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November 11, 2025

Les cigognes et les goélands transportent des centaines de kilos de plastique depuis les décharges jusqu’aux zones humides d’Andalousie

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Julián Cano Povedano, PhD student, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC)

Cigognes et goélands se nourrissant dans une décharge. Enrique García Muñoz (FotoConCiencia), CC BY-ND

Le plastique ne se déplace pas seulement par le vent ou la mer. En Andalousie, des milliers d’oiseaux en deviennent les livreurs involontaires, reliant les décharges humaines aux zones naturelles protégées.

L’image d’oiseaux envahissant les décharges et se nourrissant de nos déchets suscite des inquiétudes quant à ce qu’ils mangent réellement. On sait, par exemple, que ces animaux peuvent mourir après avoir ingéré du plastique. Mais ce qui est moins connu, c’est ce qu’il advient ensuite de ces plastiques avalés et comment ils peuvent affecter d’autres organismes partageant le même écosystème.

Notre groupe de recherche étudie depuis plusieurs années le transport de graines et d’invertébrés par les oiseaux aquatiques. Cependant, nous trouvions souvent du plastique, du verre et d’autres produits d’origine anthropique dans les pelotes de réjection – des boules rejetées contenant des restes organiques non digestibles – et dans les fientes que nous analysions. Nous nous sommes donc demandé : et s’ils transportaient aussi du plastique ?

La pollution plastique est l’une des menaces auxquelles notre société est confrontée. Si elle a été largement étudiée dans les écosystèmes marins, les informations sur la provenance et l’impact du plastique dans les zones humides, comme les lacs ou les marais, restent limitées.

Comment les oiseaux transportent-ils les plastiques ?

Dans de nombreux endroits, des oiseaux comme les cigognes, les goélands ou les hérons garde-bœufs effectuent chaque jour le même trajet. Ils se nourrissent dans les décharges puis se déplacent vers les zones humides pour se reposer. Là, ces espèces régurgitent des pelotes contenant le matériel impossible à digérer, comme les plastiques. Elles agissent ainsi comme des vecteurs biologiques, et leur comportement entraîne une accumulation de plastiques dans les zones humides utilisées pour le repos.

Mais quelle est l’ampleur de ce phénomène ?

Pour répondre à cette question, nous nous sommes concentrés sur trois espèces d’oiseaux courantes dans les décharges andalouses : le goéland brun, le goéland leucophée et la cigogne blanche. Nous avons suivi des individus équipés de GPS et prélevé des pelotes de réjection dans les zones humides reliées aux décharges par leurs déplacements.

Après avoir quantifié le plastique en laboratoire, nous avons finalement combiné les données GPS, les recensements des espèces et l’analyse des pelotes de réjection afin d’estimer la quantité de plastique transportée par l’ensemble de la population. Le travail et le traitement des échantillons réalisés dans le cadre du projet ont été présentés dans un documentaire consacré au transport de plastique par les oiseaux vers les zones humides aquatiques.

Des centaines de kilos de plastique chaque année

La lagune de Fuente de Piedra, à Málaga, est célèbre pour sa colonie de flamants roses. Il s’agit d’une lagune endoréique, c’est-à-dire que l’eau y entre par des ruisseaux mais n’en sort pas, ce qui entraîne une concentration de sels et de tout polluant qui y pénètre, y compris les plastiques.

En hiver, des milliers de goélands bruns venus se reproduire dans le nord de l’Europe s’y rassemblent. Nous estimons que cette population importe en moyenne 400 kg de plastique par an vers cette zone humide classée Ramsar, provenant des décharges des provinces de Málaga, Séville et Cordoue.

Une autre étude récente menée dans le Parc naturel de la baie de Cadix nous a permis de comparer les trois espèces mentionnées, qui fréquentent les mêmes décharges et partagent le parc naturel comme zone de repos. Au total, nous avons constaté que ces espèces transportaient environ 530 kg de plastique par an vers les marais de la baie de Cadix, mais chacune le faisait d’une manière légèrement différente.

Différences entre cigognes et goélands

La cigogne, plus grande, transporte davantage de plastique par individu que les goélands, car ses pelotes de réjection sont plus volumineuses. Cependant, le facteur le plus déterminant pour évaluer l’impact de chaque espèce reste le nombre d’individus effectuant le trajet entre la décharge et la zone humide. Dans notre étude, c’est encore une fois le goéland brun qui déplaçait le plus de plastique (285 kg par an), en raison de son abondance durant l’hiver.

La corrélation directe entre la fréquence des visites aux décharges et la distance à celles-ci est évidente, tant chez les goélands que chez les cigognes. Les écosystèmes situés à proximité des décharges sont donc les plus exposés à ce problème.

Notre étude montre également que les différences spatio-temporelles propres à chaque espèce se traduisent dans leur manière de transporter le plastique. Par exemple, nous avons observé que la zone de la baie de Cadix la plus exposée aux plastiques provenant du goéland leucophée se situe autour de ses colonies de reproduction. De plus, cette espèce transportait du plastique tout au long de l’année, tandis que les deux autres ne le faisaient qu’en lien avec leur passage migratoire.

Enfin, nous avons relevé certaines différences dans les types de plastiques transportés : la cigogne était la seule espèce à rapporter des morceaux de silicone depuis les décharges, pour des raisons encore inconnues.

Goélands et cigognes sur le sol terreux d’une décharge — Goélands et cigognes dans une décharge.
Enrique García Muñoz, CC BY-ND

Impact et solutions

Les plastiques et leurs additifs peuvent causer de nombreux problèmes, non seulement pour les oiseaux eux-mêmes, mais aussi pour les organismes avec lesquels ils partagent leur écosystème – que ce soient des plantes ou d’autres oiseaux. Par exemple, les plastiques de grande taille peuvent provoquer des étranglements ou obstruer leurs systèmes digestifs.

Les effets des plastiques plus petits, ainsi que ceux de leurs additifs et des contaminants qui s’y fixent, passent souvent plus inaperçus : ils agissent notamment comme des perturbateurs endocriniens et entraînent des troubles métaboliques et reproductifs. De plus, ils peuvent entrer dans la chaîne alimentaire – passant d’un organisme à celui qui le consomme – et s’y accumuler progressivement à mesure qu’on en gravit les niveaux, affectant ainsi divers maillons de l’écosystème.

Résoudre ce problème n’est pas simple. Une directive européenne (1999/31/CE) prévoit l’utilisation de mesures dissuasives visant à limiter la fréquentation des décharges par ces oiseaux. Cependant, un débat persiste quant à leurs effets possibles sur les populations aviaires.

D’un autre côté, il existe une solution à notre portée, qui n’implique pas les oiseaux et que chacun peut appliquer : celle des célèbres trois « R » – réutiliser, réduire et recycler les plastiques que nous utilisons.

Julián Cano Povedano a reçu un financement du ministère espagnol de la Science, de l’Innovation et des Universités (bourse FPU). Les travaux réalisés ont également reçu le soutien financier de la Junta de Andalucía dans le cadre du projet de R&D+i GUANOPLASTIC (réf. PY20_00756).

