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August 4, 2025

Beyond brute strength: A fresh look at Samson’s search for intimacy in the Hebrew Bible

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Tanner Ethan Walker, Assistant Professor of Religion, Wesleyan University

‘Samson and Delilah,’ by Anthony van Dyck, 1599-1641. DeAgostini/Getty Images

The biblical figure of Samson has long been understood as a man of brute strength, a warrior on the margins of society whose story is often defined by violence and destruction. Yet alongside his strength, Samson is known for his entanglements with women.

Samson’s story is told in the Book of Judges, Chapters 13-16. In the biblical context, judges were not legal authorities but leaders meant to rescue the Israelites from oppression. Samson is one such judge, chosen by the deity before birth to deliver the Israelites from Philistine rule.

With his enormous strength, Samson performs extraordinary feats, including slaying a lion with his bare hands and massacring a Philistine army with a donkey’s jawbone.

He is feared by both Israelites and Philistines; he engages in acts of destruction without clear goals. He often acts against the Philistines not in defense of the Israelites, but due to personal grievances. He eventually dies alongside his enemies, the Philistines.

Many scholarly and theological interpretations highlight his impulsive nature. Even as a heroic, superhuman and legendary figure, Samson is not often viewed as a role model, but as someone driven by unchecked appetites and poor judgment.

But the story of Samson is defined also by Samson’s failed search for companionship. Samson attempts to marry a Philistine woman who betrays his trust. Later, he famously falls in love with Delilah, a woman who learns the secret of his strength and has his hair cut, robbing him of his power and leading to his capture.

In my work as a Hebrew Bible scholar, I read the text through the lens of intimacy. I argue that the text, as much as it emphasizes Samson’s violence, also emphasizes his emotional depth and search for romantic connection.

Stronger than a lion

Spurning social norms and the wishes of his parents, Samson, who was born to an Israelite mother, decides to marry a Philistine woman. At the wedding, he poses a seemingly lighthearted riddle to those gathered. He wagers 30 linen and festal garments with the guests that they won’t be able to solve it.

Prior to the wedding, Samson had encountered a lion on the road and, through sheer strength, killed it with his bare hands.

Later, he found something equally remarkable: Bees had made honey within the lion’s remains. Rather than sharing this discovery with others, Samson kept it to himself, eating the honey in silence.

This hidden act provides the foundation for the riddle he presents to the Philistines: “Out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet.”

Because Samson has told no one about this act, the Philistines cannot solve Samson’s riddle. Not wanting to lose the wager, they coerce his bride into betraying Samson’s trust. Under threat, she pushes for Samson to reveal the answer to her.

Seeing her distress and need for the answer to his riddle, Samson gives her the key to understanding his riddle. She then conveys theses “answers” to the Philistines, who then presumably repeat the words he had spoken to her back to him: “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?”

Samson’s intimacy and betrayal

These “answers” are odd. Not only are they questions, they are only a partial answer to Samson’s original riddle. Additionally, rather than being rhetorical questions, which both Samson’s bride and the Philistines assume them to be, both questions have definite answers.

Samson himself is stronger than a lion – he proved this when he killed one with his bare hands. And the question of “what is sweeter than honey?” should not be viewed as rhetorical either. While biblical texts sometimes liken honey to wisdom or divine instruction, these explanations do not fully align with Samson’s context. He is not asking about abstract virtues or knowledge; his riddle was spoken to his bride in an intimate setting.

Ancient Akkadian love poetry, written in ancient Mesopotamia potentially alongside many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, repeatedly describes love and intimacy as being “sweeter than honey.” Lovers describe their passion in this way to evoke both physical pleasure and emotional connection.

With this in mind, I argue that Samson is attempting to express something personal and meaningful to his bride. When she pushes him for the answer to his riddle, he instead poses a new riddle to her alone: Two questions with definite answers – answers she should know if she is going to be his bride.

In effect, he’s saying, “I am stronger than a lion, and our love will be sweeter than honey.” His use of language is not that of a brute but of a man trying to forge a connection through poetic expression.

Yet his bride cannot answer the questions. She immediately betrays him, repeating the same questions he presented to her back to the Philistines who had threatened her. When the Philistines repeat his words back to him, they strip them of their intimacy, turning them into public mockery.

The narrative, then, does not present Samson as merely a violent strongman but as a thoughtful figure who uses language to seek connection.

Vulnerability and intimacy

Unlike other judges in the Hebrew Bible, Samson does not lead an army, unite Israel, or receive divine commands in the traditional sense. Instead, he operates in near-total isolation, a figure alienated by his divine strength.

This isolation is mirrored in his relationships. After the incident with the riddle, Samson leaves and his Philistine bride is married to another man. This first attempt at marriage is overshadowed by secrecy, betrayal and coercion. His bride is manipulated by the Philistines, forced to extract the answer to his riddle under the threat of violence.

Even in his final relationship with Delilah, Samson displays a striking willingness to trust after a lifetime of betrayal.

In Judges 16, Delilah asks Samson repeatedly to reveal the secret of his strength, and each time he gives her the wrong answer. This back-and-forth seems to be a game between them. He tells her a false answer and she uses it against him, attempting to have him captured by the Philistines.

A painting showing a man with a bare upper body surrounded by several men and women trying to hold him. — ‘Samson captured by the Philistines,’ Guercino, 1600.
Geoffrey Clements/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

After three such attempts, each one ending with an ambush, Samson still remains with her. Eventually, he reveals that his strength is tied to his uncut hair. The deity had ordered that Samson not cut his hair, and here Samson reveals that it is the source of his divine strength.

This moment of confession following clear signs of manipulation from Delilah, in my reading, is not foolishness – it is a final act of vulnerability, a deliberate choice to seek intimacy despite the cost. His relationships are not simply careless indulgences; they reflect a deep desire to be known and loved for more than his strength, even in the face of danger.

Rethinking Samson’s story

By reevaluating the Samson narrative, readers can move beyond the one-dimensional portrayal of him as an overly masculine, violent brute.

His story is not just one of strength but also of longing, intimacy and deep emotional vulnerability. His riddle may not be a challenge meant to humiliate his enemies, but an expression of personal connection, one that is ultimately betrayed.

Tanner Ethan Walker 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. Beyond brute strength: A fresh look at Samson’s search for intimacy in the Hebrew Bible – https://theconversation.com/beyond-brute-strength-a-fresh-look-at-samsons-search-for-intimacy-in-the-hebrew-bible-248820

August 4, 2025

Meet ‘lite intermediate black holes,’ the supermassive black hole’s smaller, much more mysterious cousin

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Bill Smith, Ph.D. Candidate in Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University

Merging black holes generate gravitational waves, which astronomers can track. SXS, CC BY-ND

Black holes are massive, strange and incredibly powerful astronomical objects. Scientists know that supermassive black holes reside in the centers of most galaxies.

And they understand how certain stars form the comparatively smaller stellar mass black holes once they reach the end of their life. Understanding how the smaller stellar mass black holes could form the supermassive black holes helps astronomers learn about how the universe grows and evolves.

But there’s an open question in black hole research: What about black holes with masses in between? These are much harder to find than their stellar and supermassive peers, in size range of a few hundred to a few hundred thousand times the mass of the Sun.

