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Analysis Melissa Pérez Sancho Analysis Melissa Pérez Sancho

Economic Insecurity: The Struggles and Resilience of the North Country

In this article, I seek to go beyond simply presenting statistics to illustrate the scope of poverty or economic insecurity in the North Country. I want to show how the limited understanding of poverty, as a threshold defined by institutions, obscures our awareness of people’s struggles to cover their necessities and of the systemic issues causing economic insecurity. Beyond this, I explore the intersection of social class with other identities such as gender and race while also highlighting the importance of grassroots work. Overall, I hope to generate more empathy for our neighbors and encourage support for the people working to improve their communities.

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Stories, Analysis Melissa Pérez Sancho Stories, Analysis Melissa Pérez Sancho

Huetar Norte: Complex Fruits of Globalization in Costa Rica

In the age of globalization and “free trade,” global consumers are accustomed to having access to a wide variety of fruits from around the world. Like all products, however, this fruit is grown, circulated, and consumed in ways that generate complex effects at all scales, from the local to the global. As part of our Glocal Dispatches series, Melissa Pérez Sancho reports on the case of the pineapple industry in Costa Rica and the questions this case raises regarding social, economic, and environmental justice.

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