Andrew J. Green a été le chercheur principal du projet « Aves acuáticas como vectores de plásticos y nutrientes entre vertederos y humedales andaluces : GuanoPlastic », financé par la Junta de Andalucía (réf. PY20_00756), mené d’octobre 2021 à mars 2023.

– ref. Les cigognes et les goélands transportent des centaines de kilos de plastique depuis les décharges jusqu’aux zones humides d’Andalousie – https://theconversation.com/les-cigognes-et-les-goelands-transportent-des-centaines-de-kilos-de-plastique-depuis-les-decharges-jusquaux-zones-humides-dandalousie-269304

November 11, 2025

Avec son nouveau plan quinquennal, la Chine prend un pari très risqué

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Shaoyu Yuan, Adjunct Professor, New York University; Rutgers University

En adoptant en octobre le quinzième plan quinquennal du pays, Xi Jinping renforce le modèle dirigé par l’État, misant sur la technologie et la défense plutôt que sur la consommation des ménages. Un pari à haut risque…*

A intervalle régulier, depuis 1953, le gouvernement chinois dévoile une nouvelle stratégie directrice pour son économie : le très important plan quinquennal. Dans l’ensemble, ces feuilles de route ont eu pour objectif de stimuler la croissance et l’unité du pays alors qu’il se transformait d’une économie rurale et agricole en une puissance urbaine et développée.

La tâche à laquelle les dirigeants chinois étaient confrontés lorsqu’ils se sont réunis début octobre 2025 pour élaborer leur quinzième plan de ce type se heurtait cette fois à deux difficultés majeures : la faiblesse de la croissance intérieure et l’intensification des rivalités géopolitiques.

Leur solution ? Miser sur les mêmes recettes. En promettant d’assurer un « développement de haute qualité » grâce à l’autonomie technologique, à la modernisation industrielle et à l’expansion de la demande intérieure, Pékin renforce son pari sur un modèle dirigé par l’État, celui-là même qui a alimenté son essor ces dernières années. Le président Xi Jinping et les autres responsables ayant finalisé le plan 2026-2030 parient sur le fait qu’une croissance industrielle tirée par l’innovation pourrait garantir l’avenir de la Chine, même si des interrogations persistent sur la faiblesse des dépenses de consommation et sur les risques économiques croissants.

En tant qu’expert de l’économie politique de la Chine, je considère le nouveau plan quinquennal chinois autant comme un instrument de pouvoir que comme un outil économique. En réalité, il s’agit avant tout d’une feuille de route destinée à naviguer dans une nouvelle ère de compétition. Ce faisant, il risque toutefois de ne pas s’attaquer au fossé grandissant entre une capacité industrielle en plein essor et une demande intérieure atone.

Des rêves high-tech

Au cœur du nouveau plan on trouve des orientations plaçant l’industrie et l’innovation technologique au premier plan. Concrètement, cela signifie moderniser les usines traditionnelles, automatiser et « verdir » l’industrie lourde, tout en favorisant l’émergence de « secteurs d’avenir » tels que l’aérospatiale, les énergies renouvelables ou l’informatique quantique.

En faisant migrer l’économie vers le haut de la chaîne de valeur, Pékin espère échapper au piège du revenu intermédiaire et consolider son statut de superpuissance technologique autosuffisante. Pour protéger la Chine des contrôles à l’exportation instaurés par d’autres pays afin de freiner son ascension, Pékin redouble d’efforts pour « internaliser » les technologies critiques, en injectant massivement des fonds dans les entreprises nationales tout en réduisant la dépendance envers les fournisseurs étrangers.

Cette quête d’autosuffisance ne relève pas uniquement de considérations économiques : elle est explicitement liée à la sécurité nationale. Sous la direction de Xi Jinping, la Chine a poursuivi avec détermination ce que le Parti communiste chinois appelle la « fusion militaro-civile », c’est-à-dire l’intégration de l’innovation civile aux besoins militaires. Le nouveau plan quinquennal devrait institutionnaliser cette fusion comme principal levier de modernisation de la défense, garantissant que toute avancée dans l’intelligence artificielle ou la puissance de calcul civiles profite automatiquement à l’Armée populaire de libération.

Restructurer le commerce mondial

L’offensive chinoise, pilotée par l’État, dans les industries de haute technologie porte déjà ses fruits, et le nouveau plan quinquennal vise à prolonger cette dynamique. Au cours de la dernière décennie, la Chine s’est hissée au rang de leader mondial des technologies vertes – panneaux solaires, batteries et véhicules électriques – grâce à un soutien massif du gouvernement. Pékin entend désormais reproduire ce succès dans les semi-conducteurs, les machines de pointe, la biotechnologie et l’informatique quantique.

Une telle ambition, si elle se concrétise, pourrait redessiner les chaînes d’approvisionnement mondiales et les normes industrielles à l’échelle planétaire.

Mais cette stratégie accroît également les enjeux de la rivalité économique qui oppose la Chine aux économies avancées. La maîtrise chinoise de chaînes d’approvisionnement complètes a poussé les États-Unis et l’Europe à évoquer une réindustrialisation afin d’éviter toute dépendance excessive vis-à-vis de Pékin.

En promettant de bâtir « un système industriel moderne fondé sur une industrie manufacturière de pointe » et d’accélérer « l’autosuffisance scientifique et technologique de haut niveau », le nouveau plan indique clairement que la Chine ne renoncera pas à sa quête de domination technologique.

Un rééquilibrage insaisissable

Ce à quoi le plan accorde en revanche une attention relativement limitée, c’est au manque de dynamisme de la demande intérieure. Le renforcement de la consommation et des conditions de vie ne reçoit guère plus qu’un assentiment de principe dans le communiqué publié à l’issue du plénum au cours duquel le plan quinquennal a été élaboré.

Les dirigeants chinois ont bien promis de « stimuler vigoureusement la consommation » et de bâtir « un marché intérieur solide », tout en améliorant l’éducation, la santé et la protection sociale. Mais ces objectifs n’apparaissent qu’après les appels à la modernisation industrielle et à l’autosuffisance technologique – signe que les priorités anciennes continuent de dominer.

Et cela ne manquera pas de décevoir les économistes qui appellent depuis longtemps Pékin à passer d’un modèle ouvertement tourné vers les exportations à un modèle de croissance davantage porté par la consommation des ménages.

La consommation des ménages ne représente encore qu’environ 40 % du produit intérieur brut, bien en deçà des standards des économies avancées. En réalité, les ménages chinois se remettent difficilement d’une série de chocs économiques récents : les confinements liés au Covid-19 qui ont ébranlé la confiance des consommateurs, l’effondrement du marché immobilier qui a anéanti des milliers de milliards de richesse, et la montée du chômage des jeunes, qui a atteint un niveau record avant que les autorités n’en suspendent la publication.

Avec des gouvernements locaux enchevêtrés dans la dette et confrontés à de fortes tensions budgétaires, le scepticisme est de mise quant à la possibilité de voir émerger prochainement des politiques sociales ambitieuses ou des réformes favorables à la consommation.

Puisque Pékin renforce son appareil manufacturier tandis que la demande intérieure demeure faible, il est probable que l’excédent de production soit écoulé à l’étranger – notamment dans les secteurs des véhicules électriques, des batteries et des technologies solaires – plutôt qu’absorbé par le marché domestique.