We’re a team of astronomers who are searching for these in-between black holes, called intermediate black holes. In a new paper, two of us (Krystal and Karan) teamed up with a group of researchers, including postdoctoral researcher Anjali Yelikar, to look at ripples in space-time to spot a few of these elusive black holes merging.

Take me out to the (gravitational wave) ball game

To gain an intuitive idea of how scientists detect stellar mass black holes, imagine you are at a baseball game where you’re sitting directly behind a big concrete column and can’t see the diamond. Even worse, the crowd is deafeningly loud, so it is also nearly impossible to see or hear the game.

But you’re a scientist, so you take out a high-quality microphone and your computer and write a computer algorithm that can take audio data and separate the crowd’s noise from the “thunk” of a bat hitting a ball.

You start recording, and, with enough practice and updates to your hardware and software, you can begin following the game, getting a sense of when a ball is hit, what direction it goes, when it hits a glove, where runners’ feet pound into the dirt and more.

Admittedly, this is a challenging way to watch a baseball game. But unlike baseball, when observing the universe, sometimes the challenging way is all we have.

This principle of recording sound and using computer algorithms to isolate certain sound waves to determine what they are and where they are coming from is similar to how astronomers like us study gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time that allow us to observe objects such as black holes.

Now imagine implementing a different sound algorithm, testing it over several innings of the game and finding a particular hit that no legal combination of bats and balls could have produced. Imagine the data was suggesting that the ball was bigger and heavier than a legal baseball could be. If our paper was about a baseball game instead of gravitational waves, that’s what we would have found.

Listening for gravitational waves

While the baseball recording setup is designed specifically to hear the sounds of a baseball game, scientists use a specialized observatory called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, to observe the “sound” of two black holes merging out in the universe.

An L-shaped facility with two long arms extending out from a central building. — The LIGO detector in Hanford, Wash., uses lasers to measure the minuscule stretching of space caused by a gravitational wave.
LIGO Laboratory

Scientists look for the gravitational waves that we can measure using LIGO, which has one of the most mind-bogglingly advanced laser and optics systems ever created.

In each event, two “parent” black holes merge into a single, more massive black hole. Using LIGO data, scientists can figure out where and how far away the merger happened, how massive the parents and resultant black holes are, which direction in the sky the merger happened and other key details.

Most of the parent black holes in merger events originally form from stars that have reached the end of their lives – these are stellar mass black holes.

An illustration of a black hole with gas swirling around it, coming from a large cloud around a star on the right. — This artist’s impression shows a binary system containing a stellar mass black hole called IGR J17091-3624. The strong gravity of the black hole, on the left, is pulling gas away from a companion star on the right.
NASA/CXC/M.Weiss, CC BY-NC

The black hole mass gap

Not every dying star can create a stellar mass black hole. The ones that do are usually between about 20 to 100 times the mass of the Sun. But due to complicated nuclear physics, really massive stars explode differently and don’t leave behind any remnant, black hole or otherwise.

These physics create what we refer to as the “mass gap” in black holes. A smaller black hole likely formed from a dying star. But we know that a black hole more massive than about 60 times the size of the Sun, while not a supermassive black hole, is still too big to have formed directly from a dying star.

The exact cutoff for the mass gap is still somewhat uncertain, and many astrophysicists are working on more precise measurements. However, we are confident that the mass gaps exist and that we are in the ballpark of the boundary.

We call black holes in this gap lite intermediate mass black holes or lite IMBHs, because they are the least massive black holes that we expect to exist from sources other than stars. They are no longer considered stellar mass black holes.

Calling them “intermediate” also doesn’t quite capture why they are special. They are special because they are much harder to find, astronomers still aren’t sure what astronomical events might create them, and they fill a gap in astronomers’ knowledge of how the universe grows and evolves.

Evidence for IMBHs

In our research, we analyzed 11 black hole merger candidates from LIGO’s third observing run. These candidates were possibly gravitational wave signals that looked promising but still needed more analysis to conclusively confirm.

The data suggested that for those 11 we analyzed, their final post-merger black hole may have been in the lite IMBH range. We found five post-merger black holes that our analysis was 90% confident were lite IMBHs.

Even more critically, we found that one of the events had a parent black hole that was in the mass gap range, and two had parent black holes above the mass gap range. Since we know these black holes can’t come from stars directly, this finding suggests that the universe has some other way of creating black holes this massive.

A parent black hole this massive may already be the product of two other black holes that merged in the past, so observing more IMBHs can help us understand how often black holes are able to “find” each other and merge out in the universe.

LIGO is in the end stages of its fourth observing run. Since this work used data from the third observing run, we are excited to apply our analysis to this new dataset. We expect to continue to search for lite IMBHs, and with this new data we will improve our understanding of how to more confidently “hear” these signals from more massive black holes above all the noise.

We hope this work not only strengthens the case for lite IMBHs in general but helps shed more light on how they are formed.

Bill Smith receives funding from an NSF Research Trainee Grant called EMIT.

Karan Jani is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.

Krystal Ruiz-Rocha receives funding from an NSF research grant called EMIT.

– ref. Meet ‘lite intermediate black holes,’ the supermassive black hole’s smaller, much more mysterious cousin – https://theconversation.com/meet-lite-intermediate-black-holes-the-supermassive-black-holes-smaller-much-more-mysterious-cousin-259976

August 4, 2025

2 spacecraft flew exactly in line to imitate a solar eclipse, capture a stunning image and test new tech

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Christopher Palma, Teaching Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Penn State

The solar corona, as viewed by Proba-3’s ASPIICS coronagraph. ESA/Proba-3/ASPIICS/WOW algorithm, CC BY-SA

During a solar eclipse, astronomers who study heliophysics are able to study the Sun’s corona – its outer atmosphere – in ways they are unable to do at any other time.

The brightest part of the Sun is so bright that it blocks the faint light from the corona, so it is invisible to most of the instruments astronomers use. The exception is when the Moon blocks the Sun, casting a shadow on the Earth during an eclipse. But as an astronomer, I know eclipses are rare, they last only a few minutes, and they are visible only on narrow paths across the Earth. So, researchers have to work hard to get their equipment to the right place to capture these short, infrequent events.

In their quest to learn more about the Sun, scientists at the European Space Agency have built and launched a new probe designed specifically to create artificial eclipses.

Meet Proba-3

This probe, called Proba-3, works just like a real solar eclipse. One spacecraft, which is roughly circular when viewed from the front, orbits closer to the Sun, and its job is to block the bright parts of the Sun, acting as the Moon would in a real eclipse. It casts a shadow on a second probe that has a camera capable of photographing the resulting artificial eclipse.

An illustration of two spacecraft, one which is spherical and moves in front of the Sun, another that is box-shaped facing the Sun. — The two spacecraft of Proba-3 fly in precise formation about 492 feet (150 meters) apart.
ESA-P. Carril, CC BY-NC-ND

Having two separate spacecraft flying independently but in such a way that one casts a shadow on the other is a challenging task. But future missions depend on scientists figuring out how to make this precision choreography technology work, and so Proba-3 is a test.

This technology is helping to pave the way for future missions that could include satellites that dock with and deorbit dead satellites or powerful telescopes with instruments located far from their main mirrors.

The side benefit is that researchers get to practice by taking important scientific photos of the Sun’s corona, allowing them to learn more about the Sun at the same time.

