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March 19, 2026

How birds are spreading plastic pollution

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andy J. Green, Professor of Freshwater Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC); Manchester Metropolitan University

White storks and gulls feeding at a landfill. Enrique García Muñoz (FotoConCiencia), CC BY-NC-ND

Hungry gulls do not only steal our chips and sandwiches. They learn our habits, and look for reliable sources of food. That includes waste treatment centres, landfill or anywhere food waste is concentrated. Many gull populations have moved inland from the coast to exploit these sources of food.

Wherever our waste is processed, gulls and other birds can forage. At landfills, gulls feed on waste before it is covered up. If there are plastic or glass pieces covered in food that are small enough, gulls will swallow them whole. Only the food itself gets digested, and when the gull flies back to its roost site, the waste gets regurgitated, polluting that site. This movement of pollutants is known as “biovectoring”.

For the first time, scientists like me are now quantifying just how much plastic and other waste is being leaked into important nature areas through the daily movements of birds.

Many lesser black-backed gulls breeding in the UK and other parts of northern Europe migrate to Andalusia in southern Spain, where they form a wintering population of over 100,000 feeding mainly in rice fields and landfills. Fortunately, many of these birds are fitted with GPS tags while breeding. This enables detailed tracking of their movements.

Fuente de Piedra lake in Málaga is a hotspot for migrating lesser black-backed gulls. This wetland has such special natural significance, it’s designated as an internationally important site under a global convention known as Ramsar. It’s most famous for the largest breeding colony of flamingos in Spain. Gulls fly up to 50 miles to landfills to feed, then fly back to roost.

By combining GPS data with waterbird counts, and analyses of regurgitated pellets, scientists have estimated that an average of 400kg of plastics, plus more than two tonnes of other debris such as glass, textiles or ceramics, are deposited by this gull species into the lake each year. This lake has no outflow, making it salty and hence flamingo friendly. Those imported plastics remain in the lake, breaking down into microplastics. They can be ingested by flamingo chicks, aquatic insects and other animals.

birds feeding on landfill — Two yellow-legged gulls chase a white stork that is carrying plastic in its bill, which it picked up at a landfill.
Enrique García Muñoz (FotoConCiencia), CC BY-NC-ND

In coastal Andalusia, these gulls join the resident yellow-legged gulls (equivalent to our herring gulls) and a mixture of migratory and resident white storks as the three major waterbird visitors to landfills.

In the Cádiz Bay wetlands (another Ramsar site), surrounding the historical city that is now a favourite stop for cruise ships, the three species combine to spread different types and sizes of plastics into different microhabitats. Annually, 530kg of plastics are deposited into wetlands via regurgitated pellets. Although a stork is bigger, so transports more waste per bird, most of the plastic is again moved by the lesser black-backed gulls that winter there in larger numbers.

hand holding plastic waste that had been eaten by a bird and partly digested — Plastic film regurgitated by a gull roosting in a field in Atherton, Greater Manchester.
Kane Brides, CC BY-NC-ND

This waste ingestion has strong effects on the birds themselves, through direct mortality from diseases, choking or becoming entangled with plastics, and toxic effects of the additives within them. Then after regurgitation in pellets, those plastics are a threat to all fauna and readily enter our food supply through aquaculture and table salt production, both important in Cádiz Bay.

These studies in Spain address a problem that is ongoing all over Europe. There are no comparable quantitative studies yet in the UK, but similar problems occur wherever gulls concentrate to feed on our waste. If white storks become abundant in the UK future, they will probably visit our landfills, together with gulls and perhaps cattle egrets.

The sealing of many landfills, and improvements in waste management may have contributed to recent declines in many gull populations in the UK and elsewhere. But these problems of plastic leakage will continue so long as our consumer society generates so much waste. Reducing waste, and reusing things is better than recycling, partly because food containers may get eaten by birds before they can be recycled. Cleaning our food containers before we bin them, and composting our own food waste, can also help to reduce this phenomenon.

Andy J. Green receives competitive research funding from the Andalusian and Spanish governments to study interactions between birds and plastics.

– ref. How birds are spreading plastic pollution – https://theconversation.com/how-birds-are-spreading-plastic-pollution-276988

March 19, 2026

How BrewDog showed the limits of community capitalism

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kingsley Omeihe, Senior lecturer of Marketing and Small Business, University of the West of Scotland

When brewery and pub chain BrewDog invited customers to become shareholders through its “Equity for Punks” scheme, it appeared to represent a new model of capitalism. It invited beer enthusiasts to invest in the company and become small shareholders. This allowed the Scottish firm to present itself as a community built around rebellion, identity and participation.