Le nouveau plan reconnaît la nécessité de maintenir une base industrielle solide, en particulier dans des secteurs industriels en difficulté et d’autres, anciens, peinant à rester à flot. Cette approche peut ainsi éviter, à court terme, des réductions d’effectifs douloureuses, mais elle retarde le rééquilibrage vers les services et la consommation que de nombreux économistes jugent nécessaire à la Chine.

Effets en cascade

Pékin a toujours présenté ses plans quinquennaux comme une bénédiction non seulement pour la Chine, mais aussi pour le reste du monde. Le récit officiel, relayé par les médias d’État, met en avant l’idée qu’une Chine stable et en croissance demeure un « moteur » de la croissance mondiale et un « stabilisateur » dans un contexte d’incertitude globale. Le nouveau plan appelle d’ailleurs à un « grand niveau d’ouverture », en conformité avec les règles du commerce international, à l’expansion des zones de libre-échange et à l’encouragement des investissements étrangers – tout en poursuivant la voie de l’autosuffisance.

Pourtant, la volonté de la Chine de gravir l’échelle technologique et de soutenir ses industries risque d’intensifier la concurrence sur les marchés mondiaux – potentiellement au détriment des fabricants d’autres pays. Ces dernières années, les exportations chinoises ont atteint des niveaux record. Cet afflux de produits chinois à bas prix a mis sous pression les industriels des pays partenaires, du Mexique à l’Europe, qui commencent à envisager des mesures de protection. Si Pékin redouble aujourd’hui de soutien financier à la fois pour ses secteurs de pointe et ses industries traditionnelles, le résultat pourrait être une surabondance encore plus forte de produits chinois à l’échelle mondiale, aggravant les tensions commerciales.

Autrement dit, le monde pourrait ressentir davantage la puissance industrielle de la Chine, sans pour autant bénéficier suffisamment de son pouvoir d’achat – une combinaison susceptible de mettre à rude épreuve les relations économiques internationales.

Un pari risqué sur l’avenir

Avec le quinzième plan quinquennal de la Chine, Xi Jinping mise sur une vision stratégique à long terme. Il ne fait aucun doute que le plan est ambitieux et global. Et s’il réussit, il pourrait propulser la Chine vers des sommets technologiques et renforcer ses prétentions au statut de grande puissance.

Mais ce plan révèle aussi la réticence de Pékin à s’écarter d’une formule qui a certes généré de la croissance, mais au prix de déséquilibres ayant pénalisé de nombreux ménages à travers le vaste territoire chinois.

Plutôt que d’opérer un véritable changement de cap, la Chine tente de tout concilier à la fois : rechercher l’autosuffisance tout en poursuivant son intégration mondiale, proclamer son ouverture tout en se fortifiant, et promettre la prospérité au peuple tout en concentrant ses ressources sur l’industrie et la défense.

Mais les citoyens chinois, dont le bien-être est censé être au cœur du plan, jugeront en fin de compte de son succès à l’aune de la progression de leurs revenus et de l’amélioration de leurs conditions de vie d’ici 2030. Et ce pari s’annonce difficile à tenir.

Shaoyu Yuan 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. Avec son nouveau plan quinquennal, la Chine prend un pari très risqué – https://theconversation.com/avec-son-nouveau-plan-quinquennal-la-chine-prend-un-pari-tres-risque-269422

November 11, 2025

How Nigeria’s grazing law also shapes land divisions and violence

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Victor Onyilor Achem, Researcher, University of Ibadan

When Nigeria’s Benue State Anti‑Open Grazing Law was passed in 2017, it brought hope that pastoralist herders would move to ranches, farmers would gain peace, and violent conflict between herders and farmers would ease.

The law banned the open grazing of livestock and required herders to establish ranches instead. It introduced fines, jail terms, and a livestock-guard task force to monitor compliance, shifting livestock management from communal routes to fenced ranches.

For decades, tensions between farming and herding communities across Nigeria’s Middle Belt have erupted into deadly violence.

As farmland shrinks and grazing routes disappear, competition over land, water and survival has intensified. Thousands have been killed, and more than two million people have been displaced. These conflicts are not just about cattle or crops; they are about identity, belonging and the struggle for power in a nation where religion and ethnicity often overlap with politics.

I study these dynamics as a sociologist whose work cuts through identity-driven conflicts and local peacebuilding. In a recently published study I show that the outcome of the Benue State Anti‑Open Grazing Law has been far more complicated than envisaged.

My research involved 40 interviews and focus groups in Benue’s most affected districts. It found that while the law against open grazing reduced crop destruction, it also deepened mistrust and exclusion. Farmers saw it as protection; herders saw it as punishment.

Based on my findings, I argue that the crisis is a governance failure amplified by politicised faith narratives and elite opportunism. A local land-use dispute has been reimagined internationally as evidence that Nigeria is fracturing along religious lines. Unless policy becomes more inclusive, this perception could grow, risking new waves of division and violence.

Why the law faltered

The anti-open grazing law in Benue was intended to curb the roaming of cattle across farmlands, reduce conflict, and protect sedentary farming communities. But the design overlooked key issues: it expected herders – many of them nomadic, landless and low-capital – to invest in ranches with minimal support.

Meanwhile, the enforcement architecture exhibited weakness. Livestock guards lacked resources, and coordination between Benue state government and the federal government broke down, leading to a strained relationship between levels of government.

The challenge is that agriculture and policing fall under shared jurisdiction in Nigeria. The state could legislate but not easily enforce without federal backing. The federal government, led at the time by a Fulani president, saw the law as discriminatory, while Benue leaders viewed federal hesitation as betrayal. The standoff left the law largely unenforced.

Even when enforced, the law punished mobility but offered scant alternatives. My field data showed herders feeling criminalised, farmers feeling abandoned, and both sides interpreting the law through existential lenses. Both farmers and herders saw it as a struggle for survival, one group fighting to defend ancestral land, the other to preserve livelihood and identity.

When land becomes identity

In contexts like central Nigeria, land is more than soil: it is identity, history and power. Farmers, mostly Christian crop growers, view the grazing law as an instrument of protection. Herders, often Fulani and Muslim, perceive it as a threat to their way of life. The herders have followed transhumant grazing routes for centuries, moving with the seasons. Their mobility predates Nigeria’s borders and remains vital to their culture and economy.

When open grazing is punished, and when governance fails to bridge the divide, disputes over pasture and farmland become charged with religious and ethnic meaning.

In this terrain, the narrative of a “religious genocide” gains traction, a narrative that coincides with the US designation of Nigeria as a country that fails to protect religious freedom. US president Donald Trump threatened military action unless Nigeria “stops the killing of Christians”.

But the truth on the ground is more nuanced. Analysts point out that both Christian and Muslim communities have suffered repeated attacks across different regions. Conflict over land, pastoral mobility and weak governance often overlap with religious fault lines, but are driven by deeper forces like land scarcity, climate stress, and weak governance. Religion explains the rhetoric, not the root cause.

How grazing policy and faith conflict connect

The grazing law’s failure matters because it becomes part of the faith conflict story. When the state is seen to favour one set of communities, the other sees exclusion.