An immense challenge

The two satellites launched in 2024 and entered orbits that approach Earth as close as 372 miles (600 kilometers) – that’s about 50% farther from Earth than the International Space Station – and reach more than 37,282 miles (60,000 km) at their most distant point, about one-sixth of the way to the Moon.

During this orbit, the satellites move at speeds between 5,400 miles per hour (8,690 kilometers per hour) and 79,200 mph (127,460 kph). At their slowest, they’re still moving fast enough to go from New York City to Philadelphia in one minute.

While flying at that speed, they can control themselves automatically, without a human guiding them, and fly 492 feet (150 meters) apart – a separation that is longer than the length of a typical football stadium – while still keeping their locations aligned to about one millimeter.

They needed to maintain that precise flying pattern for hours in order to take a picture of the Sun’s corona, and they did it in June 2025.

The Proba-3 mission is also studying space weather by observing high-energy particles that the Sun ejects out into space, sometimes in the direction of the Earth. Space weather causes the aurora, also known as the northern lights, on Earth.

While the aurora is beautiful, solar storms can also harm Earth-orbiting satellites. The hope is that Proba-3 will help scientists continue learning about the Sun and better predict dangerous space weather events in time to protect sensitive satellites.

Christopher Palma 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. 2 spacecraft flew exactly in line to imitate a solar eclipse, capture a stunning image and test new tech – https://theconversation.com/2-spacecraft-flew-exactly-in-line-to-imitate-a-solar-eclipse-capture-a-stunning-image-and-test-new-tech-259362

August 4, 2025

The case that saved the press – and why Trump wants it gone

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin, Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs, Boise State University

Donald Trump wants to restrict journalists’ ability to publish or broadcast critical stories. Mesh cube, iStock/Getty Images Plus

President Donald Trump is again attacking the American press – this time not with fiery rally speeches or by calling the media “the enemy of the people,” but through the courts.

Since the heat of the November 2024 election, and continuing into July, Trump has filed defamation lawsuits against “60 Minutes” broadcaster CBS News and The Wall Street Journal. He has also sued the Des Moines Register for publishing a poll just before the 2024 election that Trump alleges exaggerated support for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and thus constituted election interference and fraud.

These are in addition to other lawsuits Trump filed against the news media during his first term and during his years out of office between 2021 and 2025.

At the heart of Trump’s complaints is a familiar refrain: The media is not only biased, but dishonest, corrupt and dangerous.

The president isn’t just upset about reporting on him that he thinks is unfair. He wants to redefine what counts as libel and make it easier for public officials to sue for damages. A libel suit is a civil tort claim seeking damages when a person believes something false has been printed or broadcast about them and so harmed their reputation.

Redefining libel in this way would require overturning the Supreme Court’s 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, one of the most important First Amendment legal rulings in American constitutional history

Trump made overturning Sullivan a talking point during his first campaign for president; his lawsuits now put that threat into action. And they raise the question: What happened in Sullivan, and why does it still matter?

President Donald Trump discusses U.S. libel laws on Jan. 10, 2018, calling them a ‘sham’ and a ‘disgrace’ during comments to reporters at the White House.

What Sullivan was about

As chair of a public policy institute devoted to strengthening deliberative democracy, I have written two books about the media and the presidency, and another about media ethics. My research traces how news institutions shape civic life and why healthy democracies rely on free expression.

In 1960, The New York Times published a full-page advertisement titled “Heed Their Rising Voices”. The ad, which included an appeal for readers to send money in support of Martin Luther King Jr. and the movement against Jim Crow, described brutal and unjust treatment of Black students and protesters in Montgomery, Alabama. It also emphasized episodes of police violence against peaceful demonstrations.

The ad was not entirely accurate in its description of the behavior of either protesters or the police.

It claimed, for instance, that activists had sung “My Country ’Tis of Thee” on the steps of the state capitol during a rally, when they actually had sung the national anthem. It said that “truckloads of police armed with shotguns and tear-gas” had “ringed” a college campus, when the police had only been deployed nearby. And it asserted that King had been arrested seven times in Alabama, when the real number was four.

Though the ad did not identify any individual public officials by name, it disparaged the behavior of Montgomery police.

That’s where L.B. Sullivan came in.

As Montgomery’s police commissioner, he oversaw the police department. Sullivan claimed that because the ad maligned the conduct of law enforcement, it had implicitly defamed him. In 1960 in Alabama, a primary defense against libel was truth. But since there were mistakes in the ad, a truth defense could not be raised. Sullivan sued for damages, and an Alabama jury awarded him US$500,000, equivalent to $5,450,000 in 2025.

The message to the press was clear: criticize Southern officials and risk being sued out of existence.

In fact, the Sullivan lawsuit was not an isolated incident, but part of a broader strategy. In addition to Sullivan, four other Montgomery officials filed suits against the Times.

In Birmingham, public officials filed seven libel lawsuits over Times reporter Harrison Salisbury’s trenchant reporting about racism in that city. The lawsuits helped push the Times to the edge of bankruptcy. Salisbury was even indicted for seditious libel and faced up to 21 years in prison.

Alabama officials also sued CBS, The Associated Press, the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies’ Home Journal – all for reporting on civil rights and the South’s brutal response.

Four men in suits standing together and smiling. — Montgomery, Ala., Police Commissioner L.B. Sullivan, second left, and his attorneys celebrate his $500,000 libel suit victory in a county court on Nov. 3, 1960.
Bettman/Getty Images

The Supreme Court decision

The jury’s verdict in favor of Sullivan was unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court in 1964.

Writing for the court, Justice William Brennan held that public officials cannot prevail in defamation lawsuits merely by showing that statements are false. Instead, they must prove such statements are made with “actual malice”. Actual malice means a reporter or press outlet knew their story was false or else acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

The decision set a high bar.

Before the ruling, the First Amendment’s protections for speech and the press didn’t offer much help to the press in libel cases.

After it, public officials who wanted to sue the press would have to prove “actual malice” – real, purposeful untruths that caused harm. Honest mistakes weren’t enough to prevail in such lawsuits. The court held that errors are inevitable in public debate and that protecting those mistakes is essential to keeping debate open and free.

Nonviolent protest and the press

In essence, the court ruling blocked government officials from suing for libel with ulterior motives.

King and other civil rights leaders relied on a strategy of nonviolent protest to expose injustice through public, visible actions.

When protesters were arrested, beaten or hosed in the streets, their goal was not chaos – it was clarity. They wanted the nation to see what Southern oppression looked like. For that, they needed press coverage.

If Sullivan’s lawsuit had succeeded, it could have bullied the press away from covering civil rights altogether. The Supreme Court recognized this danger.

Public officials treated differently

Another key element of the court’s reasoning was its distinction between public officials and private citizens.

Elected leaders, the court said, can use mass media to defend themselves in ways ordinary people cannot.

“The public official certainly has equal if not greater access than most private citizens to media of communication,” Justice Brennan wrote in the Sullivan ruling.

Trump is a perfect example of this dynamic. He masterfully uses social media, rallies, televised interviews and impromptu remarks to push back. He doesn’t need the courts.

Giving public officials the power to sue over news stories they dislike could well create a chilling effect on the media that undermines government accountability and distorts public discourse.

“The theory of our Constitution is that every citizen may speak his mind and every newspaper express its view on matters of public concern and may not be barred from speaking or publishing because those in control of government think that what is said or written is unwise,” Brennan wrote.

