From researching the nation's legacy of poverty in rural areas to creating a user-friendly guide to environmental governance, these Andrew Carnegie Fellows are dissecting problems and offering solutions
Since 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program has awarded fellowships annually to exceptional scholars, authors, journalists, and public intellectuals, with criteria to prioritize the originality and promise of the research and its potential impact on the field, and the scholar’s plans for communicating the findings to a broad audience. Below is a selection of some of those notable books.
2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow
The Frontlines of Peace draws on in-depth field research in 12 different conflict zones, comparisons with social initiatives in North America and Europe, and interviews with peacebuilders, warlords, victims, survivors, politicians, and local civilians. Séverine Autesserre, professor and chair of political science at Barnard College and a leading authority on peacebuilding with over 20 years of experience working in and conducting research on international aid throughout the world, examines the well-intentioned but inherently flawed peace industry. She focuses on success stories in an ultimately positive and hopeful narrative that encourages readers of all backgrounds to create peace in their own communities. This is the story of the ordinary yet extraordinary people who have figured out how to build lasting peace in their communities — one that challenges popular beliefs and scholarly ideas about war, peace, and conflict resolution that the diplomatic elite and the general public alike take as fact.
2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellow
The gap between the rich and the poor has grown dramatically in the United States and is now at its widest since at least the early 1900s. Nathan J. Kelly, professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, argues that rising concentrations of wealth create a political climate that makes it more difficult to reduce economic inequality. He shows that when a small fraction of the people control most of the economic resources, they also hold a disproportionate amount of political power, hurtling us toward a self-perpetuating plutocracy — or an “inequality trap.” Among other things, the rich support a broad political campaign that convinces voters that policies to reduce inequality are unwise and not in the interest of the average voter, regardless of the real economic impact. A key implication of America’s Inequality Trap is that social policies designed to combat inequality should work hand in hand with political reforms that enhance democratic governance and efforts to fight racism.
2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellow
Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, H. Luke Shaefer and his coauthors discover that America’s most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there. This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas. Immersing themselves in these communities, poring over centuries of local history, attending parades and festivals, the authors trace the legacies of the deepest poverty in America — including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families. Wrung dry by powerful forces and corrupt government officials, the “internal colonies” in these regions were exploited for their resources and then left to collapse. A professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, Shaefer is coauthor (with Kathryn J. Edin) of the acclaimed $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America (2015).
2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow
The field of environmental law and policy is evolving and growing in importance as climate change, toxics, biodiversity, environmental justice, and other topics become increasingly central to public debates, classrooms, and careers. In the last decade, private environmental governance has exploded in response to public demands for corporate action that helps the planet and over frustration with government gridlock. Private environmental governance is now an accepted and powerful environmental policy tool, from corporate sustainability and ESG goals to seafood and forest certification systems, and from net zero emissions to land trusts. Private Environmental Governance provides the first user-friendly and comprehensive guide to these innovative new approaches that go farther than government regulation. As Vanderbilt Law School professor Michael P. Vandenbergh and his coauthors demonstrate in this book, to understand the future of environmental policy in the 21st century, one needs to understand the actors, strategies, and challenges central to private environmental governance.
In her introduction to the issue, Dame Louise Richardson writes about the ways remarkable individuals at the state, city, and community levels are coming together to tackle problems in innovative and creative ways. Carnegie Corporation of New York is working to recognize and support these local leaders and initiatives
Carnegie Reporter Summer 2024
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