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November 13, 2025

Global companies are still committing to protect the climate – and they’re investing big money in clean tech

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Lily Hsueh, Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Arizona State University

Electric delivery vehicles powered by renewable energy are helping several multinationals lower their emissions. Mustafa Hussain/Getty Images

The Trump administration has given corporations plenty of convenient excuses to retreat from their climate commitments, with its moves to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, roll back emissions regulations, and scale back clean energy incentives.

But will the world’s largest corporations follow its lead?

Some multinational companies have indeed scaled back. For instance, Wells Fargo dropped its goal for the companies the bank finances to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, saying the conditions necessary for meeting that goal, such as policy certainty, consumer behavior and the pace of clean technology development, hadn’t fully materialized. Oil giant BP told investors that earlier optimism about a fast transition to renewable energy was “misplaced” given the changing regulatory environment.

However, many others, including the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, aren’t trading their long-term risk planning for Washington’s focus on short-term cost savings. They are continuing their climate policies, but often doing so quietly to avoid scrutiny.

These companies still face ongoing pressure from state and local governments, the European Union, customers and other sources to reduce their impact on the climate. They also see ways to gain a competitive advantage from investing in a cleaner future.

A large Walmart store with the roof shining with solar panels in the sun. — Nearly half of the energy powering Walmart’s vast global operations comes from renewable sources in 2025, like this solar plant atop a store in Yucca Valley, Calif.
AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu

As a professor of economics and public policy, I study what motivates global businesses to engage in environmentally friendly behavior. For my new book, “Corporations at Climate Crossroads,” I interviewed executives and analyzed corporate climate actions and environmental performance of Global 500 and S&P 500 companies over the past decade.

These companies’ climate decisions are driven by a complex interplay of pressures from existing and future laws and the need to earn goodwill with employees, customers, investors, regulators and others.

States wield influence, too

In the U.S., state climate regulations affect multinational corporations. That’s especially true in California – the world’s fifth largest economy and the state with the largest population.

While President Donald Trump dismantles U.S. climate policies, California has moved in the opposite direction.

California’s newly enacted climate laws extend its cap-and-trade program, now called “cap and invest,” which is designed to ratchet down corporate emissions. They also lock in binding targets to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. And they set clean-power levels that rival the Europe Union’s Green Deal and outpace most national governments.

Other states have joined California in committing to meet the goals of the international Paris climate agreement as part of the U.S. Climate Alliance. The bipartisan coalition of 24 governors, from Arizona’s to Vermont’s, represents over half of the U.S. population.

Several states have been considering “polluters pay” laws. These laws would require companies to pay for their contributions to climate change, with the money going into funds for adaptation projects. Vermont and New York passed similar laws in 2024.

Climate laws still apply in Europe and elsewhere

Outside the U.S., several countries have climate regulations that multinational companies must meet.

The European Union aims to cut its emissions by at least 50% by 2030 through policies including binding climate reporting rules for large corporations and carbon taxes for goods entering the EU, along with initiatives to support innovation and competitiveness in clean energy and green infrastructure.

Companies also face emissions reporting requirements in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore, California and cities like Hong Kong. Timelines for some of those laws have shifted, but they’re moving forward.

The International Court of Justice also issued a recent advisory opinion establishing that countries around the globe have a legal obligation to protect the climate. That decision may ultimately increase pressure on global businesses to reduce their contributions to climate change.

Multinationals put pressure on supply chains

Multinational companies’ efforts to reduce their climate impact puts pressure on their suppliers – meaning many more companies must take their climate impact into consideration.

For instance, U.S.-based Walmart operates over 10,000 stores across 19 countries and is the largest single buyer of goods in the world. That means it faces a wide range of regulations, including tracking and reducing emissions from its suppliers.

Given its enormous purchasing volume, Walmart’s procurement standards ripple through vast supply chains. In 2017, it launched Project Gigaton, aiming to cut 1 gigaton of supply-chain greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Suppliers including Nestle, Unilever, Coca Cola, Samsung and Hanes helped the company reach its target six years early through practical measures such as boosting energy efficiency, redesigning packaging, and reducing food waste.

Walmart did push back the deadlines for two of its more ambitious emissions reduction targets in 2025. At the same time, almost half of its electricity worldwide came from renewable energy in 2024, its emissions per unit of revenue fell, and it is working toward zero emissions from its operations by 2040.

There are profits to be made in clean tech

In addition to facing pressure from buyers and governments, companies see profits to be made from investing in climate-friendly clean technology.

Since 2016, investments in clean energy have outpaced that of fossil fuels globally. This trend has only hastened, with nearly twice as much invested in clean energy as fossil fuels in 2025.

Lately, myriad new business opportunities for multinational companies and start-ups alike have focused on meeting AI’s energy demand through clean energy.

From 2014 to 2024, the climate tech sector yielded total returns of nearly 200%, and U.S. investment in climate tech was still growing in 2025.

In the first half of 2025, close to one-fifth of the over 1,600 venture deals in climate tech were made by corporations for strategic reasons, such as technology access, supply chain integration, or future product offerings.

Companies look to the future

As climate risks grow alongside political headwinds, companies are facing both pushes toward and pulls away from protecting the planet from catastrophic effects. Oil and gas companies, for example, continue to invest in new oil and gas development. However, they also forecast renewable energy growth accelerating and are investing in clean tech.

The corporate leaders I interviewed, from tech companies like Intel to sporting goods and apparel companies like Adidas, talked about aligning sustainability efforts and initiatives across their business globally whenever possible.

This proactive approach allows them to more seamlessly collect data and respond to pressures arising domestically and globally, minimizing the need for costly patchwork efforts later. Moreover, global businesses know they will continue to face demands from their customers, investors and employees to be better stewards of the planet.

Lily Hsueh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Global companies are still committing to protect the climate – and they’re investing big money in clean tech – https://theconversation.com/global-companies-are-still-committing-to-protect-the-climate-and-theyre-investing-big-money-in-clean-tech-268761

November 13, 2025

The rise of the autistic detective – why neurodivergent minds are at the heart of modern mysteries

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Soohyun Cho, Assistant Professor at the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts & Humanities, Michigan State University

There never seems to be a shortage of good crime shows on TV, and network television is teeming with detectives who think – and act – differently.

This fall, new seasons of “Elsbeth,” “High Potential,” “Patience” and “Watson” have aired, and they all feature leads who share similar characteristics: They’re outsiders, they’re socially awkward, they can be emotionally distant, and their minds operate in unconventional ways.

In fact, they all possess traits that align with what many people now associate with neurodivergence – what scholar Nick Walker defines as “a mind that functions in ways that diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of ‘normal.’”

As a scholar of popular culture, I’ve long been fascinated by this recurring character type – detectives who might, today, be diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder.

While researching my forthcoming book, “The Autistic Detective,” I’ve come to realize that most detectives in popular culture – yes, even Sherlock Holmes – exhibited neurodivergent characteristics, long before the term existed.

The thin line between genius and madness

In the late 19th century, when Sherlock Holmes was created, there was widespread scientific interest in the workings of the mind, particularly the thin line between genius and madness.

British psychologist James Sully described “men of genius” as exhibiting “intellectual or moral peculiarities which are distinctly symptomatic of mental disease,” naming Edgar Allan Poe as an example of the “tragic fatefulness of geniuses.” Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, meanwhile, proposed that madness, genius and criminality were all closely intertwined.

Such a fascination with exceptional minds – and the idea that madness and genius are two sides of the same coin – fed into the heart of detective fiction. And although later scholars have criticized the linking of neurodivergence to pathology, violence or genius, the trope remains common in popular culture, where it’s often used to signal the exceptional mind of a detective figure.

Now, however, many fans are able to connect these characteristics to specific diagnostic labels. According to CDC data from April 2025, autism diagnoses in U.S. children have risen sharply over the past two decades – from about 1 in 150 in 1998 to roughly 1 in 31 today. This reflects not only a broadened definition of the autism spectrum but also signals greater public awareness and acceptance of neurodivergence.