“In a democratic society, one who assumes to act for the citizens in an executive, legislative, or judicial capacity must expect that his official acts will be commented upon and criticized.”

Why Sullivan still matters

The Sullivan ruling is more than a legal doctrine. It is a shared agreement about the kind of democracy Americans aspire to. It affirms a press duty to hold power to account, and a public right to hear facts and information that those in power want to suppress.

The ruling protects the right to criticize those in power and affirms that the press is not a nuisance, but an essential part of a functioning democracy. It ensures that political leaders cannot insulate themselves from scrutiny by silencing their critics through intimidation or litigation.

Trump’s lawsuits seek to undo these press protections. He presents himself as the victim of a dishonest press and hopes to use the legal system to punish those he perceives to be his detractors.

The decision in the Sullivan case reminds Americans that democracy doesn’t depend on leaders who feel comfortable. It depends on a public that is free to speak.

Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin 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 case that saved the press – and why Trump wants it gone – https://theconversation.com/the-case-that-saved-the-press-and-why-trump-wants-it-gone-261821

August 4, 2025

Quand les communautés de marque prennent le pouvoir à l’ère du Web3 et du métavers

Source: The Conversation – France (in French) – By kaabachi souheila, Enseignant-Chercheur, EBS Paris

Le métavers et toutes les technologies qui y sont associées sont en train de changer à bas bruit les modes de consommation. La place du consommateur ne peut plus être la même avant qu’après. Comment les marques doivent-elles en tenir compte pour rester dans la compétition ?

L’essor du Web3 et du métavers annonce une nouvelle ère d’innovation pour les entreprises, ouvrant ainsi la voie à la création de modèles d’affaires disruptifs où les consommateurs deviennent des acteurs clés, des cocréateurs actifs voire des copropriétaires des produits. Avec une architecture décentralisée du Web3, les utilisateurs auront la possibilité de créer, de posséder et d’échanger des objets virtuels en toute liberté avec une totale maîtrise sur leurs données.

Simultanément, nous assistons depuis quelques années à une multiplication d’environnements immersifs en 3D associant la réalité virtuelle et l’intelligence artificielle, appelés métavers. Dans ces nouveaux univers, les frontières entre les mondes physique et virtuel s’estompent pour proposer aux utilisateurs des expériences immersives avec les possibilités de naviguer d’une manière fluide entre les différents univers virtuels interconnectés.

Un changement majeur

Ces innovations devraient conduire à un changement majeur dans la conception des stratégies d’innovation des entreprises qui deviennent plus ouvertes et collaboratives. Dans ce contexte, les membres de la communauté deviennent des cocréateurs de valeur qui participent activement à toutes les étapes du processus d’innovation : du partage de l’information, à l’idéation en passant par le vote, le test des prototypes jusqu’à la conception.

Le métavers s’impose comme un levier stratégique pour des entreprises en quête de solutions innovantes, efficaces, et rapides. Par sa dimension immersive, Il permet à des individus d’horizons variés de se concerter virtuellement en vue de mutualiser leurs expertises et leurs connaissances pour dénouer de façon créative des problèmes complexes. Cet univers collaboratif devient un terrain dynamique où les idées se croisent et s’enrichissent pour stimuler l’intelligence collective et favoriser l’émergence de solutions innovantes.

L’exemple frappant de l’association Pencils of Promise proposant à ses collaborateurs et à ses membres bienfaiteurs une expérience immersive au sein d’une salle de classe au Ghana, à l’issue de laquelle les participants sont parvenus à mieux identifier les besoins réels et les défis de l’éducation dans cette région. Cette approche a ainsi facilité la conception de solutions pertinentes et ciblées, parfaitement adaptées aux réalités du terrain.

L’irruption de l’ethnographie immersive

Le succès d’une stratégie d’innovation réside dans la connaissance fine des attentes des consommateurs et de leurs comportements. Aujourd’hui, pour affiner les études de marché traditionnelles – telles que les groupes de discussion et les tests A/B, transposables dans des environnements virtuels –, l’ethnographie immersive s’impose plus en plus. Grâce à l’observation fine des expériences des utilisateurs, elle permet aux entreprises d’accéder et d’analyser, en temps réels, une multitude de données comportementales et émotionnelles. L’exploitation de ces informations permet de mieux saisir les motivations profondes des utilisateurs, d’identifier leurs besoins latents ainsi que leurs insatisfactions, rendant les stratégies d’innovations des entreprises proactives et agiles.

La réussite d’un nouveau produit ne relève pas seulement de son originalité, Il dépend surtout de sa fiabilité et de sa capacité à répondre aux attentes des consommateurs. Dans ce contexte, la phase de test préalable au lancement ainsi que la participation active des consommateurs dans ce processus de validation deviennent des étapes clés. Traditionnellement, les tests de produit s’appuient sur des descriptions verbales, des dessins, des images ou même des listes de caractéristiques. Bien qu’utiles pour fournir les premières impressions des utilisateurs sur le produit, ces techniques restent informatives et peu pertinentes en raison de l’absence d’interactions réel avec le produit, les feedbacks des utilisateurs demeurent superficiels.

Jumeaux numériques

L’avènement des jumeaux numériques, des répliques virtuelles d’objets physiques modifient la donne avec une approche plus authentique et expérientielle à cette phase de test. En effet, grâce à des simulations immersives et interactives, les entreprises sont en mesure de tester virtuellement leurs prototypes par un grand nombre d’utilisateurs. L’observation en temps réel des réactions des utilisateurs lors de l’usage du produit, accompagnées de feedback riches et pertinents, oriente les entreprises bien en amont sur les dysfonctionnements, les pistes d’améliorations et les nouvelles opportunités de développement. Ces décisions proactives limitent considérablement le taux d’échec des nouveaux produits.

Copropriété numérique

Les innovations ne s’arrêtent pas là. Faire participer activement les membres de la communauté au développement des produits n’est pas une nouveauté en soi. En revanche, leur offrir une copropriété numérique, un pouvoir de décision et une maîtrise complète de leurs données est totalement disruptif.

Kiki World, une start-up du secteur de la beauté a réussi ce pari en bousculant les codes de l’industrie. Le business model de la marque repose sur deux innovations majeures : d’une part, faire participer la communauté à toutes les phases de conception du produit en l’invitant à voter pour les produits qu’elle souhaiterait voir naître puis contribuer à leur cocréation lors d’ateliers virtuels, des discussions communautaires et des séances de brainstorming en ligne.

Le business model participatif de Kiki World est en parfaite adéquation avec les attentes du marché puisqu’il a réussi à mobiliser une communauté comptant plus de 12 000 membres autour de la création de produits cosmétiques. Chaque nouveau lancement suscite l’enthousiasme de la communauté, confirmant l’attractivité d’une approche collaborative pour les consommateurs. Cet engouement communautaire s’est traduit par une levée de fond de 7 millions de dollars soutenu par des investisseurs de renom, dont a16z Crypto et New Incubation Ventures d’Estée Lauder.

D’autre part, l’innovation de la marque réside dans son système de récompense basé sur la blockchain. Les membres se voient attribuer pour chacune de leurs contributions des points échangeables contre des produits gratuits ainsi qu’un jeton numérique non transférable. Le jeton étroitement lié au profil permet au bénéficiaire d’acquérir la propriété numérique des produits qu’il crée. La marque possède l’une des plus grandes communautés, avec plus de 1500 détenteurs de jetons. Les membres les plus actifs créent des expériences décentralisées grâce à des objets de collection NFT spécifiques aux produits contribuant ainsi à la création de la valeur.