When violence between farmers and herders is portrayed in religious terms, such as “Christians under siege” and “Muslim herders as invaders”, the law meant to protect becomes a symbol of division.

In other words, the anti-grazing law was never only about cattle. It became a law about belonging, rights, who gets to claim the land, and whose identity is recognised.

The US reaction exacerbates this division by implying that one group is the victim and the other is the perpetrator. That framing may help some voices gain global attention, but it can also harden local fault lines.

What must change

If Nigeria and its states are to prevent this conflict from becoming a faith-war, several things must shift:

Inclusive policy-making: Pastoralists must be genuinely part of policy design, not just regulated. Mobility, traditional rights and modern ranching must be reconciled.
Stronger federal-state cooperation: Nigeria’s constitution splits agricultural and policing powers. States can legislate but depend on federal agencies for enforcement. Clearer coordination and funding are essential.
Narrative formation: Policymakers, media and international actors must avoid reducing complex land and livelihood struggles into simple faith wars. Accurate data, inclusive language and community voices matter.
Trust building at the local level: Mechanisms such as locally led peace committees, shared grazing agreements and conflict-sensitive land-use planning have to be empowered.

Why it matters globally

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, a multi-faith, multi-ethnic democracy, and a test case for how modern states negotiate change, tradition and identity.

The US decision to label Nigeria a “country of particular concern” has grabbed headlines, but the core of the issue lies in how Nigerians farm, herd, travel, claim land, and build peace.

If Nigeria fails to turn its land and livelihood fault lines into inclusive governance, then the risk is not simply more violence, it is a deeper fracture in which laws become weapons of identity, and international declarations feed local fears.

Conflict won’t stop because rhetoric picks up speed; it will stop when policy, law and identity converge in a way that recognises everyone’s belonging.

In the end, the question is not simply whether more laws are passed or whether the US sanctions Nigeria. It is whether communities in Nigeria feel protected or whether laws and external pressure leave them feeling excluded.

Victor Onyilor Achem 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 Nigeria’s grazing law also shapes land divisions and violence – https://theconversation.com/how-nigerias-grazing-law-also-shapes-land-divisions-and-violence-268923

November 11, 2025

Who speaks for the dead? Rethinking consent in ancient DNA research

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Victoria Gibbon, Professor in Biological Anthropology, Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology, University of Cape Town

Would you choose to have a part of your body live on after you died? How might your choice affect your relatives – or even your entire community?

The first is a question people face when they donate organs. The second comes up when they participate in genetic research. This is because DNA from even a single individual can reveal a web of relationships, even helping law enforcement to solve crimes committed by distant relatives they have never met. And as you continue to go back in time, the web becomes ever more tangled.

DNA is the unique genetic material of every living being on the planet. It can be “immortalised” for an unforeseeably long time in digital genetic libraries which contain the genomic information not only of that person, but also their ancestors and descendants.

Ancient DNA (referred to as aDNA) involves the study of genetic material from organisms that lived long ago, including humans. Geneticists, archaeologists, anthropologists and historians are using aDNA research to gain unprecedented insights into human history, but the knowledge benefits different groups of people unevenly. Also, it can be destructive because aDNA is normally extracted from small samples of bones or teeth. And who can give permission on behalf of people who lived many generations in the past? Once spoken for, what measures can be used to ensure their wishes continue to be honoured?

Africa is the ancient origin of all humans, as evidenced by having the highest human genetic diversity of any continent or region found today. In other words, all humans carry DNA from deeply rooted shared African ancestry. This makes African DNA (ancient and modern) a rich resource to draw on to understand what makes us human. However, understanding human variation and our origins involves research embedded within living communities and communities are the solution to conservation and the future of work in our disciplines.

Once it is decoded, the genetic information can last forever, so it could be used by anyone, for any purpose, for generations to come. Companies in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, could use it. As this science advances at an astonishing pace, ethical and legal frameworks guiding it struggle to keep up. No country has standards applying specifically to the field of aDNA. Therefore, ethical guidelines appropriate for this work need to protect past, present and future generations.

Consent is not yet universally mandated nor typically obtained in aDNA research, despite growing awareness of its importance over the past two decades. What is more, the concept of “informed consent” as developed in the clinical medical world is deeply rooted in a western idea of individual autonomy. It assumes that most medical decision-making occurs by individuals, rather than communities. And there are challenges applying it to people who are no longer alive.

That’s why, in our recent paper, we argue for using “informed proxy consent” or “relational autonomy consent” in human aDNA research. This is when living people through relation and/or relationship to a deceased person or people can make decisions and provide consent on their behalf, as a proxy or stand-in. The relationship could be through gender, race, religion, sociopolitical or sociocultural identities, or biological. DNA is also susceptible to data mining, machine learning and statistical analysis to uncover patterns and other valuable information. The deceased may be represented by living people who are affected by the research.

Different social, political, cultural and economic contexts make it impossible to create a universal set of specific guidelines. But four principles can apply: honesty, accountability, professionalism, and stewardship.

In our paper, we outline a set of considerations for obtaining proxy informed consent for the long deceased. A system of consent could enrich research by using it in potent new ways, empowering people affected by research, protecting researchers from ethical breaches and building long-term, equitable partnerships.

The solution

We propose that consent for the use of human aDNA in research should be a community-driven process. Instead of individuals signing off on behalf of the deceased, living people connected to the deceased persons, whether through ancestry, geography, cultural knowledge, or custodianship, act as representatives. This recognises that people are part of communities, and that authority to consent must reflect social and cultural context, not just individual choice.

This kind of approach was applied in South Africa’s Sutherland Nine Restitution, when nine San and Khoekhoe ancestors were taken from their graves in the 1920s and sent to the University of Cape Town for medical education and research. Almost 100 years later, they were finally brought home to their community.

In the Malawi Ancient Lifeways and Peoples Project, one way archaeological research results are communicated to community members is through site visits such as the one below, which included traditional authorities, local and national government officials, academics and students. Community consultation became so normalised through this work that some traditional leaders began to ask researchers how aDNA might aid their own goals of restitution and historical reconstruction.

How it would work

One major lesson from studying the past is that things can change a lot. We do not expect that there will be clear cultural or biological continuity in every place or every time. And identifying appropriate descendant communities and determining who has the authority to consent can be complex. But local communities are often invested in research results, and they have a right to high-quality information about its consequences. Consent should be treated as a process, not a one-off event.

This begins in the planning stage, with researchers sharing a draft proposal and revising it based on community input. They must be transparent about who is funding the project, what techniques will be used and what the possible risks and benefits are. This is not only for science, but for the people connected to the deceased persons.

Clear communication is vital, and information should be provided in local languages and formats that are easy to understand. Communities should be given time to reflect without researchers present. Feedback must be taken seriously, and projects adapted accordingly. Crucially, communities need retain control over how data is stored, used and shared.

Finally, engagement should continue throughout the life of the project. Researchers should share findings before publication and return for fresh consent if using data in new ways.

We recognise that the process is demanding. It requires time and financial resources for pre-research consultation and ongoing engagement, which can be slower than academic expectations for rapid publication. But funders and research institutions need to understand that the time taken to build community partnerships with living descendant communities is an essential and enriching foundation for ethical research.