That growing understanding has led to renewed interest in Holmes. From online fan forums to The New York Times, people have debated whether Holmes might be autistic, wondered whether another label would be more appropriate, or highlighted the futility of trying to diagnose a fictional character.

Super intelligence and social dysfunction

That said, it’s hard not to see some neurodivergent traits in Sherlock Holmes and other fictional detectives.

Tunnel vision, pattern recognition and attention to detail are all traits that could be exhibited by autistic people.

Holmes was fixated on minute details: One story highlighted how he authored a study on the ashes of 140 different varieties of pipe, cigar and cigarette tobacco. He had an unmatched talent for noticing overlooked details and piecing together disparate clues. And he was obsessed with forensic science.

He could also come off as cold. As Holmes declared in “The Sign of the Four,” “Emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.”

In Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” which is widely considered the first detective fiction story, the protagonist, C. Auguste Dupin, also hyperfocuses on small details, reasons through “pure logic” and is socially reclusive – all qualities displayed by Holmes.

Even Dr. Watson, Holmes’ sidekick, noticed the resemblance.

“You remind me of Edgar Allen Poe’s Dupin,” he tells Holmes in “A Study in Scarlet.” “I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories.”

When Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle famously killed off the detective at Reichenbach Falls in his 1893 story “The Final Problem,” there was so much public outrage that the author was eventually forced to bring him back from the dead.

These 19th-century Sherlock enthusiasts were predecessors to today’s media fandoms. Their level of devotion, unlike anything previously seen for a fictional character, was a testament to the power of Doyle’s formula: an extraordinary investigator with savantlike cognitive abilities who upholds logic over emotion, thrives in solitude and yet still depends on his companion – in Holmes’ case, Dr. Watson, who serves as an emotional counterbalance.

In the 21st century, that formula has been revived in wildly popular TV shows such as “Bones,” “Criminal Minds” and “Sherlock.”

In 2016, “Sherlock” co-creator Steven Moffat told the BBC, “Doyle began the idea that super-intelligence comes at the price of some kind of social dysfunction, something that we’ve grasped as a narrative possibility ever since.”

In other words, the more eccentric – or socially dysfunctional – a detective is, the more ingenious the hero seems.

A new era for the detective

Detective fiction might have started as a way to explore the deviant, non-normative minds of detectives and the criminals they pursued. But it has since become a space for neurodivergent self-representation.

Today, scholars, fans, reviewers and scientists openly discuss diagnostic labels for fictional characters. This surge in interest coincides with a rise in research on portrayals of autism in the media and a growing number of autistic voices examining how those portrayals shape public understanding.

Disability scholars have long warned of disabled characters being used as mere plot devices and have criticized the lack of diversity in representations of detectives who appear to be autistic on screen.

Yet many of the new shows push back against some of the stereotypes of autistic people as cold, lonely and incapable of affection. Instead, they have friends. They have romantic partners. They’re empathetic.

The series “Elsbeth” and “High Potential” center on quirky, intelligent female investigative leads who appear to be on the autism spectrum. In HBO’s 2020 miniseries “The Outsider,” detective Holly Gibney appears as one of the first Black, autistic female detectives on television.

While most of these characters aren’t explicitly identified as autistic in their shows, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” features a female attorney whose diagnosis is openly discussed by the show’s characters.

‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ is a Korean series centered on an autistic, early-career attorney.

The British-Belgian series “Patience,” meanwhile, is the first detective show to feature an explicitly autistic character played by a neurodivergent actress, Ella Maisy Purvis.

“It was really important to me that she wasn’t this kind of robotic, asexual drone,” Purvis told the Big Issue in 2025. “Patience is highly empathetic. She cares so much about her job and the people around her. It’s just expressed in a different way.”

These varied portrayals coincide with the rise of online fan communities where neurodivergent fans share what these stories mean to them. If the archetypal detective once tried to “make sense” of neurodivergent minds, today’s neurodivergent fans and creators are now having a hand in shaping them.

Perhaps most importantly, they no longer have to wonder whether they’re being represented on screen.

Soohyun Cho does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The rise of the autistic detective – why neurodivergent minds are at the heart of modern mysteries – https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-autistic-detective-why-neurodivergent-minds-are-at-the-heart-of-modern-mysteries-267069

November 13, 2025

‘Simulation theory’ brings an AI twist out of ‘The Matrix’ to ideas mystics and religious scholars have voiced for centuries

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Rizwan Virk, Faculty Associate, PhD Candidate in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology, Arizona State University

Computer code appears during an immersive reality screening of the 1999 movie ‘The Matrix,’ held in Inglewood, Calif., on May 28, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

In the most talked-about film from the final year of the 20th century, “The Matrix,” a computer hacker named Neo finds that the world he lives and works in isn’t real. It’s a virtual reality, created by artificial intelligence.

At the time, the idea seemed like science fiction. In the years since, however, that concept has become an increasingly credible theory: “the simulation hypothesis.” This theory posits that, like Neo, living things are characters inside a computer-generated simulation – or, as I describe in my 2025 book, a massively multiplayer video game. In this hypothesis, the physical world around us is actually part of a virtual reality.

Simulation theory raises the kind of questions once reserved for mystics and religious scholars: Why are we here? Is there more to reality than we can see? Is there a creator? Are we more than our physical bodies?

The science and technology may be modern, but in some ways, this hypothesis echoes ideas that faith traditions have explored for centuries.

Living in a game?

Simulation theory became popular from the work of philosopher Nick Bostrom, particularly a paper he published in 2003. The basic argument goes like this: If technology continues to improve, humans will be able to build virtual worlds indistinguishable from physical reality, and AI characters indistinguishable from biological beings. This suggests it’s possible that a more advanced civilization has already reached that point – and that we are inside one of their simulations.

A bald man wearing glasses and a gray top poses solemnly in front of a whiteboard with equations in green marker. — Philosopher Nick Bostrom, pictured in 2015, first proposed the simulation hypothesis in 2003.
Tom Pilston for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Physicists, mathematicians, technologists and computer scientists have jumped into the game. Opinions span a wide range of probabilities. Columbia University astronomer David Kipping tried to evaluate the odds we live in a simulation and came up with about 50/50. Some thinkers doubt that the question is even answerable, while others think the theory is impossible – like a 2025 paper arguing that no purely algorithmic system can explain the universe.

The simulation hypothesis does not have to mean that people in the simulation are only soulless, computed AI inside someone else’s creation. In “The Matrix,” for example, even though Neo and other humans are characters inside the simulation, they also existed outside of the virtual world.

Higher intelligence

Simulation theory implies there is a greater intelligence than our own that exists beyond the physical world and may have created our universe – echoing foundational beliefs in many religious traditions. Transhumanist philosopher David Pearce, in fact, called Bostrom’s argument “the first interesting argument for the existence of a Creator in 2000 years.”

The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, for example, all worship a single creator. The biblical Book of Genesis describes God creating the world in six days, and there is a similar narrative in the Quran. According to these scriptures, God simply spoke, and it happened.

Similarly, the simulation hypothesis argues that the world was created through commands – that is, through code. Today, users of AI issue verbal prompts to automatically create realistic pictures and videos that are nearly indistinguishable from real people and landscapes.

In fact, users can even prompt AI programs to create characters that insist they aren’t virtual, as some have done in recent months – a phenomenon called “prompt theory.”

In August 2025, Google released Genie 3, which lets users create realistic-looking worlds that they can navigate through, like in a video game. In the past, these virtual worlds needed to be created by hand by teams of designers, limiting how big or complex they could be. Today, as AI advances, the idea that vast virtual worlds could be created to seem as large as our own is no longer considered such a fantasy.

Body and soul

A second way modern simulation theory echoes traditional religions is in the idea of the relationship between the soul and the body.