Xerfi Canal 2022.

Un obstacle éthique ?

Hyperconnectée et créative, la génération Z semble être la cible idéale pour s’engager dans des stratégies de cocréation avec des entreprises innovantes. Néanmoins, bien que technophile, cette génération affiche un réel scepticisme à l’égard de l’utilité et l’usage des technologies du web 3.0 et du métavers, souvent perçues comme abstraites et complexes. La méconnaissance conjuguée à un cadre juridique encore ambigu, soulèvent des questions éthiques cruciales touchant à la confidentialité, à la sécurité des données et aux droits de propriété, incertitudes qui entravent l’enthousiasme de collaborer avec les marques et accentuent la réticence à partager les données.

La démocratisation de l’IA générative ouvre la voie à de nouvelles stratégies d’innovation automatisée profondément dynamiques. En effet, disposant d’outils capables de générer des idées et des concepts et de les concrétiser en un temps record, de plus en plus de marques cèdent leur processus créatif à des plates-formes comme MidJourney. Ces nouvelles stratégies qui s’appuient sur des algorithmes réduisent drastiquement le temps, les coûts et les risques associés à l’innovation. Alors, des interrogations et des questions cruciales s’imposent d’elles-mêmes : sommes-nous sur le point de signer la fin de l’ère de la cocréation ? Les communautés de marque risquent-elles à terme de se faire détrôner par les algorithmes ?

kaabachi souheila 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. Quand les communautés de marque prennent le pouvoir à l’ère du Web3 et du métavers – https://theconversation.com/quand-les-communautes-de-marque-prennent-le-pouvoir-a-lere-du-web3-et-du-metavers-256604

August 4, 2025

Jane Austen was a satirist – why isn’t she treated like one?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adam J Smith, Associate Professor in 18th-century Literature, York St John University

From the pompous vanity of Sir Walter Elliot in Persuasion (1817), to the shallow reading habits of Isabella in Northanger Abbey (1817), few characters in the works of Jane Austen are spared the gentle satire of her famously ironic narrative voice. Similarly, some of her best remembered characters, like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1813), are more than willing to share a sarcastic retort or wry observation.

And yet, Austen, like many other women writers of the period such as Frances Burney, Eliza Haywood and Mary Robinson, are almost always missing from histories of satire. This is less to do with whether their works were satirical – because they blatantly were – and more to do with our problematic understanding of satire.

Satire, as writer Dustin Griffin states, is typically defined as a work designed to “attack vice or folly”, using “wit or riducule” and engaging “in exaggeration and some sort or fiction.”

This article is part of a series commemorating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Despite having published only six books, she is one of the best-known authors in history. These articles explore the legacy and life of this incredible writer.

Austen, like so many women, used satire and humour to critique her situation in a patriarchal society and, in so doing, persistently challenged deeply ingrained assumptions about women’s status as the passive, subordinate property of men. As literary critic Rachel Brownstein memorably put it, women at the time experienced a constant doubleness that frequently became “the ironic self-awareness of a rational creature absurdly caught in a lady’s place”.

And yet, when asked to name 18th-century satirists, it is so often the case that we are confronted with the same list of authors: Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Alexander Pope, author of The Dunciad (1728), and sometimes Henry Fielding, author of Tom Jones (1749). Typically the thread isn’t then picked up again until a century later, when we are offered Charles Dickens (in works such as The Pickwick Papers (1837), William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1848) and Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now (1875).

However, there are so many examples of brilliant satire written by women at the time.

Take for instance, The Art of Ingeniously Tormenting (1753) by Jane Collier. A satirical conduct book which, rather than advising young women on how to become delicate, feminine creatures, instead gave them tips on how to torment their husbands. Why kill your spouse, it cheerfully asks, when it will be far more satisfying to “waste them by degrees”, effectively killing them slowly across a lifetime of nagging.

There was also Eliza Haywood’s satirical periodical The Parrot (1746), which adopted the perspective of a green parrot in a cage, tired of being objectified and written off as a “pretty prattler”.

Sarah Scott’s Millenium Hall (1782) is about a group of women deciding to abandon patriarchal society altogether and establish a women-only commune. It is full of withering observations. While Mary Robinson’s Walsingham (1797) exposes the many contradictions of 18th-century Britain’s sexist society by telling the story of a girl raised as a boy by parents anxious to have a male heir.

Frances Burney and a page from Evelina — Frances Burney’s Evelina skewered Bath’s fashionable society.
Wikimedia

As a girl, Austen loved Frances Burney’s Evelina (1778), a novel about a young woman who, upon arriving in Bath for the first time, cannot stop laughing at the utter absurdity of fashionable society. (Evelina is also a novel in which a monkey wearing a suit appears out of nowhere, goes berserk, and is never mentioned again. You should read it immediately.)

Similarly, the anonymous novel The Woman of Colour (1808), sees a young heroine born in Jamaica, Olivia Fairfield, travelling to England to secure her inheritance only to discover the high society she’d been raised to admire is in fact barbarous and stupid. As both spectacle and spectator, Olivia becomes a powerful engine for satire.

Even Charlotte Brontë deployed satire. Brontë was an admirer of William Makepeace Thackeray and dedicated the second edition of Jane Eyre (1847) to his famously satirical novel Vanity Fair (1848). As 19th-century literature expert Jo Smith has recently observed, Brontë also used her persona, Currer Bell, to enact satire across her career, even articulating her own theory of satire.

The subtle barb instead of the violent attack

That these women’s names don’t come up in lists of great satirists of the period is partly due to the availability of their writing. Many of the texts I’ve mentioned have only been recovered and made publicly available again over the last 50 years. But it is also to do with how we talk about satire.

The purest definition of satire is that it performs a critique of something that the author finds to be ridiculous, stupid or dangerous, and uses some kind of distortion as part of this critique. This usually takes the form of exaggeration, but can also be inversion or allegory.

However, you’ll notice that when people talk about satire they often describe the lash of the satirist’s whip, or the slash of the surgeon’s scalpel. Satire is talked about as biting, skewering and violent.

Jane Austen and a page from the publication of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. — Jane Austen found much to skewer in Regency society and does so deftly in her books Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
Wikimedia

The satirist, from the Roman poet Juvenal through to John Dryden and Jonathan Swift, is often imagined as a heroic aggressor, whose righteous indignation drives him to lash out at a fallen world. This is an image born of Renaissance theories of satire, and one slightly modified (but heavily promoted) during the endless, rarely objective, debates about what satire should be that dominated the 18th century.

As a result, we end up with a definition of satire that is coded in masculine language. So many definitions, even today, talk about satire “attacking”, rather than “critiquing”. But in Austen, and the work of her female contemporaries, we see another kind of satire. The joy of so many of the quips and rejoinders issued by characters like Anne Elliot and Elizabeth Bennet is that often their targets don’t even realise they have been satirised, so subtle is the critique.