Victoria Gibbon receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation.

Jessica Thompson has received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Leakey Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and National Geographic Society.

Sianne Alves 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. Who speaks for the dead? Rethinking consent in ancient DNA research – https://theconversation.com/who-speaks-for-the-dead-rethinking-consent-in-ancient-dna-research-265539

November 11, 2025

NHS trials AI tool for faster prostate cancer diagnosis

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University

The NHS is embarking on a trial that could cut prostate cancer diagnosis times from weeks to a single day. The initiative uses artificial intelligence to analyse MRI scans, potentially transforming care for men with the most commonly diagnosed cancer in England.

Up to 15 NHS hospitals, including Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, will pilot the system over the coming months, processing around 10,000 MRI scans. If successful, it could be rolled out nationally – though questions remain about accuracy, costs and whether faster diagnosis always means better outcomes.

The trial represents the NHS’s latest attempt to address both the emotional toll of prolonged uncertainty and the practical problem of late diagnoses that have long characterised prostate cancer care. For many men, the wait between initial suspicion and confirmed diagnosis is marked by weeks of anxiety, often while the disease progresses unchecked.

Currently, men suspected of having prostate cancer face a lengthy process. After a GP referral, it can take days or weeks to get an MRI scan, have it interpreted by a radiologist and undergo a follow-up biopsy if needed. A national shortage of radiologists has created significant bottlenecks, with some men waiting over a month for results.

The AI system changes this timeline. Once a man has had his MRI scan, the software analyses the images in minutes. Building on major research studies, it identifies abnormal areas and generates a probability score, mapping the exact location of suspicious lesions in the prostate.

When the software flags a scan as high-risk, it is immediately prioritised for review by a human radiologist, and the patient can be booked for a biopsy the same day. For lower-risk scans, men could receive reassuring news almost immediately rather than enduring weeks of anxious waiting.

The system aims to deliver what clinicians describe as accuracy and speed that rivals traditional methods. In some settings, AI analysis has matched or exceeded human radiologist performance, though real-world implementation will test whether laboratory results translate to busy NHS hospitals.

Older man talking to his GP. — After a GP referral, some men can end up waiting weeks for a result.
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com

The case for speed

Prostate cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in England, with about one in eight men expected to be affected in their lifetime. The number of diagnoses has risen steadily, and too many men are still diagnosed when the disease is already advanced, making survival less likely and treatment more challenging.

Reducing diagnostic delay could save lives, though diagnosing some cancers earlier isn’t always better. Some slow-growing prostate cancers may never cause symptoms or shorten life, and early detection can lead to unnecessary treatment and its associated side effects. The challenge is distinguishing aggressive cancers that need urgent intervention from those that can be safely monitored.

There is also troubling variability in cancer diagnosis across the UK, with significant differences in waiting times and outcomes depending on where a patient lives. By making specialist analysis instantly available regardless of whether a hospital has a subspecialist radiologist on hand, every man, regardless of location, could theoretically benefit from the same standard of diagnostic assessment.

The system also promises to ease pressure on NHS teams. By handling initial MRI interpretation, the AI frees up radiologist time to focus on complex or urgent cases. This matters particularly given workforce pressures – the NHS has struggled to recruit and retain enough radiologists to meet growing demand.

As the NHS seeks to do more with strained resources, AI-driven tools have the potential to save time and money.

The AI won’t work alone

The technology is designed to work alongside clinicians rather than replace them. AI acts as a “second reader”, complementing radiologist expertise to ensure nothing is missed. The aim is faster and more reliable decisions – sparing men unnecessary biopsies for benign conditions while swiftly directing those with troubling signs to the right care.

This partnership approach is considered crucial. Although AI can process vast amounts of imaging data rapidly, human judgment remains essential for interpreting results in the context of each patient’s individual circumstances, medical history and symptoms. The technology is not intended to make final diagnostic decisions, but to augment clinical decision-making.

Recent research suggests that most men would welcome the invitation to take part in a national screening programme, countering assumptions about reluctance to engage with health checks. As confidence grows in AI-powered diagnostics, this could encourage more men to come forward for testing, potentially catching cancers earlier in those most at risk.

Whether the pilot delivers on its promise of reducing the time from referral to diagnosis – and whether speed translates to better outcomes – will become clearer over the coming months. The results will be closely watched by other health services considering similar approaches.

Justin Stebbing 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. NHS trials AI tool for faster prostate cancer diagnosis – https://theconversation.com/nhs-trials-ai-tool-for-faster-prostate-cancer-diagnosis-268932

November 11, 2025

Poor heart health in middle age linked to dementia in old age – new study

Source: The Conversation – UK – By David C. Gaze, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Pathology, University of Westminster

For generations, medicine treated the heart and brain as separate domains. However, a new study suggests the two are more closely connected than we thought, especially as we age.

A 25-year study of nearly 6,000 adults found that subtle heart muscle damage in middle age predicts dementia risk decades later.

The research, known as the Whitehall study, tracked UK civil servants aged 45 to 69 and measured levels of a protein called “cardiac troponin I” in their blood. Troponin I appears in the blood when heart cells are damaged and is used to help diagnose heart attacks.

The protein is detected using a standard blood test. These tests have become more sensitive in recent years, so even very small amounts of troponin can now be detected – levels far below those seen in a heart attack – and these small changes can signal many other conditions.

In the Whitehall study, people with the highest levels of troponin I in midlife were 38% more likely to be diagnosed with dementia later in life than those with the lowest levels. These small increases don’t cause obvious symptoms, such as chest pain, but they suggest the heart is under strain even if a person feels fine.

Over 25 years, people with higher starting troponin levels were more likely to develop dementia than those with lower levels. For every doubling of troponin, dementia risk rose by 10%, even after considering age, sex, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and other cardiac risk factors.

Fifteen years into the study, MRI brain scans of 641 participants showed clear differences. Those who had the highest midlife troponin levels had smaller grey-matter volume and more shrinkage of the hippocampus, the area important for memory, compared with the low troponin group. This was similar to around three extra years of ageing in the brain.

Why does heart health in your 50s foretell brain decline decades later? The answer lies in circulation.

The brain relies on a constant, rich blood supply. If the heart pumps less efficiently, or if the arteries are stiff and narrow due to atherosclerosis, the brain’s delicate network of small vessels become starved of oxygen. This chronic low-grade damage can accelerate the processes that lead to dementia.

The same study found that people with higher midlife troponin levels also experienced faster declines in memory and reasoning over time. By age 90, their cognitive performance was equivalent to that of people two years older than those with lower troponin levels.

Matters of the heart

These results fit neatly with what is already known. The 2024 Lancet Commission on dementia estimated that 17% of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by improving cardiovascular health, through lowering blood pressure, managing cholesterol, staying active, and avoiding smoking and excess alcohol.

Likewise, an earlier analysis from the same Whitehall cohort showed that people with good cardiovascular health at age 50 were less likely to develop dementia 25 years later. Taken together, the message is simple: what’s good for the heart is good for the brain.

