of New York City. Pakistan’s largest city and former national capital functions as the country’s financial center. Monsoons and environmental disasters have shed light on years of poor urban planning and maintenance. “Wild, unplanned growth has overwhelmed almost every element of urban planning,” the Economist reports. “Sewers,...

Global Migration Trends Add Tensions: Asia Sentinel

John Berthelsen December 16, 2019
People migrate for wealthy nations for many reasons, economic and security, including poverty, disasters and conflict. Numerous businesses and families seek low-cost workers for household services, construction, farming and more, yet opposition to undocumented and even legal immigration is on the rise, suggests a new report on world immigration. The report warns that immigration is “weaponized”...

Downsizing and Letting Go: Stuff

Nick Barnett December 14, 2019
Older and younger people alike are reconsidering the size of their homes and how many belongings they should own. Decluttering and downsizing are in vogue, and many people conduct regular inventories to assess which belongings they have not used or touched during the previous year. “Moving from a regular house into a tiny house brought that reckoning forward for me,” writes Nick Barnett for Stuff...

India’s Parliament Passes Citizenship Bill: NYT

Jeffrey Gettleman and Suhasini Raj December 12, 2019
India’s parliament has approved a Citizenship Amendment Bill, expected to be signed into law soon.The bill “uses religion as a criterion for determining whether illegal migrants in India can be fast-tracked for citizenship” and “favors members of all South Asia’s major religions except Islam,” reports the New York Times. Muslim leaders regard the measure as discrimination; up to 15 percent of the...

Madrid Residents Help Stranded Asylum Seekers: El País

Julia F. Cadenas December 9, 2019
About 50,000 asylum seekers have arrived at the Madrid airport in 2019 and overwhelmed social service programs. The asylum seekers head to the police station and make appointments to begin pursuing international protection. As political leaders debate who bears responsibility for the asylum seekers, ordinary citizens struggle to look at a desperate human being and not assist. Hundreds have...