One version of the hypothesis – what I call the RPG, or “role-playing game,” version – suggests the simulation is like a multiplayer video game. Each character inside the game represents the external player who controls them, meaning that, in some sense, the characters exhibit free will.

The term for such a character, an “avatar,” is rooted in Sanskrit, the language of many Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts. In Hinduism, an “avatar” refers to the incarnation of a divine being in the form of a human body.

Small, intricately carved ivory statues of human and half-human, half-animal figures. — The 10 main avatars of the Hindu deity Vishnu.
Nomu420/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

The idea of incarnation, or a soul entering a body, is one of the most mysterious aspects of many religious traditions. Describing the development of an unborn child, the Hadith – the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad – describe a moment when “the soul is breathed into him.” The Bible, too, uses the metaphor of breath to describe incarnation: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

Another common metaphor is that the soul dons the body, just as the body puts on clothing. Rumi, whose poetry often explores mystic Sufi themes, compared the body to a garment that could be taken off or changed.

A similar metaphor was used in the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture: “Just as you throw out used clothes and put on other clothes, new ones, the Self discards its used bodies and puts on others that are new.”

If we think about the soul as the player of a virtual reality game, and the body as merely their character inside who has forgotten about the outside world, then the parallels between religion and simulation theory are clear. The game may end, or the character may die, but the player continues to exist outside the game. Some religions teach that each soul can be reincarnated, having many lives – as though the player goes in and plays the game again and again, playing many different characters.

Immersed in a dream

A stone statue of a man with a topknot wearing loosely draped robes, with a circle behind his head. — A first- or second-century C.E. depiction of the Buddha from Gandhara, in present-day Afghanistan.
Tokyo National Museum/World Imaging via Wikimedia Commons

There is also an even more fundamental way simulation theory echoes some religious teachings: the idea that the physical world is not real, or is not all there is to reality.

This is clear in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, which describe the world being a result of “maya,” or an illusion. Often, this is expressed through the metaphor of the world being like a dream that one can awaken from. Indeed, a popular definition of the term “Buddha” is someone who has “awakened.”

The “Samadhiraja Sutra,” or “King of Samadhi Sutra,” for example, teaches:

Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a cloud castle,
A dream, an apparition,
Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen.

Paramahansa Yogananda, a Hindu monk who died in 1952, wrote “Autobiography of a Yogi,” which introduced meditation and yoga to many in the West. Trying to explain the idea of “maya,” which is often translated as “illusion,” he compared people’s sense of physical reality to actors playing in a motion picture – relatively new technology in the 1920s, when he came from India to make his home in the United States.

As I wrote in my 2023 book about Yogananda, were the famous swami alive today, perhaps he would update the metaphor to use today’s technology: video games.

In a critical scene in “The Matrix,” Neo’s mentor, Morpheus – named after the Greek god of dreams – tells him that he has been living in a dream world. The simulation hypothesis, too, proposes that people may be living in a dream world, albeit one that is virtual, created and maintained by AI.

Perhaps the only reaction is to echo Neo and say: Whoa.

Rizwan Virk owns shares in Google, and in various video game companies. He is also a venture partner in Griffin Gaming Partners, a venture capital fund dedicated to investing in video game-related startups.

– ref. ‘Simulation theory’ brings an AI twist out of ‘The Matrix’ to ideas mystics and religious scholars have voiced for centuries – https://theconversation.com/simulation-theory-brings-an-ai-twist-out-of-the-matrix-to-ideas-mystics-and-religious-scholars-have-voiced-for-centuries-269335

November 13, 2025

La quête de « l’utérus artificiel » : entre fiction et avancées de la recherche

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Allane Madanamoothoo, Associate Professor of Law, EDC Paris Business School

Et si la gestation ou, du moins, une partie du processus, pouvait être externalisée au moyen de dispositifs extra-utérins, que ce soit pour poursuivre le développement de nouveau-nés prématurés ou pour des visées plus politiques, comme lutter contre la baisse des naissances ? Une telle technologie est encore très loin d’être réalisable, mais des recherches sont bel et bien menées dans ce domaine.

En août dernier, la rumeur circulait qu’un chercheur chinois, Zhang Qifeng, fondateur de Kaiwa Technology, travaillait au développement de robots humanoïdes dotés d’utérus artificiels, capables de porter un fœtus jusqu’à dix mois. Le prototype serait presque finalisé et devrait être prêt d’ici à 2026. Prix du « robot de grossesse » : 100 000 yuans (environ 12 000 euros).

Après vérification, il s’avère que cette technique de procréation, appelée « ectogenèse », ne verra pas le jour en Chine et que les informations relayées sont fausses. Il en est de même de l’existence de Zhang Qifeng.

Toutefois, même si pour l’heure l’utérus artificiel (UA) relève de la science-fiction, la création d’un tel dispositif technique – perçu comme le prolongement des couveuses néonatales et des techniques de procréation médicalement assistée – fait l’objet de recherches dans plusieurs pays.

Des recherches sur l’animal autour de dispositifs extra-utérins

L’idée de concevoir et de faire naître un enfant complètement en dehors du corps de la femme, depuis la conception jusqu’à la naissance, n’est pas nouvelle. Le généticien John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (1892-1964), inventeur du terme « ectogenèse », l’avait imaginé en 1923.

Selon les prédictions de ce partisan de l’eugénisme, le premier bébé issu d’un UA devait naître en 1951.

Henri Atlan, spécialiste de la bioéthique et auteur de l’Utérus artificiel (2005), estimait, quant à lui, que la réalisation de l’UA pourrait intervenir d’ici le milieu ou la fin du XXIᵉ siècle.

Même si l’UA n’existe pas encore, les chercheurs ont d’ores et déjà commencé à faire des essais chez les animaux, dans l’espoir de développer par la suite des prototypes d’UA applicables à l’être humain.

En 1993, par exemple, au Japon, le professeur Yoshinori Kuwabara a conçu un incubateur contenant du liquide amniotique artificiel permettant à deux fœtus de chèvres (de 120 jours et de 128 jours, la gestation étant de cinq mois chez la chèvre, soit autour de 150 jours) de se développer hors de l’utérus pendant trois semaines. À leur naissance, ils ont survécu plus d’une semaine.

En 2017, un article publié dans Nature Communications a révélé les travaux de l’équipe d’Alan Flake, chirurgien fœtal à l’hôpital pour enfants de Philadelphie (États-Unis), qui ont permis à des fœtus d’agneaux de se développer partiellement, là encore dans un dispositif extra-utérin rempli de liquide amniotique artificiel, pendant quatre semaines. Avec un apport nutritionnel approprié, les agneaux ont connu une croissance apparemment normale, notamment au niveau du développement des poumons et du cerveau.

Côté développement embryonnaire, toujours chez l’animal, en 2021, des chercheurs chinois ont mis au point un système capable de surveiller le développement d’embryons de souris de manière entièrement automatisée, abusivement surnommé « nounou artificielle ».

L’utilisation d’animaux à des fins de recherche, bien qu’elle soit réglementée dans de nombreux pays, y compris les pays de l’Union européenne (Directive européenne 2010/63 UE) et aux États-Unis (Animal Welfare Act), soulève néanmoins des questions éthiques.

Des recherches et des avancées aussi sur l’humain

Dans le domaine de la procréation humaine, les avancées sont également considérables. Il est possible depuis 1978 – année de la naissance de Louise Brown, premier « bébé-éprouvette » du monde – de concevoir un embryon par fécondation in vitro (FIV), puis de l’implanter avec succès dans l’utérus de la mère.

En 2003, les travaux de la chercheuse américaine Helen Hung Ching Liu ont démontré la possibilité d’implanter des embryons dans une cavité biodégradable en forme d’utérus humain et recouverte de cellules endométriales. Faute d’autorisation légale, les embryons, qui se développaient normalement, ont été détruits au bout de six jours.