For a time, the BrewDog model looked remarkably successful – the company was once valued at £2 billion. But after its sale to American cannabis and alcohol firm Tilray for just £33 million, it is clear that there is more to the story.

The real story here is not about one craft brewer. It is about a broader shift in modern capitalism, where companies increasingly use narratives to mobilise communities and raise capital. But at the same time, the institutional rules of finance still determine who gets what and when.

BrewDog raised substantial capital (said to be £75 million) from thousands of small investors who were already loyal to the brand. Instead of relying exclusively on banks, venture capital or institutional investors, the company mobilised its own community to fund growth. Customers became shareholders, while the firm strengthened its reputation as a disrupter within the industry.

Then came the bar closures, job losses and BrewDog’s sale to Tilray. These developments suggest that small investors from the Equity for Punks programme will see little financial return.

In general, supporters tend to see themselves as partners in an entrepreneurial journey. Yet legally they remain minority investors. And minority investors occupy a very specific position within the institutional architecture of capitalism.

The BrewDog story is a reminder that markets run on stories as well as money. The effect of this has been to blur the boundary between customer and investor.

We believe that people rarely invest only because of spreadsheets. Our research on entrepreneurship shows that economic behaviour is shaped by trust, narratives and shared identity as much as by financial indicators. And the American sociologist Mark Granovetter argued that markets are “embedded” in social networks, meaning that people invest in people – and in their stories.

This resonates with our broader research on how economic exchanges, including investments and purchases, are also often sustained through these factors. BrewDog’s Equity for Punks model captured this dynamic perfectly.

But there’s also a question around what it really means to be part of a community when the balance sheet starts to matter.

Cold beer, cold reality

Community narratives may mobilise people to invest their money, but a body of strict rules and regulations shapes the outcome. Three points here are particularly important.

First, while the equity-public model undoubtedly has appeal, it’s also true that companies operate within legal frameworks that determine ownership rights and the order in which creditors are repaid if the company is liquidated or sold.

Second, lenders and structured investors typically enjoy protections that small retail investors, like BrewDog’s punks, do not.

Third, corporate finance works through a hierarchy, so it should be recognised that this places creditors ahead of shareholders when companies face financial stress. Shareholders are last in line to recoup their money from a company – after lenders, tax authorities, employees and suppliers.

When customers invest in companies they admire, they often interpret their role differently from conventional shareholders. Under BrewDog’s Equity for Punks programme, thousands of customers bought small stakes in the company not just for potential financial returns.

This point resonates with our research on how businesses and communities interact. It shows that economic behaviour is often shaped by the rules, expectations and relationships that surround markets. In practice, this means that people do not make decisions based only on prices or profits.

interior of brewdog pub filled with drinkers and diners. — BrewDog’s fortunes have changed, with recent pub closures and layoffs.
photocritical/Shutterstock

None of this suggests bad faith on the part of companies like BrewDog. It simply reflects the fact that markets operate through institutions.

Episodes like the BrewDog one serve as a reminder of a basic feature of modern capitalism. That is, when financial pressure appears, institutional rules take over.

All that being said, community-driven investment models will probably become more common. Digital platforms make it easier than ever for firms to mobilise supporters around shared narratives and identities. But at the same time, the institutional rules that govern corporate finance have not evolved at the same pace as these new forms of participatory capitalism.

If modern capitalism increasingly invites people to invest not only their money but also their faith, the gap between narrative and institutional reality will become harder to ignore. Communities may power the stories that fuel entrepreneurship. But when the balance sheet tightens, it is still institutional rules that decide who gets paid.

BrewDog did not respond to a request to respond to the claims made in this article.

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

– ref. How BrewDog showed the limits of community capitalism – https://theconversation.com/how-brewdog-showed-the-limits-of-community-capitalism-278122

March 19, 2026

Why the gender wealth gap is still so stubborn – and what it means for women’s wellbeing

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Madeline Nightingale, Research Leader in the Education, Employment and Skills Research Group, RAND Europe

Inequality in wealth between men and women has not always received the same attention as similar disparities in employment and earnings. This is perhaps because wealth – things like property, savings and investments – is seen as a private matter. This issue has become known as the “gender wealth gap” and it is a damaging and persistent feature of the economy.