Virginia Woolf said it best when called upon to describe Austen’s juvenilia, in particular her early novel Love and Freindship sic:

What is this note, which never merges in the rest, which sounds distinctly and penetratingly all through the volume? It is the sound of laughter. The girl of 15 is laughing, in her corner, at the world.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and contains links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Adam J Smith 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. Jane Austen was a satirist – why isn’t she treated like one? – https://theconversation.com/jane-austen-was-a-satirist-why-isnt-she-treated-like-one-262274

August 4, 2025

Why we still don’t understand what happens to women’s bodies during labour

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anastasia Topalidou, Research Fellow (Perinatal Biomechanics and Health Technologies), University of Lancashire

Maternal and newborn deaths are rising globally, not just in low- and middle-income countries, but in wealthy nations too. Researchers have described the situation as a “global failure” and a “major scandal”.

In the UK, more women are now dying during pregnancy and childbirth than at any time in the past 20 years, despite a fall in the birth rate. A national maternity investigation has just been launched, and public concern is growing.

Yet while politicians and healthcare leaders debate staffing levels and service delivery, one major contributor to poor outcomes is being almost entirely overlooked: biomechanical complications during labour.

Biomechanics refers to how the body moves and responds to physical forces. During pregnancy, it describes how the body adapts to the increasing demands of carrying a growing baby. During labour, it involves some of the most physically intense and complex actions the human body can perform, as it prepares for and facilitates the delivery of a baby.

After analysing 87 studies from around the world, we discovered that not a single one had ever investigated the biomechanics of labour. None examined how women’s bodies actually move, adapt or respond during birth. All the research focused solely on pregnancy. And despite rising maternal deaths in the UK, not a single antenatal biomechanics study had been conducted here either.

This isn’t just an academic oversight. Labour is biomechanically intense, involving force, posture, motion, muscle control and joint loading. Without evidence on how positions, manoeuvres or techniques affect the birthing body, maternity care relies largely on tradition, anecdotal evidence and outdated assumptions.

A dangerous lack of diversity

Some pregnancy-related biomechanical changes have been documented, but these vary widely from person to person. There is no “typical” pathway. Yet standard guidance assumes a one-size-fits-all model, often failing to account for these variations.

Worse still, almost no studies included data on ethnicity. Only one mentioned participants’ ethnic background, but it did not analyse the data by group or explore any differences. That is a serious gap, given that anatomical features like pelvic shape, joint mobility, spinal alignment and culturally shaped movement patterns can vary across populations. These differences could significantly affect how women move and give birth, yet they remain completely overlooked.

This is a serious problem, especially in the UK. Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) – the national programme that investigates maternal and infant deaths – along with other official reports, consistently show that Black and Asian women are nearly three times more likely to die during childbirth than white women. If all the biomechanical knowledge we have is based on white bodies, yet clinical guidance is applied universally, we may be missing important risks or needs. This lack of inclusive data could be contributing to the persistent racial disparities in maternal outcomes.

We also found that even widely used techniques such as squatting or the McRoberts’ manoeuvre – a common emergency intervention – have never been biomechanically validated during labour. This means that no one has scientifically tested how these movements affect the body’s joints, muscles, and bones during actual childbirth. So, we don’t know if they help, hinder, or have no measurable impact on the birthing process.

A handful of studies tested some of these positions on pregnant women in static, controlled conditions, but none included women in active labour. Those studies revealed no measurable advantage for any of the positions tested. Even the McRoberts’ manoeuvre did not significantly change pelvic or spinal alignment.

That means decades of advice, clinical practice, and emergency response protocols may be based on theory and biomechanical guesswork, rather than evidence. And while these techniques are used every day – often in urgent situations – they have never been scientifically tested on women in active labour. So no clinical studies have examined how these interventions actually affect the birthing body in real time. We don’t know if they work as intended, or if they could be refined to improve safety.

Tradition over science

The consequences of this blind spot are not theoretical or a matter of academic curiosity. They’re about safety, dignity and fairness. Maternal and neonatal outcomes are getting worse. Stillbirths and deaths shortly after birth have increased. Behind these statistics are real families and real tragedies. Many of which may have been preventable.

So why haven’t we filled this gap? Part of the reason is technical: traditional biomechanical systems are difficult to use in clinical settings. But that’s no excuse. New technologies are being developed all the time. If we have the capability to launch rockets and explore space, we should surely be able – and arguably obliged – to understand the basic biomechanics of human birth.

The real barrier is structural neglect. Women were routinely excluded from clinical research until the 1990s, and even now, research into women’s health remains massively underfunded and overlooked. As a result, childbirth, one of the most common yet life-altering events in medicine, is still shaped by untested ideas.

This isn’t just a research gap. It’s a failure of safety, equity and scientific responsibility. We are delivering babies in the dark, and those most at risk are often the ones who are left behind.

Dr Topalidou received a Pre-Application Support Fund Award from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (NIHR ARC NWC) to support this work. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS, or the Department of Health and Social Care.

– ref. Why we still don’t understand what happens to women’s bodies during labour – https://theconversation.com/why-we-still-dont-understand-what-happens-to-womens-bodies-during-labour-261803

August 4, 2025

Why people ignore debt letters – and what it says about inequality today

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ryan Davey, Lecturer in Social Sciences, Cardiff University

You get a payment reminder through the letterbox, maybe for a credit card, an overdraft, a bill, or a parking fine. You ignore it and leave the envelope unopened, or put it to one side to deal with later. Many of us will recognise this scenario.

Ignoring debts and other payment commitments is often dismissed as being irresponsible. But a closer look reveals that many people see things differently, reflecting a deeper point about inequality in Britain today.

To understand people’s experiences of debt problems better, I lived in a low-income community in the south of England for 18 months, where debt problems were commonplace. I also interviewed debt advisers and their clients across the UK. It gave me a unique opportunity to understand their situation and how they respond to debt, something which I detail in my new book.

While debt relative to income is falling, the total amount of unsecured household debt now far outstrips its peak during the 2008 global financial crisis.

Amid big rises in the cost of living, more and more people have been borrowing money to cover essentials like food, energy, rent or council tax. In October 2024, 4 million low-income households held loans they took out for this purpose, and nearly nine out of ten of them were going without essentials anyway.

Meanwhile, lenders continue to charge the highest interest to those least able to afford it. In 2024, an estimated 5.5 million people were falling behind on their bills or credit repayments.

In the community where I lived, many people worked, but their wages were not enough to afford what they needed. So residents borrowed money to make ends meet, claimed welfare benefits or did cash-in-hand work. This reflects a broader reality with labour markets in Britain today, where 4.5 million wage-workers are paid below the real living wage.

As a result, most of the residents I worked with were in arrears with one or more payments. They received phone calls, letters and knocks at the door from debt collectors, threatening court orders, or they had to deal with bailiffs trying to seize their possessions. Some worried about being evicted.

This is a distressing situation that can easily lead to mental health problems. Debt problems are strongly linked to diagnosed mental health disorders and even suicide. All of the debt advice clients I interviewed had experienced anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts or other mental health issues.

Making light

However, in the community where I temporarily lived, many residents had found ways to try to stay optimistic despite the threats of debt enforcement. Some made light of their debts by joking about how bad they were at repaying or how poor their credit ratings were.

Many people focused on their home and family life. One woman worried about it being “a skint few weeks”, saying: “We’ll get through it. We always do. You just focus on what’s around you.”

An unemployed man in his late forties told me how his pride in his 12-year-old daughter kept him from “going suicidal”.