En 2016, un article publié dans Nature Cell Biology a également révélé que le développement embryonnaire pouvait se poursuivre en laboratoire, grâce à un système in vitro.

Le défi pour les chercheurs consiste à combler la période qui suit les 14 premiers jours de l’embryon conçu par FIV – période qui correspond à un seuil critique car elle comprend des étapes clés du développement de l’embryon.

À ce jour, de nombreux pays ont défini une limite de quatorze jours à ne pas dépasser pour le développement embryonnaire in vitro à des fins de recherche ou pour la fécondation, soit sous la forme de recommandations, soit par l’intermédiaire d’une loi, comme c’est le cas en France.

Dans le futur, un risque de détournement des finalités initiales ?

Les recherches actuelles sur le développement de l’UA « partiel » dans lequel l’enfant serait placé dans un dispositif extra-utérin rempli de liquide de synthèse sont motivées par des raisons thérapeutiques, notamment la réduction de la mortalité des nouveau-nés prématurés.

Toutefois, l’UA « total » qui permettrait une gestation extra-corporelle, de la fécondation à la naissance, pourrait se déployer pour répondre à d’autres objectifs. Il s’agit naturellement d’un exercice de prospective, mais voici certains développements qui semblent envisageables si l’UA « total » venait à être développé et à devenir largement accessible.

Certaines femmes pourraient y avoir recours pour des raisons personnelles. Henri Atlan en avait déjà prédit la banalisation :

« Très vite se développera une demande de la part de femmes désireuses de procréer tout en s’épargnant les contraintes d’une grossesse […] Dès qu’il sera possible de procréer en évitant une grossesse, au nom de quoi s’opposera-t-on à la revendication de femmes pouvant choisir ce mode de gestation ? »

Dans une société capitaliste, certaines entreprises pourraient encourager la « culture des naissances » extra-corporelles afin d’éviter les absences liées à la grossesse humaine. Une discrimination pourrait alors s’opérer entre les salariées préférant une grossesse naturelle et celles préférant recourir à l’UA dans le cadre de leur projet de maternité. Dans un contexte concurrentiel, d’autres entreprises pourraient financer l’UA. Rappelons à cet égard que, aux États-Unis, plusieurs grandes entreprises (Google, Apple, Facebook, etc.) couvrent déjà le coût de la FIV et/ou de la congélation des ovocytes afin d’attirer les « meilleurs profils », bien qu’aucune de ces pratiques ne constitue une « assurance-bébé ». Plusieurs cycles de FIV peuvent en effet être nécessaires avant de tomber enceinte.

L’UA pourrait être utilisé afin de pallier l’interdiction de la gestation pour autrui (GPA) en vigueur dans de nombreux États, ou être préféré à la GPA afin d’éviter les situations où la mère porteuse, après s’être attachée à l’enfant qu’elle portait, refuse de le remettre aux parents d’intention, ou encore pour une question de coût.

L’industrie de la fertilité pourrait développer ce qui serait un nouveau marché
– celui de l’UA –, parallèlement à ceux de la FIV, du sperme, des ovocytes et de la GPA, déjà existants. Nous aboutirions alors à une fabrication industrielle de l’humain, ce qui modifierait profondément l’humanité.

Indéniablement, l’UA pourrait mener à la revendication d’un droit à un designer baby (bébé à la carte ou bébé sur mesure) sous le prisme d’un eugénisme privé. Avec un corps pleinement visible et contrôlable dans l’UA, les parents pourraient exiger un « contrôle de qualité » sur l’enfant durant toute la durée de la gestation artificielle.

Aux États-Unis, plusieurs cliniques de fertilité proposent déjà aux futurs parents de choisir le sexe et la couleur des yeux de leur enfant conçu par FIV, option couplée à un diagnostic préimplantatoire (DPI). D’autres, telles que Genomic Prediction, offrent la possibilité de sélectionner le « meilleur embryon » après un test polygénique, avant son implantation dans l’utérus de la mère. La naissance de bébés génétiquement modifiés est aussi possible depuis celles de Lulu et de Nana en Chine, en 2018, malgré l’interdiction de cette pratique.

Dernier élément de cet exercice de prospective : l’UA pourrait être utilisé à des fins politiques. Certains pays pourraient mener un contrôle biomédical des naissances afin d’aboutir à un eugénisme d’État. D’autres États pourraient tirer avantage de l’UA pour faire face au déclin de la natalité.

Qu’en pensent les féministes ?

En envisageant la séparation de l’ensemble du processus de la procréation – de la conception à la naissance – du corps humain, l’UA suscite des débats au sein du mouvement féministe.

Parmi les féministes favorables à l’UA, Shulamith Firestone (1945-2012), dans son livre The Dialectic of Sex : The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970), soutenait que l’UA libérerait les femmes des contraintes de la grossesse et de l’accouchement. Plaidant contre la sacralisation de la maternité et de l’accouchement, elle estime que l’UA permettrait également aux femmes de ne plus être réduites à leur fonction biologique et de vivre pleinement leur individualité. Cette thèse est partagée par Anna Smajdor et Kathryn Mackay.

Evie Kendel, de son côté, juge que, si l’UA venait à devenir réalité, l’État devrait le prendre en charge, au nom de l’égalité des chances entre les femmes.

Chez les féministes opposées à l’UA, Rosemarie Tong considère qu’il pourrait conduire à « une marchandisation du processus entier de la grossesse » et à la « chosification » de l’enfant. Au sujet des enfants qui naîtraient de l’UA, elle affirme :

« Ils seront de simples créatures du présent et des projections dans l’avenir, sans connexions signifiantes avec le passé. C’est là une voie funeste et sans issue. […] Dernière étape vers la création de corps posthumains ? »

Tous ces débats sont aujourd’hui théoriques, mais le resteront-ils encore longtemps ? Et quand bien même l’UA deviendrait un jour réalisable, tout ce qui est techniquement possible est-il pour autant souhaitable ? Comme le souligne Sylvie Martin, autrice du Désenfantement du monde. Utérus artificiel et effacement du corps maternel (2012), tous les êtres humains naissent d’un corps féminin. Dès lors, en cas d’avènement de l’UA, pourrions-nous encore parler « d’être humain » ?

Allane Madanamoothoo ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. La quête de « l’utérus artificiel » : entre fiction et avancées de la recherche – https://theconversation.com/la-quete-de-luterus-artificiel-entre-fiction-et-avancees-de-la-recherche-266023

November 13, 2025

Darker Shade of Pale: why I wrote a book about my grandfather and how it changed my view of him

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Leslie Swartz, Professor, Stellenbosch University

Deborah Posel, the founding director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, an interdisciplinary research institute in the humanities and social sciences in South Africa, has published a new book, Darker Shade of Pale: Shtetl to Colony. Using a combination of personal memoir and historical inquiry, it retraces the early 20th century migration of Jewish people from the Russian Empire to colonial South Africa through one man’s life.

The book uncovers the hidden story of global migration at the turn of the 20th century from the Jewish territories of the Russian Empire, The Pale of Settlement, to the British colony of South Africa. It follows the author’s grandfather, Maurice Posel, whose struggles and disappointments mirror those of countless others, using the intimacy of a single story to illuminate a much broader set of issues.

Leslie Swartz, a psychology scholar and the editor-in-chief of the South African Journal of Science, talks to Posel about the book.

Leslie Swartz: A key feature for me is the vibrance and joy with which the book, though often dealing with painful issues, is written. I was interested to know how you came to write the book.

Deborah Posel: I had been working for years on a book – entitled Racial Material – on the politics of race and consumption. I had tons of material for the book, and I had absolutely loved researching it, including spending a year in the British Library. During that year, I was not looking for material on Jews, but Jews and Jewish issues kept crossing my page. I took note, but moved on.