The two organs share a vascular network, and damage to one inevitably affects the other. Yet the long time lag uncovered by the Whitehall study suggests that troponin elevations seen up to 25 years before dementia onset, pathological processes linking the heart and brain start far earlier than first thought.

Troponin explained.

Raised troponin doesn’t guarantee dementia. Levels can fluctuate with age, kidney function or even after vigorous exercise. But as a population marker, troponin may identify people whose cardiovascular systems are already under stress while they still feel healthy.

The idea that a single blood test in middle age might one day help flag those at higher risk of cognitive decline is appealing, not as a diagnosis but as an early warning.

Medicine often divides the body into organ systems, each treated in isolation. This study reminds us that biology doesn’t respect those boundaries. A struggling heart doesn’t just affect circulation – it may, quietly and imperceptibly, change the brain’s future too.

David C. Gaze 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. Poor heart health in middle age linked to dementia in old age – new study – https://theconversation.com/poor-heart-health-in-middle-age-linked-to-dementia-in-old-age-new-study-269324

November 11, 2025

LUX: the tradition of the troubadour is at the heart of Rosalía’s songwriting

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Hussein Boon, Principal Lecturer – Music, University of Westminster

Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía’s highly anticipated album LUX has been met with widespread acclaim from critics and fans alike. It’s a fusion of ideas drawn from diverse storytelling traditions, cultures and languages, offering a rich tapestry that rewards repeated listening.

The album explores perennial themes – love, betrayal, abandonment – alongside spiritual and divine motifs. The result is a pop record with substance and bite. Critics have debated whether LUX should be classified as pop or classical music.

But this binary misses the point. The presence of operatic, orchestral and symphonic influences and flourishes doesn’t necessarily make the album classical any more than driving a high-performance car makes someone an F1 driver.

What LUX demonstrates is Rosalía’s attention to detail, technical mastery and stylistic fluency. Much of this was honed through nine years of rigorous training at the prestigious Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya school in Barcelona.

The video for the first single, Berghain, exemplifies Rosalía’s visual and narrative expressiveness. It melds high fashion and urban grit reminiscent of films like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) or The Devil Wears Prada (2006).

In the video, Rosalía can be seen carrying out everyday activities – like ironing or going to the doctor – within grand, orchestral settings. This creates a surreal yet relatable tableau, a recurring aspect of her videographic work with director Nicolás Méndez.

Speaking about the project, Méndez has highlighted the influence of Rosalía’s sister, Pili, who is integral in these shared projects. Rosalía recalled a tense discussion with her sister about Motomami, which forced her to reflect on why she made music and the depth of feeling she conveyed in her songs and recordings.

Lead single Berghain.

Multilingualism is another hallmark of LUX, which features songs in 14 languages, including Catalan, Mandarin, Ukrainian and English. Languages are used to support one of the album’s most compelling devices – its use of sainthood as a multifaceted storytelling vessel.

Rosalía draws inspiration from female saints worldwide, not only from Judeo-Christian traditions but also from Islam, Hinduism and Taoism. These figures allow her to explore the tension between earthly hardship and spiritual transcendence. The stories offer a framework through which personal and collective struggles are elevated to the divine.

Rosalía is no stranger to literary adaptation. Her 2018 song Malamente, from the album El Mal Querer, fused flamenco with contemporary R&B and hip-hop production. It drew on the 13th-century Occitan romance Flamenca, a tale of love, jealousy and courtly intrigue.

In Flamenca, the titular noblewoman is imprisoned by her jealous husband Archambaut, but she orchestrates a secret romance with the knight Guillaume, outwitting her captor. Rosalía’s adaptation of this story in both song and video underscores her commitment to storytelling as a central artistic practice.

Rosalía the troubadour

At the heart of Rosalía’s work lies an older tradition: the troubadour. These poet-musicians, including women known as trobairitz, composed some of the earliest vernacular songs of courtly love.

As expert in material culture in medieval texts E. Jane Burns has noted, these love songs often served as “an expression of female resistance to marital, moral, and legal constraint”. This historical lens reframes lyrics of love and devotion as a site of agency and defiance; ideas that resonate deeply in Rosalía’s work.

Malamente by Rosalía.

Some listeners may argue that LUX should be recognised as classical, especially with an eye towards awards season. However, it may be more accurate to say that it draws from classical traditions – musical, literary and visual – while remaining firmly rooted in popular culture.

It is essential to remember that flamenco, a disciplined folk form, serves as the foundation for her work, both technically and emotionally, while literary references and saintly iconography enhance the narrative.

Rosalía’s ability to weave sound, story, and spectacle into a cohesive whole exemplifies what popular music can achieve when at its best: a space where tradition and innovation meet, and where the personal becomes universal. No wonder Madonna has called her a “true visionary”.

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Hussein Boon 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. LUX: the tradition of the troubadour is at the heart of Rosalía’s songwriting – https://theconversation.com/lux-the-tradition-of-the-troubadour-is-at-the-heart-of-rosalias-songwriting-269429

November 11, 2025

How number systems shape our thinking, and what this means for learning, language and culture

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jean-Charles Pelland, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen

Most of us have little trouble working out how many millilitres are in 2.4 litres of water (it’s 2,400). But the same can’t be said when we’re asked how many minutes are in 2.4 hours (it’s 144).

That’s because the Indo-Arabic numerals we often use to represent numbers are base-10, while the system we often use to measure time is base-60.

Expressing time in decimal notation leads to an interaction between these two bases, which can have implications at both the cognitive and cultural level.

Such base interactions and their consequences are among the important topics covered in a new issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society journal, which I co-edited with colleagues Andrea Bender (University of Bergen), Mary Walworth (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and Simon J. Greenhill (University of Auckland).

The themed issue brings together work from anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and psychology to examine how humans conceptualize numbers and the numeral systems we build around them.

What are bases, and why do they matter?

Despite using numeral bases on a daily basis, few of us have reflected on the nature of these cognitive tools. As I explain in my contribution to the issue, bases are special numbers in the numeral systems we use.

Because our memories aren’t unlimited, we can’t represent each number with its own unique label. Instead, we use a small set of numerals to build larger ones, like “three hundred forty-two.”

That’s why most numeral systems are structured around a compositional anchor — a special number with a name that serves as a building block to form names for other numbers. Bases are anchors that exploit powers of a special number to form complex numerical expressions.

The English language, for example, uses a decimal system, meaning it uses the powers of 10 to compose numerals. So we compose “three hundred and forty-two” using three times the second power of 10 (100), four times the first power of 10 (10) and two times the zeroth power of 10 (one).

This base structure allows us to represent numbers of all sizes without overloading our cognitive resources.

Languages affect how we count

Despite the abstract nature of numbers, the degree to which numeral systems transparently reflect their bases has very concrete implications — and not just when we tell time. Languages with less transparent rules will take longer to learn, longer to process and can lead to more calculation and dictation errors.

Take French numerals, for example. While languages like French, English and Mandarin all share the same base of 10, most dialects of French have what could politely be called a quirky way of representing numbers in the 70-99 range.

Seventy is soixante-dix in French, meaning “six times 10 plus 10,” while 80 uses 20 as an anchor and becomes quatre-vingts, meaning “four twenties” (or “four twenty,” depending on the context). And 90 is quatre vingt dix, meaning “four twenty ten.”