Most of all, though, people avoided their creditors. Residents often strained to meet repayment demands, but just as often they ignored them. They hung up the telephone when debt collectors called, left envelopes unopened or stashed away, or pretended not to be at home if bailiffs visited. One man said when he received a demand to pay his water bills: “Well, they can fuck off,” and threw the letter in the bin.

Trying to deal with debt head-on, in the sense of paying what debt collectors were demanding by the exact time they demanded it, could create immense anxiety and even physical health problems. One man told me: “You know, for a while I was trying to keep on top of them and eventually … well, it was making me ill [because of worrying about it]. So I couldn’t keep on like that. I just left them and got on with things.”

These accounts reveal a deeper point about inequality in Britain. Financial lending tends to extract wealth from those with less and transfer it towards the better-off. Debt is a systemic feature of our economy, and debt problems have complex causes. However, the threat of enforcement convinces many people they are single-handedly responsible for being in debt. This places the blame for poverty on the shoulders of those experiencing it, subtly implying the wealthy are morally superior.

Stigma

More than mere personal prejudice, the stigma around debt is hard-wired into the legal system. If we assume that every legally valid debt must be paid as a moral duty, no matter what, then we ignore the economic realities that make borrowing a necessity for so many. This simplistic assumption only reinforces the hardship of those in debt.

Take the example of people ignoring their debts. Usually they are labelled as irresponsible or lacking financial skills. But ignoring debts is often a deliberate response to a situation that people find immoral or harmful to their health.

It is tempting to think that if debt is the problem, the remedy is to reform it. Subsidising credit so lower-income groups pay lower interest, restoring funding for debt advice, amplifying the voices of those who have been in debt and widening access to insolvency and debt cancellation could all improve things.

But reliance on borrowing is also a symptom of broader issues. These may be better addressed by efforts to redistribute resources and curb coercive sanctions, such as taxing wealth, guaranteeing higher incomes (both wages and benefits), controlling the cost of rent and other essentials, protecting against eviction and abolishing bailiffs.

In the meantime, many indebted people on low incomes will continue to ignore debt collectors’ demands. Through their actions, I believe they question the widely held assumption that there is always a moral duty to pay in our unequal world.

Ryan Davey has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the William Wyse Fund and the Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust at the University of Cambridge, and a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellowship at the University of Bristol.

– ref. Why people ignore debt letters – and what it says about inequality today – https://theconversation.com/why-people-ignore-debt-letters-and-what-it-says-about-inequality-today-256293

August 4, 2025

Can Syria rebuild its economy from the ashes of war?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Faek Menla Ali, Associate Professor in Finance, University of Sussex

More than a decade of devastating conflict has left Syria’s economy in tatters, its infrastructure in ruins and its population deeply fragmented. The fledgling transitional government in Damascus, which came to power following a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024, often speaks of a “new Syria”. But the pressing question remains: how long will recovery take?

The numbers are stark. In 2011, the year war broke out, the World Bank estimated Syria’s GDP at around US$67.5 billion (£50.7 billion). Its most recent estimate, for 2023, puts GDP at US$20 billion – a drop of more than 70%. And these figures don’t tell the whole story. Inflation and currency collapse make it difficult to compare over time.

Some organisations offer rough inflation estimates for Syria, but these are obscured by currency depreciation. The Syrian pound has lost more than 99.5% of its value against the US dollar since 2011, falling from 50 pounds per dollar to around 10,375 pounds per dollar today. This severe depreciation distorts the real domestic price picture.

To get a better sense of on-the-ground price trends, I recently conducted an informal survey of non-tradable goods and services across Syria. It included things like rent, haircuts and private clinic fees. The results of this exploratory approach suggest that, in US dollar terms, prices for such items have risen by about 50% since 2010.

In other words, inflation in Syria has been real and significant – not just a side effect of exchange rate collapse. Patterns varied sharply across the country. While prices have increased in areas of relative stability and refuge, they stagnated or declined in cities devastated by war.

With this inflation adjustment, I estimate that Syria’s real GDP in 2024 – measured in constant 2010 US dollars – is closer to US$13.3 billion, an 80% drop from its pre-war level. This figure more accurately reflects the economy’s actual performance, including wellbeing, living standards and productivity.

To put this figure in context, Syria’s GDP would now be around US$121.3 billion – excluding the anomalous pandemic year – had the economy continued growing at its pre-war average of 5% per year. The gap between this counterfactual and current output reflects the immense toll of the war.

Rebuilding Syria’s economy will be a monumental challenge. At a high growth rate of 7% per year, it would still take over 30 years for Syria to catch up to its pre-war trajectory. Even with exceptionally strong growth of 10%, the process would stretch over two decades.

Jump-starting growth

The causes of Syria’s economic collapse are well known. The war resulted in the destruction of much of its physical capital, the displacement of labour, the erosion of institutions and the imposition of sweeping international sanctions.

Some US and EU sanctions have been eased. But this alone won’t be enough to reverse Syria’s economic decline. Meanwhile, the Trump administration in the US has announced 41% tariffs on Syrian imports, hindering future trade with the US.

The Syrian government is betting heavily on foreign direct investment (FDI) to jump-start growth. This approach comes with risks. In weakly regulated markets, FDI can raise both operating and consumer costs – particularly in monopolistic or oligopolistic sectors such as utilities, telecommunications and ports. This may contribute to rising inflation and worsening inequality.

Syria’s pre-war economic model, which was characterised by crony capitalism and limited competition, raises further concerns about whether FDI will genuinely broaden opportunity or simply entrench existing elites. Without transparent policy frameworks, there is a danger that liberalisation could crowd out local firms, undermine capacity building and fail to diversify the economy.

The privatisation of state-owned enterprises in Syria is already underway, though the future of the social safety net remains unclear. Greater openness may attract capital and expertise, but it will also expose Syria to global market volatility. This is an unfamiliar dynamic for a country that has long been insulated.

The critical question is whether the Syrian government’s strategy can generate an export-driven recovery. A stronger current account and healthier foreign currency reserves would boost the capacity of Syria’s economy to withstand future economic shocks.

Agriculture, once a major contributor to GDP, should be a policy priority. So too should revitalising Syria’s once-globally competitive manufacturing sectors, such as the textile industry in Aleppo.

The oil and gas sector, which historically underpinned fiscal revenues, will also play a key role if stability returns. Other possible growth areas include boosting the tourism sector and positioning Syria as a powerhouse for light manufacturing.

Yet FDI, and the broader surge in capital inflows, cannot deliver financial stability on their own. Many post-conflict countries experience balance-of-payments pressures and renewed economic crises if capital flows are not well managed.

Research on global capital flow dynamics over the past four decades has provided strong evidence of boom-bust cycles in these flows, especially in developing and emerging market economies.

Rebuilding effective institutions, the rule of law and accountability mechanisms in Syria will thus be critical. These are essential not only to attract investment, but also to prevent the corruption and rent-seeking that often characterise post-war transitions.

A credible path forward must also include the active mobilisation of Syria’s diaspora – a deep reservoir of capital, skills and entrepreneurial energy. Approximately 400,000 Syrians have returned from neighbouring countries since December 2024, most from Turkey. This has included a handful of prominent businessmen.

A final point is that any sustainable recovery depends on political inclusion, especially given Syria’s ethnic and religious diversity. Economies that embrace pluralism tend to be more resilient and prosperous. Long-term prosperity will depend not only on sound policies but also on the kind of state Syria chooses to rebuild.