This gap in wealth appears to be growing rather than shrinking. Back in 2019, the UK government published a gender equality roadmap that highlighted the gender pension gap as a key issue. But it did not mention inequalities in other forms of wealth, such as personal investments in stocks, bonds, property and business wealth.

And a recent gender equality strategy from the European Union emphasised the need for women to “thrive” in investing or entrepreneurship, but did not even mention the gender wealth gap. Despite its marginal position in the debate, the gender wealth gap matters enormously for women and girls, shaping their income, financial independence and long-term security.

Estimating the size of the gap is made difficult by the lack of data – most data sets collect information on wealth at the household rather than the individual level. But we know from our own research involving disaggregated data from countries like Germany that assets are often not shared or equally distributed between members of the same household.

According to a 2025 estimate from feminist thinktank the Women’s Budget Group, the gender wealth gap in the UK stood at 21%. This was higher than the gender pay gap, which was estimated to be 13%.

There are also differences in the type of assets held by men and women, with men more likely to hold riskier assets including investments and business wealth. These tend to generate higher returns. And over the course of a lifetime, gender disparities in wealth accumulation grow, peaking at retirement age.

The causes of gender wealth gaps can be mutually reinforcing. Women’s lower engagement in paid work (lower employment rates and shorter hours) is a trend that is closely linked to their greater role in unpaid care and domestic work. This is a key factor in the gender wealth gap. So policies and initiatives to reduce gaps in employment and pay will certainly help.

The confidence question

However, research also points to other factors at play. A consistent finding across countries is that women have lower rates of financial literacy than men and lower confidence in their financial knowledge and skills.

A prime example of this showed up in an experimental study from the Netherlands. This found that women were more likely than men to select the “don’t know” option on survey questions about financial knowledge. But when this option was removed, they often selected the correct answer.

The drivers of this low confidence partly reflect differences in early socialisation, with boys on average receiving more pocket money than girls. Women are thought to be more risk-averse when investing, which could be a result of lower financial confidence (as well as of having less income to invest overall).

Women on average also receive less wealth in the form of inheritance and gifts than men, particularly at younger ages. And timing matters, due to the way in which wealth compounds over the years. Crucially, women on average have less business wealth than men – and female founders face greater barriers when trying to secure funding for their companies, for instance.

aerial shot of a woman looking at an investment app on her phone. — Financial education starting in school could encourage more women to start investing.
M M Vieira/Shutterstock

It’s true that wealth may be shaped by individual choices that are beyond the purview of governments and regulators. But these choices are not made in a vacuum. Initiatives can shape the context in which decisions are made, paving the way towards a more equal future.

Large-scale, accessible programmes are needed to increase financial literacy and confidence, including in schools. Greater representation of female high-earners and employers could also encourage an investment ecosystem where women would feel more welcome. According to a European study, female CEOs tend to employ more women – but drawing women into higher-paying sectors needs to start early at school level too.

There is no magic bullet that will dramatically reduce the gender wealth gap quickly. But there are things that can be done, and there is a compelling need to act. Without targeted initiatives, women who break down the workplace glass ceiling to become high achievers and high earners could find that they are still disadvantaged compared to their male peers.

Madeline Nightingale led a project funded by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), which examined gender wealth gaps.

Elizabeth Kadar worked on a project commissioned by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA), which mapped the gender investment gap in Europe.

– ref. Why the gender wealth gap is still so stubborn – and what it means for women’s wellbeing – https://theconversation.com/why-the-gender-wealth-gap-is-still-so-stubborn-and-what-it-means-for-womens-wellbeing-277931

March 19, 2026

Why drawing eyes on food packaging could stop seagulls stealing your chips

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laura Kelley, Associate Professor, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter

Animals generally respond defensively when they see eyes staring at them. Stephen A. Waycott/Shutterstock

The increasingly urban lifestyles of seagulls in the UK and around Europe has made them experts at grabbing food from unsuspecting outdoor diners. Herring gulls in particular are gaining a reputation for food theft in seaside towns like Falmouth in Cornwall, where I live.

On a day out at the beach last summer, I watched as one rummaged through an unattended bag and hopped off with a packet of crisps. Sadly, the gull didn’t hang around long enough for me to see whether it successfully opened the packaging.

Watching this kind of behaviour led me and my colleague Neeltje Boogert to explore new ways of deterring these resourceful birds. Our new research shows that displaying a pair of eyes on food packaging can be enough to stop some gulls from pinching your food.