I got back to South Africa, intending to write this hefty book. I began as did the COVID-19 lockdown. I started writing the first chapter of Racial Material as all our lives changed – in theory, an entirely free and unfettered time to write, but it was an unexpectedly joyless process.

At that moment, the conventions of academic writing were entirely alienating: nailing everything down in copious detail, reading all the available literature to find out what every single person had said about something in order to be able to make an argument, making sure that I had painstakingly chased after everything that could possibly be relevant, and very cautiously claiming only what this accumulation of evidence would tolerate. No doubt not every academic writes like that, but my academic writing is risk averse. I can and do make bold claims but only on the strength of this kind of effort.

Leslie Swartz: Which, may I say, distinguishes you from many social scientists in South Africa. This is part of why I love your work.

Deborah Posel: The other thing that I do when I write academically is that I make an argument – that’s at the core of academic writing, in my mind – and I sustain an argument that ties everything tightly together.

So I hauled myself through the first chapter but couldn’t face doing it again for the second one. I then decided to embrace the spirit of lockdown: do whatever you feel like doing, these are not normal times; here is an interregnum, so break out, cut loose. That’s when and how I started writing the Darker Shade of Pale book, having no clue where I was going, having no plan, no structure – a 180 degrees different approach from the way I would tackle academic writing.

The second big change for me was I wanted to write in a much more fluid way, more lyrically, more speculatively, more imaginatively, in ways that I thought would be inappropriate in academic writing. I started exploring literary devices that I probably would not use if I was writing what I would call an academic book.

Locked down and locked in, I broke out of my old way of writing. It was joyful. But it was also difficult, with new challenges. I now had two voices: as an historian, but also as a granddaughter. Initially I wasn’t sure how to speak in unison. Also, I had so little material about my grandfather’s life that I would call evidence – no letters, no diaries, very few people alive who could remember him, few photos. I decided early on that I didn’t want to fictionalise and make things up.

I wanted to create a narrative, however patchy and porous, that I knew to be reasonably accurate. That gave me my space. In fact, it required me to produce a story with gaps and shadows. Which is very explicit in the text. I make it clear that I’m giving my take on the possibilities that presented themselves to me.

I tried as far as possible to substantiate them, but I gave myself much more freedom to interpret and imagine. And along with that, writing about my grandfather‘s life became more emotional for me than would have been appropriate in an academic text. In this book, my feelings, though not the central concern, were current and live.

Leslie Swartz: I am glad that you “cut loose”. I view Darker Shade of Pale first and foremost as a cracking good read – a book I have earmarked to give to family members who are not academics but who are interested in migration, families, racial politics, marginalisation. For me it is also scholarly, painstakingly researched, important for any scholar of race and racialisation to read as well. In what way do you think it offers an understanding specifically of Jewish issues?

Deborah Posel: When I started writing this book I was so ignorant about Jewish history. I often asked myself: why, as a Jewish scholar of South Africa, had I paid absolutely no attention to Jews? Why had my intellectual peers also not done so? I had never considered questions about how you write Jews into South African history.

So I had a steep learning curve too, reading as much as I could find, and spending lots of time in South African archives, to produce a social history intertwined with my grandfather’s story. I tried to make sense of him, and his individual Jewishness, as made and unmade by his wider society.

It started with life in the shtetl (the name for a small town with a predominantly Jewish population in eastern Europe). I deliberately started there because most migration stories start when people get off the ship, as day one of the new life. But what did they come with? What was the headspace? What were the psyches that landed, and how well equipped or not were they psychologically to cope?

And I must say that I found the world of the shtetl staggeringly unexpected. Even the smallest shtetl was status-obsessed; failure was deeply shameful, even there.

The people who hadn’t made it in the shtetl were among those who left and tried to start new lives, another chance to make something of themselves. My great-grandfather was one of them, and he failed again. A shameful trajectory. It gave me an entirely different perspective on my grandfather, and his ill-fated son, unlikely, given his life in the shtetl, to realise the hopes and ambitions of his emigration. I had judged him all too readily and ignorantly. I started to feel sorry for him, which no doubt seeped into the writing.

Leslie: For me, the emotions have seeped into the writing and that is why this book is so good – disciplined and emotional at the same time. And an important read, I think, in world, Jewish and South African history.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Darker Shade of Pale: why I wrote a book about my grandfather and how it changed my view of him – https://theconversation.com/darker-shade-of-pale-why-i-wrote-a-book-about-my-grandfather-and-how-it-changed-my-view-of-him-268582

November 13, 2025

Comment la gestion de la dette publique appauvrit l’État au profit du secteur privé

Source: The Conversation – France (in French) – By Jérôme Baray, Professeur des universités en sciences de gestion, Le Mans Université

La croissance de la dette publique fait l’objet de toutes les attentions. Toutefois, si tel est le cas, c’est en raison des choix qui ont été faits pour l’assumer. Recourir aux marchés financiers n’est pas neutre. Et si la solution passait par une définanciarisation de la gestion de la dette.

« L’État vit au-dessus de ses moyens. » La phrase est si souvent répétée qu’elle n’est plus questionnée. De moins de 20 % du produit intérieur brut (PIB) dans les années 1970, la dette atteint aujourd’hui environ 110 %. Au-delà de ces chiffres, de nombreux travaux critiques, de Thomas Piketty à Pierre Bourdieu, montrent une autre réalité.

Loin d’être née d’un excès de dépenses sociales, la dette est aussi née d’une série de choix politiques favorables aux marchés financiers, comme l’ont montré Frédéric Lordon ou François Chesnais, la financiarisation de l’État transformant la dette en outil de transfert de richesses vers le secteur privé.

L’interdiction de la monétisation directe (c’est-à-dire le financement de la dette par émission monétaire), les privatisations massives et les aides publiques non conditionnées ont affaibli l’État, tout en enrichissant le secteur financier. Ainsi, chaque année, des milliards d’euros d’intérêts (68 milliards d’euros en 2025, soit un peu plus que le budget de l’éducation nationale) rémunèrent les créanciers privés, tandis que les services publics doivent se restreindre. Le récit dominant occulte la responsabilité de choix politiques assumés et construits dans le temps long.

L’année du basculement

Jusqu’en 1973, l’État pouvait se financer auprès de la Banque de France à taux nul. La loi du 3 janvier 1973 y a mis fin, imposant l’emprunt sur les marchés. Cette décision s’inscrivait dans un contexte d’inflation forte et dans l’adhésion aux idées monétaristes naissantes : limiter la création monétaire publique était perçu comme un moyen de stabiliser les prix et de moderniser la politique économique.

Cette dépendance a été renforcée par les traités européens : l’Acte unique européen (1986), le traité de Maastricht (1992) puis le traité de Lisbonne (2007).

Cette réforme, souvent présentée comme une modernisation, peut aussi être lue – et c’est la perspective que je défends – comme un basculement structurel vers une dépendance durable aux marchés financiers. Ce choix était motivé par la crainte de l’inflation et par la volonté d’inscrire la France dans le mouvement de libéralisation financière qui gagnait les économies occidentales à la même époque.

Dans les années 1980, avec la désinflation compétitive, l’endettement a été transformé en une sorte d’impôt implicite, la « taxe intérêts de la dette » ayant remplacé la « taxe inflation ». En effet, à cette époque, le taux d’intérêt était devenu supérieur au taux de croissance de l’économie. Dès lors, la dette augmentait même en l’absence de nouveaux déficits : c’est l’effet dit de « boule de neige », où le poids des intérêts croît plus vite que les recettes publiques.

Ce tournant illustre la manière dont la dette, de simple outil, s’est muée en carcan durable. Il a aussi renforcé l’idée que les marges de manœuvre budgétaires étaient contraintes par des forces extérieures, ce qui a profondément marqué la culture économique et politique française.

