2023 Jefferson Fellowships
Theme: Inequality in the U.S. and Asia: Drivers, Consequences, and Policy Responses
Dates: October 08, 2023 - October 30, 2023
Destinations: Honolulu, Hawaiʻi; Hong Kong SAR; Tokyo, Fukushima, and Kyoto, Japan
Summary: A three-week dialogue, reporting, and travel program to Hawaiʻi, Hong Kong, and Japan will contextualize and compare widening disparities of income, wealth, and opportunity within the United States and Asia.
The broad purpose of the Jefferson Fellowships is to enhance public understanding through the news media of cultures, issues and trends in the United States and the Asia Pacific with a special focus on a particular theme. The 2023 Jefferson Fellowships will explore a theme of “Inequality in the US and Asia.” An immersive dialogue, travel, and reporting program to Honolulu, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Fukushima, and Kyoto will contextualize and compare widening disparities of income, wealth, and opportunity within the United States and Asia. The program will enable journalists to better understand the distributional consequences of technological change, globalization, and market reforms in dominant globalized industrial systems, and emergent models and theories for markets and governance of the twenty-first century and the Anthropocene. From the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the impact of AI (Artificial Intelligence), to New Systems Markets, Climate Smart Markets, and the Great Turning or Sustainable Revolution, this program will critically engage with the liminal and applied spaces where theory and policy meet lived experience, agency and opportunity. The proposed theme will also explore how income and wealth inequalities are reinforced by inequitable access to opportunity in such critical areas as food systems, education, healthcare, financing and credit, housing, and infrastructure, and the new models responding to, or further aggravating, disparity.
The 2023 Jefferson Fellowships program will begin in Honolulu with expert-led sessions on inequality in the US and the Asia Pacific region. Journalists will additionally share perspectives from their own countries on the drivers, consequences, and policy responses related to inequality through topic papers and presentations. Site visits in Honolulu will also provide opportunities to observe how growing inequity is affecting one of United States’ most racially and ethnically diverse states and how policymakers and grassroots organizations are responding.
The Asia Pacific region has for several decades witnessed extraordinary economic development, however, growth has not been balanced or inclusive. Hong Kong is one of the world’s richest and most inequitable cities, in which the wealthiest households earn almost 44 times what the poorest families earn and one in five residents lives below the poverty line. Travel to Hong Kong will allow journalists to discern some the socio-economic inequities underpinning the current unrest, including the city’s changing demographics; escalating housing prices; and tax policies, which favor concentrated wealth. In contrast, Japan, has long been considered one of the world’s most equitable developed countries due to income and inheritance tax policies that hinder the accumulation of capital over generations as well as social security benefits that significantly raise the net incomes of the country’s low-income citizens. Inequality, however, is on the rise driven by a greying of society; intergenerational, gender, and urban-rural wealth disparities; and the growth of irregular (hiseiki) employment over life-long employment.
Funding:
The Jefferson Fellowships are made possible through a generous grant from The Freeman Foundation and supplemented by contributions from news organizations, foundations, US Embassies, and the East-West Center.
Freeman Foundation Mission:
The Freeman Foundation’s major objectives include strengthening the bonds of friendship between this country and the countries of East Asia. Through education and educational institutes, the Foundation hopes to develop a greater appreciation of Asian cultures, histories and economies in the United States and a better understanding of American people, institutions and purposes in East Asia.
In addition, the Foundation believes that the preservation and protection of the forests, lands, and natural resources of the United States are essential to the welfare of future generations. Land conservation; the protection of forests and farmlands; as well as historic preservation in both Hawaii and Vermont are of particular interest as the Freeman family has enjoyed a long association with these states through the years.
Furthermore, the Foundation is ever mindful that the resources for its existence emanated from a vibrant, international, free enterprise system and affirms that all projects it supports shall contribute to and enhance the development of this system.
The Foundation believes that institutions and initiatives that intelligently and effectively pursue the above goals should be encouraged. A limited number of grants are also made each year to projects deemed to be of special interest to the Freeman family.
