From the Local to the Global
From the Local to the Global is a series of events that analyzes current issues from multiple levels, bringing perspective to the multi-faceted challenges of our time.
Recent Events
From the Local to the Global: Business, Debt, Coronavirus
Throughout the country, and the world, the coronavirus has devastated small businesses. Thousands have already shuttered their doors, and millions more face closure and bankruptcy in the coming and months. The effects of the economic decline are being felt most severely by small business owners and the communities they serve—especially those that are already most underserved, such as rural areas and poor urban neighborhoods. The trend only accelerates global inequality and provides big business with additional opportunities for expansion.
The Undergraduate Committee on Global Thought will host a panel discussion on the plight of small businesses as a result of the coronavirus and concurrent recession. Panelists include CGT Member Saskia Sassen, CGT Senior Research Scholar Perry Mehrling, the Hon. Elizabeth S. Stong, and World Bank Adviser Antonia Menezes.
Part of Rethinking the World, a programmatic series from the Committee on Global Thought exploring the challenges and opportunities inherent in our unique global moment of compounding crises as well as unforeseen opportunities for creative solutions. For information on other events in the series, click here.
From the Local to the Global: Perspectives on the Pandemic
In an online forum on April 17, 2020 organized by Columbia’s Undergraduate Committee on Global Thought (UCGT), students called in from across the country to discuss how the pandemic has affected their lives and their futures. The event, “From the Local to the Global: Perspectives on the Pandemic,” presented a unique platform for undergraduates to discuss their experiences together while being physically distant from each other due to the University’s suspension of in person classes in early March.