Un appauvrissement organisé

À cette contrainte monétaire s’est ajoutée la vente d’actifs publics : banques, télécoms, énergie, autoroutes, aéroports. Ces privatisations ont dépossédé l’État de dividendes réguliers, réduisant sa capacité d’action à long terme. Parallèlement, les aides aux entreprises se sont multipliées, atteignant plus de 210 milliards d’euros en 2023 (Sénat, rapport 2025).

Si certaines aides ont pu avoir des effets positifs à court terme, leur généralisation sans contrepartie claire pose problème. C’est à ce moment-là que l’État s’est progressivement privé d’un levier de régulation.

En additionnant privatisations (moins de ressources régulières) et aides (davantage de dépenses), l’endettement apparaît comme le résultat d’un appauvrissement de l’État, appauvrissement révélateur d’une orientation stratégique privilégiant la rente sur l’investissement collectif. Cette rente est payée par les contribuables sous forme d’intérêts de la dette, et captée par les détenteurs d’obligations d’État – banques, fonds et assureurs.

Qui profite de la dette ?

Le résultat de toutes ces orientations prises au fil du temps est qu’en 2023, le service de la dette a coûté 55 milliards d’euros, soit plusieurs fois le budget de la justice). Ces montants bénéficient surtout aux banques, fonds et assureurs… Une partie est détenue via l’épargne domestique, mais ce circuit reste coûteux : les citoyens prêtent à l’État, paient les intérêts par l’impôt, pendant que les intermédiaires captent la marge. Autrement dit, la collectivité se prête à elle-même, mais avec intérêts.

Pierre Bourdieu parlait de « noblesse d’État » pour désigner les élites circulant entre ministères, banques et grandes entreprises. Dans ce système de connivence, la dette devient une rente pour les acteurs économiques et financiers qui détiennent la dette souveraine, mais aussi pour certains hauts fonctionnaires et dirigeants d’entreprises passés du public au privé. D’où les appels à réorienter la gestion des actifs stratégiques (infrastructures, énergie, transports, recherche) et à renégocier les intérêts jugés illégitimes.

Ces débats dépassent la seule technique financière : ils interrogent la légitimité même du mode de gouvernance économique.

La dette comme instrument de gouvernement

Le discours économique dominant mobilise des termes technocratiques – « règle d’or », « solde structurel » – qui transforment des choix politiques en nécessités. Plus de 90 % de la monnaie en zone euro est créée par les banques commerciales au moment du crédit. En renonçant à la création monétaire publique, l’État rémunère des créanciers privés pour accéder à sa propre monnaie, institutionnalisant sa dépendance. En termes simples, lorsqu’une banque commerciale accorde un prêt, elle crée de la monnaie ex nihilo ; à l’inverse, l’État, privé de ce pouvoir, doit emprunter cette monnaie avec intérêts pour financer ses politiques publiques. À mesure que l’austérité progresse se déploie une « gouvernance par les instruments » : indicateurs, conditionnalités, surveillance numérique des dépenses.

Comme l’avaient anticipé Michel Foucault, dans Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison, 1975), et Gilles Deleuze (Post-scriptum sur les sociétés de contrôle, 1990), l’économie se confond avec un dispositif disciplinaire. La dette devient ainsi l’alibi qui légitime les restrictions et le contrôle social.

Dans le quotidien des citoyens, cela se traduit par des dispositifs concrets : notation bancaire, suivi des allocataires sociaux, encadrement des dépenses publiques, autant de mécanismes qui étendent la logique de surveillance. Ces pratiques ont un effet durable, car elles façonnent des comportements de conformité et réduisent l’espace du débat politique, en donnant l’impression que « l’économie impose ses propres lois ».

France Inter, 2025.

Quelles alternatives crédibles ?

Repenser la dette suppose de l’utiliser de façon ciblée, à taux nul, comme avant 1973. Les aides aux entreprises devraient être conditionnées à des engagements vérifiables en matière d’emploi et d’innovation, au profit des petites et moyennes entreprises. La fiscalité doit être rééquilibrée, en réduisant les niches, en taxant les rentes, en imposant aux grandes entreprises actives en France d’y payer leurs impôts. L’exemple de la taxe sur les superprofits énergétiques (UE, 2022) montre que c’est possible. Il s’agit là d’une mesure de justice élémentaire, que beaucoup de citoyens comprennent intuitivement, mais qui peine encore à s’imposer dans le débat public.

En outre, une loi antitrust limiterait la concentration excessive dans le numérique, la finance ou l’énergie. Pour être efficace, elle devrait s’accompagner d’autorités de régulation fortes, capables de sanctionner réellement les abus de position dominante. Enfin, une cotisation sociale sur l’intelligence artificielle permettrait de partager les gains de productivité et de financer la protection sociale. Une telle mesure contribuerait aussi à une meilleure répartition du temps de travail et à un équilibre de vie plus soutenable. Au-delà de ces leviers, une simplification des structures administratives libérerait des marges de manœuvre budgétaires, permettant de renforcer les métiers à forte utilité sociale et d’améliorer la qualité du service rendu aux citoyens.

La dette publique française n’est pas le fruit d’un peuple dépensier, mais celui d’un système construit depuis 1973 pour enrichir une minorité et fragiliser la puissance publique. Privatisations, aides sans condition, rente d’intérêts et connivence entre élites ont transformé l’endettement en transfert de richesses. Rompre avec cette logique suppose de recourir à l’emprunt à taux nul, de conditionner les aides, de rééquilibrer la fiscalité, de réguler les monopoles et de taxer l’IA.

Reprendre la main sur la dette, c’est gouverner la monnaie et les priorités collectives en fonction de l’intérêt général. C’est aussi affirmer que l’économie n’est pas une fatalité technique, mais un choix de société qui engage la souveraineté et le contrat social de demain.

Jérôme Baray est membre de l’Académie des Sciences Commerciales.

– ref. Comment la gestion de la dette publique appauvrit l’État au profit du secteur privé – https://theconversation.com/comment-la-gestion-de-la-dette-publique-appauvrit-letat-au-profit-du-secteur-prive-268938

November 13, 2025

How to make new housing estates work for the people who live there

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Keetie Roelen, Senior Research Fellow, Co-Deputy Director, Centre for the Study of Global Development, The Open University

The UK is grappling with a housing crisis, with a shortage of 2.5 million homes in England alone. To address this, the government has pledged to build 1.5 million homes by 2029 and 12 new towns before the next election.

Building new homes, as part of small developments or in large new towns, is imperative for affordable and comfortable living. However, it is only a starting point. Making new housing estates into good places to live requires adequate transport links, access to schools and shops, and a sense of belonging for those who live there.

Earlier this year, I led research into two new estates in Milton Keynes, Glebe Farm/Eagle Farm and Whitehouse. Both areas have been under development for nearly a decade, and new houses continue to be built. Our research with residents, service providers and community workers in both estates reveals how simply building homes does not create an environment for people to thrive.

New homes provide much-needed stability and security, particularly for people who have experienced housing insecurity.

But residents in new developments reported that they also face considerable challenges. Lack of public transport, limited availability of schools, childcare facilities or GP surgeries and delayed or non-existent community hubs are commonly cited problems.

New estates are often built without adequate infrastructure or amenities to accommodate residents. While developers and local authorities blame each other for these shortcomings, residents draw the short straw. Whitehouse has had to wait eight years before opening the doors to its community building. The shops and local pub that residents said they were promised have yet to be built.

A young boy and girl waiting at a bus stop on an empty suburban road — Transport links and other infrastructure are essential for people to thrive in new towns.
DGLimages/Shutterstock

Challenges with infrastructure and services affect all residents in new housing estates. But they are especially difficult for residents whose budgets are tight. Problems with transport and accessing basic amenities bring economic, social and psychological costs. In turn, it is harder to hold a job, raise children and live healthily. With affordable housing requirements of up to 50% in new estates, a considerable proportion of new residents are affected in this way.