The coming years will be decisive. Syria’s economic trajectory hinges on whether it can strike the right balance between opening to global markets and protecting vulnerable domestic economic sectors from the shocks of rapid liberalisation.

With prudent policymaking, transparent governance and inclusive political solutions, Syria can begin to lay the foundation for long-term economic recovery. Much depends on the choices made in this pivotal chapter.

Faek Menla Ali 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. Can Syria rebuild its economy from the ashes of war? – https://theconversation.com/can-syria-rebuild-its-economy-from-the-ashes-of-war-262271

August 4, 2025

Comment les directions marketing B2B peuvent devenir actrices de l’innovation pilotée par les données

Source: The Conversation – France (in French) – By Ludivine Ravat, Assistant Professor of Marketing, International University of Monaco

La multiplication des données recueillies en ligne est aussi une chance pour le marketing « business-to-business » à destination des professionnels. L’innovation, la création de nouveaux services peuvent être stimulées grâce à de nouveaux outils. Encore faut-il posséder la bonne méthodologie.

Chaque fois que je monte dans ma voiture électrique, je reçois une notification sur mon téléphone portable m’indiquant que mon comportement de conduite est analysé afin d’optimiser différents réglages du véhicule, tels que l’efficacité énergétique, la position du siège ou encore le temps moyen passé dans la voiture. Je peux aussi connecter l’application de ma voiture à celle d’Alexa pour activer le chauffage et l’éclairage cinq minutes avant mon arrivée à la maison, parmi de nombreuses autres fonctionnalités – à condition d’accepter de relier mes appareils personnels à cette application.

Cet exemple illustre pleinement l’évolution des stratégies d’innovation dans l’industrie business-to-business (B2B), marquée par le passage d’une logique industrielle à une logique technologique centrée sur le client, visant à tirer parti des données pour développer une nouvelle forme d’innovation : l’innovation pilotée par les données].

Il n’est donc pas surprenant de constater que l’innovation pilotée par les données constitue l’un des piliers de la croissance au XXI^e siècle, selon l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE). Elle est devenue essentielle pour constituer un avantage concurrentiel. Les prévisions de la Commission européenne sur l’avenir de l’économie orientée données ouvrent la voie à son déploiement : d’ici à la fin de 2025, la valeur du secteur pourrait atteindre 829 milliards d’euros.

Des services créés grâce à la donnée

L’innovation pilotée par les données utilise stratégiquement les données en tant que ressource clé. Pour ce faire, elle s’appuie sur des technologies (intelligence artificielle, machine learning, IoT…) et sur des techniques analytiques avancées, avec pour objectif de transformer ces données en « insights » exploitables. Le but est de faire émerger de nouvelles offres de produits et services et générer des sources supplémentaires de revenus pour l’entreprise.

De nombreuses entreprises innovent déjà selon ces principes. Peloton, par exemple, entreprise américaine de fitness connecté, exploite les interactions entre ses équipements et ses utilisateurs pour créer de nouveaux services digitaux personnalisés, en partenariat avec des acteurs B2B (coachs, nutritionnistes, marques de sport). Autre exemple : GE Aviation collecte en temps réel les données issues des interactions entre les pilotes et les moteurs et fournit des analyses visant à optimiser les trajectoires de vol, en livrant une offre monétisée, fondée sur la donnée. Enfin, dernier exemple, Caterpillar a généralisé l’usage de technologies connectées à l’ensemble de ses produits, proposant des solutions digitales globalement intégrées, via des plateformes comme CAT Connect, qui comprend des abonnements modulables selon les profils clients.

De nouvelles sources de données

Utiliser les données pour innover n’est évidemment pas nouveau. C’est ce que fait depuis des années le marketing qui s’appuyait traditionnellement sur des données sociodémographiques et des études de consommateurs pour identifier des besoins non encore pourvus par le marché. Ce qui a changé ces dernières années, c’est la nature des données mobilisées, en l’occurrence celles issues du big data. Elles se caractérisent par leur volume massif, leur vitesse de prolifération, et leur grande variété. Elles proviennent de la digitalisation croissante des usages.

S’équiper de systèmes digitaux est un préalable nécessaire qui n’est pas toujours rempli. Selon le baromètre américain des directeurs marketing, 40 % des départements marketing – dont les deux tiers en B2B – estiment ne pas disposer des outils adéquats pour capter et exploiter pleinement les insights nécessaires à l’innovation.

Le rôle majeur du département marketing

Nos recherches visent à répondre à ce manque, en démontrant comment les directions marketing peuvent contribuer à construire une véritable capacité d’innovation pilotée par les données dans les environnements B2B. Nous avons mené une série d’entretiens avec des cadres dirigeants impliqués dans le marketing, la data ou l’innovation, issus d’entreprises basées en France, aux États-Unis, en Allemagne et au Japon, actives dans des secteurs variés : automobile, cosmétique, tourisme, énergie, services numériques, semi-conducteurs.

Notre analyse révèle que le déploiement stratégique de la capacité d’innovation pilotée par les données confère au marketing un rôle majeur en B2B, à l’interface entre les données clients, les besoins du marché et la chaîne de valeur de l’innovation). Ainsi, comme le précise un directeur marketing dans le secteur de la mobilité :

« On fait appel au marketing – et c’est une très bonne chose –, nous sommes donc chargés de faire le lien entre le client, l’utilisateur et le développeur de la solution ultime, qu’il soit interne ou externe à l’entreprise. »

Xerfi Canal.

Une démarche en trois étapes

Le marketing structure cette capacité en trois phases activables progressivement, grâce à des ressources et compétences ciblées.

Idéation : il s’agit de capter des connaissances externes, en favorisant l’engagement client et la collaboration avec les partenaires. On les croise ensuite avec les données internes pour alimenter un écosystème d’informations ouvert, indispensable à l’innovation pilotée par les données.
Analyse : cette phase transforme les données collectées en « insights actionnables ». Pour cela, Les entreprises, quelle que soit leur taille, s’appuient sur des outils de data visualisation, de modélisation ou de cocréation externalisée.
Déploiement : dernière étape avant la mise sur le marché. On teste, on ajuste, on décide grâce aux données activées. L’entreprise conçoit en mode agile, portée par le marketing comme chef d’orchestre. Toutefois, cette phase reste sous-investie en B2B, signe d’une pratique en devenir.

Les priorités pour les directions marketing

L’innovation pilotée par les données peut devenir le moteur de l’innovation en marketing. Le modèle proposé aide les décideurs à passer à l’action, étape par étape.

Côté talents, il s’agit de recruter des profils hybrides, capables d’analyser la complexité des données pour les transformer en véritables leviers créatifs.

L’apprentissage continu des technologies émergentes (réalité augmentée, intelligence artificielle) couplé à celui des nouvelles pratiques de l’innovation est essentiel pour construire un portefeuille de savoir-faire durable.

Enfin, sans culture digitale, pas d’innovation pilotée par les données. Le marketing participe activement à cette transition « data-driven » en formant les équipes transverses.

Ludivine Ravat 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. Comment les directions marketing B2B peuvent devenir actrices de l’innovation pilotée par les données – https://theconversation.com/comment-les-directions-marketing-b2b-peuvent-devenir-actrices-de-linnovation-pilotee-par-les-donnees-256590