Disrupting your Month: The Spring Edition Edition

This Is Our Version of March Madness

Welcome to the latest edition of Disrupting Your Month! This month is particularly disruptive, not because of anything happening in the wider world, like Trumpcare or something involving basketball (?), but because of what we are doing here at GPPR.

We are extremely excited to invite you to our Spring Edition Launch: not only are we publishing a relevant, incisive, and gorgeous journal edition, we are also hosting an event with an all-star, cast of panelists discussing, as our President would say,“what the hell is going on.” The panel will focus on the same three questions we’ve been talking about all year:

  1. How is technological progress impacting policymaking and everyday people?
  2. How is the current political climate disrupting objective truth?
  3. How do we, the ‘experts,’ regain the public’s trust?

We Made Content for You

I’m also excited to announce that, for the first time, we at GPPR will be contributing to the Spring Edition in the form of four reflective articles and one special edition podcast. I am so excited, in fact, that I will be using this space to discuss the content we have lined up for you.

Misogyny Remains Undisrupted

First, as has been the case all year, is Uber. As I’ve written, and as you’ve heard, the company is in trouble. Not only is the company’s business model in doubt, but the company is also facing tougher scrutiny from the United States government and intense foreign competition. Gianna Fenaroli’s upcoming article will not be about any of this, but will instead focus on an often overlooked issue: the way female consumers are sidelined by Uber and similar companies. This month has been particularly embarrassing for Uber in this regard, with an embarrassing video of Travis Kalanick surfacing along with allegations of systemic misogyny throughout the company. Uber’s president stepping down is just the latest news on this evolving scandal. It’s frustrating to see a young company with a new idea succumbing to such old problems. This is an area that desperately needs disrupting.

In a similar vein, Bryan Baird has written a piece on STEM hiring for women. With his research, he’s disrupted the notion that there aren’t enough women in the field to thwart a lack of diversity. The truth is that men hire few women and harass the ones they do. Once, again, this is an area that should change, but has not, despite an increasing number of women graduating with STEM degrees.

More Like Climate Disruption, Really

With the chaos of the current political climate, it’s easy to forget that the most disruptive event in our history as a species is happening right now. Olivia Cook’s article about climate change is less about environmental policy and more about the policy areas that are in danger of being disrupted by climate change. She covers how agri-policy, disaster preparation policy, and national security policy will all need to be updated to reflect the changing climate. In discussing the effects of our continuing mishandling of the environment, Olivia is grimly reminding us of what’s at stake.

Disrupting Your Ears

In addition to written content, we will have a special spring edition podcast, in which the brave staff behind the Spring Edition discuss their work over the year as well as their favorite disruptive events of the year. Expect me to be there loudly promoting my own work and opinions until I am summarily edited off the podcast.

Disrupting Republicans

Speaking of self-promotion, the last article of our own contributions to the Spring Edition will be my analysis of the Republican party under Trump. The short version of this article: things have taken quite a turn. The long version: not only has Trump disrupted Republican ideology and policy, he’s also disrupted their ability to set the agenda and their regard for the truth. Established norms of the pre-Trump Republican party, like taking national security issues seriously, pursuing any instances of corruption, or listening to the Congressional Budget Office, are being thrown away in an effort to keep up with the Trump presidency. I argue that the changes within the Republican party will have a profound effect on policymaking in America.

The Spring Edition is Upon Us

While our content is exciting and impressive, the stars of the show are the authors of the five papers we are set to publish in a week. While I would be remiss to reveal too much about them, I can tell you that these papers will help you answer these questions:

  1. Can members of ASEAN integrate economically without suffering the same political problems affecting the European Union?
  2. Did the gig economy and technological progress bring us Brexit and Trump?
  3. How do we ensure greater internet access in rural areas? Should we?
  4. What actually happens when Uber rolls into your city?
  5. Will Latinx entrepreneurship revive the US economy?

All these questions have in common the essence of Disruption: the failure to adapt to change. Failure to adapt to the gig economy may have led to nationalist politics. Failure to adapt to nationalist politics is leading to the breakup of international trade and political agreements.

If you want to find answers to these questions and issues, there’s only one way to do so, and that’s by visiting gpprspring.com on March 30th. Immediately after that, you should seek out further answers (and free alcohol) by attending our event, which you can find out more about at gpprdisruption.eventbrite.com.

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Austin Kabbaz Szabo is an Executive Spring Editor for GPPR and designer of the Spring Edition website. Originally from Los Angeles, he recently received a Masters Degree in Public Policy at the McCourt School in Georgetown. He has a B.A. in Political Science and Classical Civilizations from Loyola Marymount University, where he was a Senior Editor for Asia Media International and led the university's Archeology Center. He’s passionate about income inequality and women’s rights, and dreams of living in a truly liberated world. He loves archery, baking, and awful music.