Take Angela, who lives on the Glebe Farm estate on the eastern edge of Milton Keynes. She doesn’t have a car and relies on taxis to bring her children to school, nearly three miles from their home. She told us that fares can add up to £800 a month during the cold and dark of winter. Others reported having to choose between an expensive local shop or taking taxis to cheaper, larger shops, as the bus service is unreliable.

Low-income residents are also more likely to face social isolation and struggle with housing associations. Maintenance issues, broken windows or mould take months to be responded to or are sometimes ignored altogether.

How to make new housing estates successful for all

First, it is vital that public transport links are established as soon as new housing areas are being developed. Lack of affordable and viable ways of travelling around the city emerged as the single biggest complaint in the two new estates included in our research, especially among low-income residents.

Second, new housing estates need their own services and amenities, including schools, GP surgeries and shops. Their establishment tends to be delayed, their capacity insufficient to meet new demand, or their construction simply not on the cards. This is vital – not just for serving new residents, but to avoid putting further pressure on existing services in nearby areas, which are often already under strain.

Third, investment in community development and infrastructure is key for creating inclusive and thriving communities. This means building community centres and spaces with ample capacity to meet communities’ needs, and ensuring that temporary facilities are provided until permanent facilities are available.

Understanding the needs of all residents, and especially those on lower incomes, is imperative for creating inclusive neighbourhoods. Resident groups and community organisations can play a role with developers and local authorities to make this happen.

To avoid new estates trapping low-income residents in a life of precarity rather than move them out of it, the focus needs to shift beyond the government’s current “build, baby, build” approach and also consider the needs of people and families beyond the brick and mortar of their new homes.

Without prioritisation of public transport, schools, healthcare, community infrastructure and ongoing social support, these developments risk becoming places of exclusion rather than opportunity.

Keetie Roelen is a Trustee of anti-poverty organisation ATD Fourth World UK.

– ref. How to make new housing estates work for the people who live there – https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-new-housing-estates-work-for-the-people-who-live-there-267930

November 13, 2025

From contraception to menopause: why women face a higher risk of stroke

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Siobhan Mclernon, UCL Stroke Research Centre, Department for Brain repair and rehabilitation. Senior Lecturer, Adult Nursing and co-lead, Ageing, Acute and Long Term Conditions, London South Bank University

Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. It places a huge burden on families, health systems and societies. Increasingly, strokes are not just occurring in older adults. They are affecting younger people in the most productive years of their lives, interrupting work, family life and long-term wellbeing.

In the US, around 55,000 more women than men experience a stroke each year. This is partly because women live longer. However, women also tend to have poorer outcomes and a lower quality of life after a stroke. Globally, stroke is more common in women than men under the age of 25.

Stroke risk in women is shaped by biology and hormones throughout the reproductive years.

One important set of risk factors involves high blood pressure during pregnancy. These include conditions such as gestational hypertension and preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia usually develops after 20 weeks and involves high blood pressure alongside organ damage, often affecting the kidneys or liver. These conditions increase the risk of stroke both during pregnancy and later in life because high blood pressure can injure the blood vessels that supply the brain.

Hormonal contraceptive use can also influence stroke risk. Not all hormonal contraception increases the risk. The main concern relates to combined oral contraceptives that contain both oestrogen and progesterone. These can make blood more likely to clot and raise blood pressure.

The risk is higher in women who smoke, are over 35 or have migraines with aura. Progesterone only methods are not linked to the same level of risk. Around 248 million women worldwide use hormonal contraception according to the World Health Organization.

Menopause is another important factor. During menopause, oestrogen levels fall. Oestrogen normally helps protect blood vessel walls and supports healthy cholesterol levels. When oestrogen declines, blood vessels can become stiffer and more prone to damage, which increases stroke risk.

Hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, is sometimes used to treat menopausal symptoms. Some forms of HRT, particularly those containing oestrogen, have been linked to a small increase in stroke risk, especially in older women or those who start HRT many years after menopause.

Women are also more likely to experience migraines, particularly migraines with aura. This type of migraine is associated with temporary disruptions to blood flow in the brain, which can increase the risk of stroke.

Autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, are more common in women and can cause chronic inflammation. Inflammation contributes to the narrowing and weakening of blood vessels, making stroke more likely.

Evidence for these combined risks has been documented in multiple studies. For example, a research review found that reproductive factors, hormonal exposure and immune system differences all contribute to higher stroke risk in women.

Stroke in pregnancy and after childbirth

Pregnancy places extra strain on the heart and circulatory system. Blood volume increases, hormones fluctuate and blood becomes more prone to clotting. This means that women who are pregnant or have recently given birth are about three times more likely to have a stroke than women of the same age who are not pregnant. Evidence for this increased risk is well documented in research published by the American Heart and Stroke Association.

In addition, stroke is a leading cause of maternal illness and death. Serious inequalities exist. In England, Black women are four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. Asian women and women from mixed ethnic backgrounds also face higher risks, according to MBRRACE UK, a longstanding official audit of maternity care quality and outcomes.

In the US, Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at nearly twice the rate of white women. Stroke is one of the major medical complications that contributes to these deaths. Factors include delayed diagnosis, unequal access to care and higher rates of conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity and preeclampsia.

Women from minority ethnic groups are also more likely to have stroke risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes and reduced access to high-quality maternal healthcare. This makes regular antenatal checkups and culturally appropriate health education vital.

Why stroke is often missed in women

Stroke symptoms are more likely to be overlooked in women. Although men and women often have similar early signs, such as facial drooping, arm weakness and speech problems, women are more likely to report additional symptoms such as headache, fatigue, nausea or confusion. These can be mistaken for anxiety, migraine or stress.

Paramedics and healthcare professionals are more likely to label a woman’s symptoms as a “stroke mimic” rather than a stroke itself. This delay in recognition and treatment can lead to lifelong disability or death.

Subarachnoid haemorrhage is a type of stroke caused by bleeding around the brain, often due to a burst aneurysm. It usually presents as a sudden, extremely painful headache that does not improve with pain relief. This form of stroke is more common in women.

One reason is that lower oestrogen levels after menopause can weaken artery walls in the brain, making them more prone to rupture. Women who go through menopause early, before the age of 42, have an even higher risk.

Women shoulder a disproportionate share of the global stroke burden. Hormonal, reproductive and social factors all contribute. Women from minority ethnic backgrounds often face even greater risks because of unequal access to healthcare, higher rates of underlying health conditions and delays in diagnosis and treatment.

Despite this burden, there is still a significant gap in knowledge. Many stroke risks that are specific to women are poorly understood. Women remain underrepresented in clinical research, which means treatment guidelines are often based on evidence from men, rather than reflecting women’s bodies and experiences.

Improving outcomes will require stroke prevention strategies that are inclusive, culturally sensitive and tailored to women at different stages of life. Education, early recognition of symptoms and fair access to healthcare are essential. Only by acknowledging and addressing these unique risks can we reduce the global impact of stroke and begin to close the gender gap.

Siobhan Mclernon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. From contraception to menopause: why women face a higher risk of stroke – https://theconversation.com/from-contraception-to-menopause-why-women-face-a-higher-risk-of-stroke-266040

November 13, 2025

Teacher recruitment and retention are separate issues – they need tackling in different ways

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Emily MacLeod, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Education, UCL

It is well known that more teachers are needed in England. A shortage of teachers affects young people’s attainment at school and puts pressure on the existing education workforce. There are two key reasons for this teacher shortage. Not enough people are signing up to become teachers, and too many teachers are leaving the profession each year.

Politicians often refer to the need to improve teacher recruitment and retention, putting both factors together. Underpinning this approach is an assumption that policies aimed at motivating people to stay in teaching – early-career bursaries, for instance – might simultaneously attract new teachers into the profession.

But my research with aspirant teachers indicates that the reasons teachers leave teaching are not the same as the reasons people choose not to become teachers. It makes sense, then, that these issues should be considered separately – and that they require different approaches to counter them.

