THE 2021 THEME: THE INEQUALITY PANDEMIC

Every spring, GPPR publishes the Spring Edition, an academic journal containing a selection of peer-reviewed articles that present new, innovative, and quality research on the theme selected that year by the GPPR Editorial Board. The 2020-21 Spring Edition theme, The Inequality Pandemic, reflects current discourse around the disproportionate harms suffered by the poor and working class, racial and ethnic minorities, and undocumented immigrants since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The uneven impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed structural flaws in the U.S. healthcare, education, criminal justice, and governance systems that warrant immediate attention by policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels.  In an age of increasing political polarization and stark income inequality, it is more important than ever to identify and implement evidence-based policies that improve our most vulnerable citizens’ capacity to weather hardships and build a better future for themselves and their children.  The 2020-21 Spring Edition offers fresh insights on existing socioeconomic disparities in the U.S. that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring the consequences of and potential policy solutions for the following:

• Racist predictive policing algorithms

• The digital divide in education

• Inequities in hospital systems’ crisis standards of care

• Systemic flaws and gaps in the social safety net