Dates: October 08, 2023 - October 30, 2023
Destinations: Honolulu, Hawaiʻi; Hong Kong SAR; Tokyo, Fukushima, and Kyoto, Japan
Summary: A three-week dialogue, reporting, and travel program to Hawaiʻi, Hong Kong, and Japan will contextualize and compare widening disparities of income, wealth, and opportunity within the United States and Asia.
The broad purpose of the Jefferson Fellowships is to enhance public understanding through the news media of cultures, issues and trends in the United States and the Asia Pacific with a special focus on a particular theme. The 2023 Jefferson Fellowships will explore a theme of “Inequality in the US and Asia.” An immersive dialogue, travel, and reporting program to Honolulu, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Fukushima, and Kyoto will contextualize and compare widening disparities of income, wealth, and opportunity within the United States and Asia. The program will enable journalists to better understand the distributional consequences of technological change, globalization, and market reforms in dominant globalized industrial systems, and emergent models and theories for markets and governance of the twenty-first century and the Anthropocene. From the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the impact of AI (Artificial Intelligence), to New Systems Markets, Climate Smart Markets, and the Great Turning or Sustainable Revolution, this program will critically engage with the liminal and applied spaces where theory and policy meet lived experience, agency and opportunity. The proposed theme will also explore how income and wealth inequalities are reinforced by inequitable access to opportunity in such critical areas as food systems, education, healthcare, financing and credit, housing, and infrastructure, and the new models responding to, or further aggravating, disparity.
The 2023 Jefferson Fellowships program will begin in Honolulu with expert-led sessions on inequality in the US and the Asia Pacific region. Journalists will additionally share perspectives from their own countries on the drivers, consequences, and policy responses related to inequality through topic papers and presentations. Site visits in Honolulu will also provide opportunities to observe how growing inequity is affecting one of United States’ most racially and ethnically diverse states and how policymakers and grassroots organizations are responding.
The Asia Pacific region has for several decades witnessed extraordinary economic development, however, growth has not been balanced or inclusive. Hong Kong is one of the world’s richest and most inequitable cities, in which the wealthiest households earn almost 44 times what the poorest families earn and one in five residents lives below the poverty line. Travel to Hong Kong will allow journalists to discern some the socio-economic inequities underpinning the current unrest, including the city’s changing demographics; escalating housing prices; and tax policies, which favor concentrated wealth. In contrast, Japan, has long been considered one of the world’s most equitable developed countries due to income and inheritance tax policies that hinder the accumulation of capital over generations as well as social security benefits that significantly raise the net incomes of the country’s low-income citizens. Inequality, however, is on the rise driven by a greying of society; intergenerational, gender, and urban-rural wealth disparities; and the growth of irregular (hiseiki) employment over life-long employment.
Funding:
The Jefferson Fellowships are made possible through a generous grant from The Freeman Foundation and supplemented by contributions from news organizations, foundations, US Embassies, and the East-West Center.
Freeman Foundation Mission:
The Freeman Foundation’s major objectives include strengthening the bonds of friendship between this country and the countries of East Asia. Through education and educational institutes, the Foundation hopes to develop a greater appreciation of Asian cultures, histories and economies in the United States and a better understanding of American people, institutions and purposes in East Asia.
In addition, the Foundation believes that the preservation and protection of the forests, lands, and natural resources of the United States are essential to the welfare of future generations. Land conservation; the protection of forests and farmlands; as well as historic preservation in both Hawaii and Vermont are of particular interest as the Freeman family has enjoyed a long association with these states through the years.
Furthermore, the Foundation is ever mindful that the resources for its existence emanated from a vibrant, international, free enterprise system and affirms that all projects it supports shall contribute to and enhance the development of this system.
The Foundation believes that institutions and initiatives that intelligently and effectively pursue the above goals should be encouraged. A limited number of grants are also made each year to projects deemed to be of special interest to the Freeman family.