My recent research used data from a research project that surveyed more than 47,000 young people over ten years. With colleagues, I used this data to examine children’s aspirations to become a teacher over time.

I found that one-third of young people surveyed by the project had an interest in teaching. This finding suggests that a far greater number of young people between the ages of 10 and 21 are interested in becoming a teacher than the number who actually end up becoming teachers.

In further research, I carried out interviews with 13 young people in England who wanted to become teachers. I followed them over 11 years, between the ages of ten and 22. All had expressed an interest or aspiration to become a teacher at least once during their education. This in-depth work is rare in education research and gives a unique insight into people’s pathways into and away from teaching.

By the time of their final interviews at age 22, six of the 13 aspirant teachers in the study had gone as far as applying to teacher education. But only three of the 13 aspirant teachers were actually in initial teacher education and actively pursuing a career in teaching.

The other ten were pursuing non-teaching careers and pathways. Two of those who applied to become science teachers had withdrawn their applications and instead chose to pursue different careers – one in scientific research and another in patent law. Another young person in the study had their application to become a science teacher rejected and chose not to apply again. At the time of my final interview with them this person had graduated from their science degree and was working as a cleaner while looking for other work opportunities.

My research explored why these young people had moved away from their ambition to become teachers. They didn’t mention the things that current and former teachers have said push them out of teaching: the profession’s high workload, stress and poor wellbeing.

Stressed teacher with blurred background — Current and former teachers cite high stress and workload as reasons to leave.
Nicoleta Ionescu/Shutterstock

Instead, they told me that they had changed their minds because they no longer saw teaching as a respected career, or they no longer viewed it as a “low-risk” career option – meaning that they no longer saw teaching as easy to access or a secure career option. Teaching no longer held status or safety.

Teaching’s lost status is demonstrated in the attitudes of the research participants who studied science at university. Almost all questioned the degree to which teaching was a highly educated profession compared with non-teaching careers in science. For instance, some reported that it would feel like “giving up” on science to become a teacher.

Most considered a postgraduate teaching qualification to be less valuable than a postgraduate science qualification such as a master’s degree in science. One said that becoming a science teacher would be “almost a waste of a science degree”.

The young people in the study who felt that teaching was no longer a safe career option found it to be more and more risky over time. For instance, one participant who had previously described teaching as “almost guaranteed work” which was “very secure, and very stable” decided against becoming a teacher after having their first initial teacher education application rejected.

Another participant who earlier considered teaching to be easy to access in their childhood turned away from teaching after realising that teaching required a degree. Because no one in their family had been to university, they did not feel that they could afford to take on the tuition fee costs of a degree and they instead chose to pursue a non-graduate career.

Recruitment and retention are separate

These findings demonstrate that while policies which focus on improving teacher workload and wellbeing might improve retention, they are unlikely to improve recruitment. Likewise, short-term financial incentives aimed at attracting more people into the career do not tackle the issues faced by people who are already teaching. Continuing to combine the issues of recruitment and retention may risk not improving either issue.

This issue is especially important because, while teacher shortages can have an impact on all young people, the negative effects are worse in schools serving disadvantaged communities, meaning that students receiving free school meals are worst hit.

My research with aspirant teachers suggests that highlighting the professional education required to become a teacher in England – and otherwise working to present teaching as a professional or high-status career – could improve recruitment. Politicians must also consider whether the costs associated with some teacher education routes could be deterring some aspirant teachers from pursuing a career in the classroom.

Emily MacLeod receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

– ref. Teacher recruitment and retention are separate issues – they need tackling in different ways – https://theconversation.com/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-are-separate-issues-they-need-tackling-in-different-ways-267168

November 13, 2025

How coaching could help solve the UK’s teacher crisis

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laura Nicole Rees-Davies, Senior Lecturer, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Coaching can offer a chance for teachers to pause, think and reconnect with why they came into the profession in the first place. BearFotos/Shutterstock

The UK’s schools are facing a worsening teacher shortage, with heavy workloads and burnout pushing staff out of the profession.

Coaching has been introduced as a possible solution. In simple terms, coaching is a structured conversation that helps teachers reflect on their practice and find their own solutions. Rather than being told what to do, teachers work with a trained coach who uses careful questioning and feedback to build confidence, self-awareness and professional growth. For example, a coach may help a teacher explore why classroom management feels difficult, set realistic goals and then reflect on what works best.

It’s a way to help teachers and, ultimately, improve outcomes for pupils. But can it really make a difference? Or will it go the way of so many other short-lived education initiatives?

A recent review by my colleagues and I of 22 UK studies suggests that, when done well, coaching can boost teacher confidence, resilience and job satisfaction. And it can even improve pupil engagement and learning. But it also warns that poor implementation and lack of funding could undermine its potential.

Across the nations of the UK, schools are struggling to recruit and retain teachers, especially in secondary subjects, rural areas and early career posts. High workloads, low salaries, limited progression opportunities and years of underfunding have driven many to leave the profession. Meanwhile, fewer graduates are choosing to become teachers.

In England, the government has prioritised secondary teacher recruitment as one of its central aims. In Scotland, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers claims that due to persistent underfunding of education, there are now serious challenges in teacher recruitment and retention.

Similarly, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation claims that the island of Ireland has falling teacher numbers due to excessive workloads and understaffing of schools and this is supported by recent evidence.

In Wales, Estyn, the education and training inspectorate, reports that there has been a significant shortfall in recruitment to PGCE secondary initial teacher education programmes in recent years. Recent Welsh figures, for instance, show that 62% of secondary teacher training courses were under-recruited.

The consequences extend beyond the classroom. When teachers feel supported and engaged, students benefit from better learning and wellbeing outcomes. Coaching offers a way to support teachers without the pressure of judgment or targets.

Unlike traditional performance management or mentoring, it provides a reflective space for teachers to reconnect with their professional purpose. For policymakers, this could improve both teacher job satisfaction and student outcomes, ultimately making teaching a more attractive career choice for the future.

Imagine of two pairs of hands of people in a meeting. — Coaching can help teachers gain motivation and develop their practice.
fizkes/Shutterstock

What we found

Our rapid review offers a clear picture of how coaching works in schools.

Most often, it’s used as part of professional development programmes or teacher training. Teachers who took part described coaching as empowering, restorative and transformational. Reported benefits included greater confidence, professional growth, improved classroom practice and stronger collaboration among staff.

But the evidence shows that coaching only works when it is implemented properly. In some cases, coaching has been confused with mentoring, a more directive, advice-giving approach. Or it has been used as a tool for performance management. In others, it’s been delivered by staff with little or no training. These practices can undermine trust, limit the effectiveness, or even make things worse for already overworked teachers.

Time, funding and support are also major barriers. Without proper backing from senior leaders, coaching risks becoming an add-on rather than an embedded part of school culture.

So, what makes coaching effective? The evidence points to a few important ingredients.

Coaching should be kept separate from performance appraisal, to encourage open reflection. Coaches need proper training, accreditation and supervision. It’s a professional skill that goes beyond teaching experience, requiring active listening, skilled questioning and goal setting.

Successful coaching programmes also give teachers protected time to participate, and they work best when linked to whole-school wellbeing and professional development strategies. Policymakers can play a important role by funding accredited training, ensuring quality standards, and also building long-term evaluation frameworks.

Coaching isn’t a cure-all for the challenges facing schools. But at a time when pressure on teachers has never been higher, it offers something rare – a chance to pause, think and reconnect with why they came into the profession in the first place.

With the right investment and commitment, coaching could become more than another educational buzzword. It could help teachers stay in the classroom. And it could help pupils, schools and communities to thrive.

Laura Nicole Rees-Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How coaching could help solve the UK’s teacher crisis – https://theconversation.com/how-coaching-could-help-solve-the-uks-teacher-crisis-266112