French is far from being alone in being quirky with its numerals. In German, numbers from 10 to 99 are expressed with the ones before the tens, but numbers over 100 switch back to saying the largest unit first.

Even in English, the fact that “twelve” is said instead of “ten two” hides the decimal rules at play. Such irregularities spread far beyond languages.

How bases shape learning and thought

Base-related oddities are spread out across the globe and have very real implications for how easily children learn what numbers are and how they interact with objects such as blocks, and for how efficiently adults manipulate notations.

For example, one study found that lack of base transparency slows down the acquisition of some numerical abilities in children, while another found similar negative effects on how quickly they learn how to count.

Another study found that children from base-transparent languages were quicker to use large blocks worth 10 units to represent larger numbers (for example, expressing 32 using three large blocs and two small ones) than children with base-related irregularities.

While Mandarin’s perfectly transparent decimal structure can simplify learning, a new research method suggests that children may find it easier to learn what numbers are if they are exposed to systems with compositional anchors that are smaller than 10.

In general, how we represent bases has very concrete cognitive implications, including how easily we can learn number systems and which types of systems will tend to be used in which contexts.

A group of people in white protective suits and head protectors stand in front of a robotic spacecraft — Technicians lower the Mars Climate Orbiter onto its work stand in the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility-2 in 1998.
(NASA)

At a cultural level, base representation influences our ability to collaborate with scientists across disciplines and across cultures. This was starkly illustrated by the infamous Mars Climate Orbiter incident, when a mix-up between metric and imperial units caused a $327 million spacecraft to crash into Mars in 1999.

Why understanding bases matters

Numeracy — the ability to understand and use numbers — is a crucial part of our modern lives. It has implications for our quality of life and for our ability to make informed decisions in domains like health and finances.

For example, being more familiar with numbers will influence how easily we can choose between retirement plans, how we consider trade-offs between side-effects and benefits when choosing between medications or how well we understand how probabilities apply to our investments.

And yet many struggle to learn what numbers are, with millions suffering from math anxiety. Developing better methods for helping people learn how to manipulate numbers can therefore help millions of people improve their lives.

Research on the cognitive and cultural implications of bases collected in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society journal can help make progress towards our understanding of how we think about numbers, marking an important step towards making numbers more accessible to everyone.

Jean-Charles Pelland’s work has been made possible by financial support from the ‘QUANTA: Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification’ project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 951388).

– ref. How number systems shape our thinking, and what this means for learning, language and culture – https://theconversation.com/how-number-systems-shape-our-thinking-and-what-this-means-for-learning-language-and-culture-268168

November 11, 2025

To survive today’s economy, university students are using circus-like tactics

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Alison Taylor, Professor, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia

The skills “every student needs” for the 21st century include competencies in technology, problem solving and communication — and character qualities like adaptability and grit.

This is according to the World Economic Forum, but by now, we should be familiar with this kind of rhetoric. Think tanks, employers and policymakers amplify similar ideas around what graduates need to get good jobs and contribute to economic growth.

Such discourse and policy put pressure on universities to be more responsive to a labour market that is more precarious than the one faced by previous generations.

In turn, university students feel pressure to make the best decisions. It’s small wonder that more students are adjusting their study and career plans in efforts to secure their futures.

My recent book, Juggling Rhythms, frames university students’ diverse tactics (and survival skills) as “circus arts.” This way of examining student experiences is deeply informed by what I heard in interviews with students, and reveals aspects of their experiences that would not otherwise be apparent.

Working while studying full-time

I gained insight into these questions during a research study that I led between 2018 and 2023, which focused on undergraduate students who work while studying full-time at two research-intensive universities in Canada.

We approached this research aware of the plethora of advice for students to make themselves employable. We wondered: What do students themselves think? How are they feeling about their future careers — excited and eager, anxious and pessimistic or somewhere in between?

More than half of undergraduates engage in term-time work while studying and many pursue other forms of work-integrated learning as well.

Undergraduates are recognizing the importance of 21st century “circus arts” as they labour to learn in today’s economy, characterized by extreme wealth inequality, globalization and the dominance of multinational corporations.

Circus arts metaphors

The “circus arts” metaphors were sparked by qualitative research with 57 students at one university between 2020 and 2022. Our methods included focus group interviews, life maps, audio diaries and one-on-one follow-up interviews.

Of these 57 students, 39 identified as female, 40 were racialized, 16 were international and 17 were first-generation Canadian. They were enrolled in a range of programs across campus, many in the largest faculties of arts and science.

In my book, I consider how students are concerned with:

• How to manipulate different “objects” (juggling)

• How to adjust and recalibrate their activities and expectations (high-wire walking)

• How to learn their limits and bend in ways that don’t compromise care for self and others (contortion); and

• How to expend energy instrumentally and avoid burnout (sword swallowing).

Varying degrees of freedom and ease

Different students take up these “circus arts” in varied ways and degrees of freedom and ease. For instance, many students juggle more than paid work and studies.

Women are more likely to juggle volunteer work required for admission into feminized professional programs as well as care work in families. International students add the labour of acclimatizating to a new country with employment to offset disproportionately high tuition.

I observe that the art of high-wire walking tends to be less challenging for students who enter university with varied experiences and who have strong safety nets provided by families.

In contrast, financially insecure students, especially those who are racialized or live with disabilities, navigate more cautiously as they try to anticipate obstacles.

For example, one interviewee, Lucy, relayed how her disability required her to adjust studies and work when she was close to the point of burning out. First-generation student, Michael, had little room for error as he lived “paycheque to paycheque” on earnings from his retail job while pursuing full-time studies.

Costs of contortion and competition

Dominant discourses frame youth as autonomous, independent decision-makers who exhibit Gumby-like capacities to stretch and compress themselves into education and employment systems.

However, I observe that the “art of contortion” also involves discovering the costs of hyper-flexibility and limits on the ability to stretch in different directions.

For example, Kay came “pretty close to dropping out” because of mental health issues that were exacerbated by the competitive climate on campus. Fortunately, support from her parents and a sympathetic employer on campus helped her persevere.

Similarly, Janice, a racialized international student, compared her cohort to a “herd of lions trying to kill each other.” Her perception of steep competition for work placements coupled with her challenges to “fit in” to Canadian systems led to her realization that “there’s only so much we can take” and “you don’t have to take the path that every other person takes.”

Sword swallowing

Students learn their limits as they bump up against the rigidity of demanding education and employment systems and as they navigate family expectations.

Pressure to take on too much can be irresistible in a context where a bachelor’s credential is no longer seen as sufficient and the smorgasbord of extra-credential activities is dizzying.

The dangers of sword swallowing — which involves suppressing one’s natural defence mechanisms — are reflected in students’ comments about burnout, exhaustion and poor mental health.

For example, Helena’s disability meant that she was always playing “catch up” despite the long hours she put into her studies. When combined with a retail employer who wasn’t accommodating, she reflected, “my mental health isn’t that great” and “my personal battery is dead.”

Erosion of familiar pathways

Participants in the study perceived an imperative to be planful, employable and productive (what I call “PEP talk”) because of the erosion of familiar institutional pathways and institutional safety nets coupled with the uncertain value of university credentials.

What could universities do to reduce the time pressure on students who experience the most precarity? There are calls to tie universities even more closely to job markets: mandating work-integrated learning, adding micro-credentials and packing more into programs.

I’m not convinced these approaches will do the trick. Instead, I think we need to move away from universities trying to meet the demands of constantly shifting global labour markets by producing graduates who can “hit the ground running.”

Paradigm shift needed

A paradigm shift is needed for three main reasons. First, the timescale of universities is (and should be) longer than the economic quarter. Innovation and responsiveness to communities does not mean reacting to every report on business.

Second, everything is not up to universities. Employers must take more responsibility for creating rewarding and sustainable entry-level positions with training. This does not mean adding more unpaid internships.

Finally, more institutional supports are needed to create the space and time for students to decide who they aspire to be, explore possible directions for work and career and discover what they value (including things beyond economic returns on educational investments.

This could mean lower tuition, more financial support for financially insecure students and the equitable distribution of work opportunities on campus.

It also means instructors and researchers modelling the kind of patient and careful scholarship that will help us see our way forward in a complex and crisis-prone world.

Alison Taylor received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. To survive today’s economy, university students are using circus-like tactics – https://theconversation.com/to-survive-todays-economy-university-students-are-using-circus-like-tactics-264839

November 11, 2025

Why has Sudan descended into mass slaughter? The answer goes far beyond simple ethnic conflict

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Justin Willis, Professor of History, Durham University

The recent capture of the western Sudanese city of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been followed by allegations of appalling war crimes: massacres, looting and rapes.

There is much reason to believe the allegations from Sudan are credible. UN leaders and experts, most western governments and the International Criminal Court have acknowledged reports of the atrocities and condemned the killing of civilians as a potential war crimes.

Formerly a government-sponsored militia, since April 2023 the RSF has been at war with its former allies in the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). Throughout its existence the RSF has been notorious for violence, and every RSF military success has been accompanied by gross violations of human rights.

Less credible are the claims of the RSF leader, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo – better known in Sudan as Hemedti – who has promised to punish any of his followers found to be responsible for any of these atrocities.

Recent reporting of these terrible abuses has presented them as part of an ethnic conflict, with the RSF portrayed as an Arab militia murdering non-Arabs. There is much truth in this. But there are other drivers of the continuing violence in Sudan.

The RSF itself is the terrible creation of a history of state-driven violence, exclusion and opportunism in Sudan. Its origins are usually traced to the infamous Janjaweed, a militia drawn from Arab communities that was armed by the then president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, to suppress an insurgency in the region early in the 21st century.

In raising the Janjaweed, Bahir’s regime exploited tensions between Arabs and other communities in Darfur, a large region of western Sudan region of which El Fasher is the historical capital.

It was therefore tempting for audiences in North America and Europe to see the conflict – like the long-running war in what was then southern Sudan (now the independent country of South Sudan) in simple racial terms: Arabs against Africans. That narrative has given strength to the international campaign to end the violence in Darfur.

But that narrative was always a simplification, and certainly does not explain the current war. The RSF also has other origins.

It exploited a long-term sense of economic and political exclusion felt by people in Darfur – both Arabs and non-Arabs. It fed off and was partly funded by an international trade in livestock, gold and mercenaries that has thrived on the margins of a state whose leaders have ruthlessly used office to prey on their people.

And it arose in a political system that has rewarded those who seize office by violence, partly thanks to the meddling of external powers who seek political or economic gain by supporting rivals for power in Sudan.

Rise of Hemedti

Hemedti was a relatively minor figure in the Janjaweed. But Bashir created the RSF in 2013, under his leadership, as part of a complicated balancing of multiple militias and security agencies. These competing forces violently repressed challenges to the regime while keeping one another in check through their rivalry.

In 2019, that system broke down in the face of popular unrest in the regime’s political heartland, in central riverain Sudan – the area stretching along the Nile, roughly from Atbara, north of Khartoum to Wad Medani, about 85 miles to the southeast. This has been the economic centre of Sudan since colonial rule began.

Map of Sudan showing regions. — Sudan: power has traditionally been focused on the central region aroiund the Nile.
Peter Fitzgerald via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Bashir was toppled in a military coup and, after internal army power struggles, Lt Gen Abdel Fattah Burhan emerged as leader and named Hemedti as his deputy. The pair were key figures in the “transitional” government that was supposed to take Sudan back to civilian rule.

But they represented very different constituencies, in a way that demonstrates that Arab identity can take many forms. Affluent urban Arabs from Khartoum have often looked down on the nomadic lifestyle of the communities Hemedti and the RSF have mobilised and sometimes belittle them as “Chadian” on account of their ties to the wider Sahelian region.

Arabs from Darfur, such as Hemedti, can see themselves as long-term victims of what they call the “1956 state”. This is the political and economic system inherited from colonial rule, which favoured the riverain centre.

Both Hemedti and Burhan insist that they are fighting for all Sudan, and all Sudanese. Yet both have been entirely willing to appeal to ethnic and religious sentiment when it suits them. That has repeatedly added an extra, vicious dynamic to the conflict – from the recent massacres in El Fasher to the reported violence against people from South Sudan in Khartoum when SAF recaptured the city in March 2025.

The real reasons for the conflict

Ethnicity is not the basis of the conflict. This instead lies in an embedded culture of political violence, complicated by a shifting power balance between central and western Sudan and by international meddling.

Some Arab nations – particularly Egypt and Saudi Arabia – back the army. While the UAE’s enabling of RSF violence has been widely publicised, prominent African governments have also maintained ties with Hemedti.

Hemedti has also made alliances of convenience with groups such as SPLM-North Hilu, which principally draws support from the non-Arab communities in the southern Sudanese region of South Kordofan and, like Hemedti, aims to dismantle the “1956 state”.

For Sudanese observers, the tension between central and western Sudan is more recognisable. Both before and after his role in the 2023 ransacking of Khartoum, Hemedti has been compared with the Khalifa – the western Sudanese successor to Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi. It was al-Mahdi who defeated the British and the Egyptians to found the Mahdist state in the late 19th century.

Since the 1950s, those seeking to seize control of the Sudanese state have repeatedly mobilised support among disaffected groups in western Sudan – sometimes combining Arab and non-Arab communities, sometimes turning them against one another. Hemedti’s claims to represent the marginalised communities of the west are opportunistic and mendacious, but far from unprecedented.

This war is not a simple Arab-African conflict. But its viciousness reflects the willingness of both RSF and SAF to turn multiple societal fault lines into tools for mobilisation. They have created a context in which ethnic polarisation has been driven by wars for control of the state – rather than vice versa.

Justin Willis has previously received funding from the UK government, via the Rift Valley Institute, for research on elections in Sudan.

Willow Berridge receives funding from Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep), funded by UK International Development from the UK government.

– ref. Why has Sudan descended into mass slaughter? The answer goes far beyond simple ethnic conflict – https://theconversation.com/why-has-sudan-descended-into-mass-slaughter-the-answer-goes-far-beyond-simple-ethnic-conflict-269293