This builds on our previous work which showed herring gulls approach food more slowly when someone is looking at them directly, compared with if they are looking away.

Many animals – both wild and domesticated – are very aware of eyes, which can indicate the presence of a predator or be used to communicate intent. Direct eye contact often conveys aggression, while looking away indicates a lack of threat.

Animals generally respond defensively when they see eyes staring at them. This is probably an instinctive tendency, since avoiding being eaten by a predator can be a split-second response.

Some animals may have evolved markings to exploit this behaviour. So-called eyespots are found on many insects, amphibians and fish, and they come in a variety of colour, size and pattern combinations.

Exactly how eyespots might deter predators has been hotly debated by scientists for over a century. They may increase predator wariness by being mistaken for predator eyes, or divert attacks to less important parts of the body.

Given that evolution suggests eyes are a good way of increasing animal wariness, the idea of mimicking nature by using fake eyes to deter other animals has been tried in a variety of settings.

In Botswana, livestock are at risk of being eaten by ambush predators such as lions and leopards, which causes conflict with farmers. To test whether eyespots could reduce the risk of predation, experimenters painted pairs of eyes or crosses on the rumps of cattle, or left them unmarked. This was repeated across multiple cattle herds, and any attacks on cattle were recorded.

During the study, 19 cattle were killed by lions or leopards – but none of the cattle with eyespots on their rumps were among them. They were also attacked less than either cattle with crosses or unmarked cattle, suggesting that eyespots can be an effective deterrent for a wide range of animals.

Put off by the eyes

For our study of herring gulls, we tested this idea in coastal towns in Cornwall where gulls are known to take food from people eating outside. We stuck pairs of eyes onto food takeaway boxes and presented individual gulls with a choice of two boxes placed two metres apart on the ground: one box with eyes and one plain box.

Gulls appeared to be put off by the eyes, as they were slower to approach and less likely to peck at these boxes, compared with the ones without eyes.

Food cartons with and without the fake eyes.
Laura Kelley, CC BY

We also wanted to know whether gulls would, over time, figure out that the eyes on boxes were not really threatening. To test this, we presented 30 gulls with one takeaway box either with or without eyes, but did this three times for each gull over a short amount of time.

Around half the birds never pecked at the box with eyes, whereas the other half quickly approached and pecked. This suggests there could be a sustained effect from the fake eyes for some gulls that do not realise they are being tricked.

We now want to test this in a more realistic setting, by teaming up with food vendors and asking them to use takeaway boxes with eyes on. While this might only ever deter half of gulls from stealing food, perhaps when paired with other deterrents – including shouting – it can have an impact on the amount of food theft.

Eye-like markings have already been used to exclude birds from certain areas, including keeping starlings away from crops, seabirds from fishing nets and raptors from airports.

Video: SciShow Psych.

Humans respond to eyes too

It’s interesting to note that people, like gulls and many other animals, also pay attention to eyes. Images of human eyes have been found to reduce bicycle theft, reinforce honesty, and even increase charitable donations – all by creating the impression of being watched. This is probably because we are a social species, and tend to act more honestly if we feel we might be judged by an onlooker.

But as with herring gulls, the effect on human behaviour is inconsistent. Images of eyes can nudge behaviour in certain situations, but they don’t work on everyone.

Whether protecting chips, bicycles or cattle, the next step is to understand why some animals (and people) do not find eyes aversive. But already, the evidence is clear that fake eyes can offer a cheap, simple way to mitigate conflict with humans and other animals.

Laura Kelley receives funding from the Royal Society.

– ref. Why drawing eyes on food packaging could stop seagulls stealing your chips – https://theconversation.com/why-drawing-eyes-on-food-packaging-could-stop-seagulls-stealing-your-chips-278269

March 19, 2026

Type 1 diabetes linked to higher dementia risk – new study

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Craig Beall, Associate Professor in Experimental Diabetes, University of Exeter

As increasing numbers of people with type 1 diabetes live into old age, a large new study has found they face almost three times the risk of developing dementia compared to people without the condition – raising urgent questions about how the disease affects the brain over time.

To put this in context, of the 283,772 people in the study, 5,442 had type 1 diabetes. Of those, 144 people went on to get dementia. That is 2.6% of that group.

Of those without diabetes, only 0.6% went on to develop dementia. Once the researchers had accounted for factors like age and education level, the overall increased risk was about three times higher.

A similar trend appeared for type 2 diabetes. Those people had roughly a twofold higher risk.

It is important to note that this data was taken from a health registry. This gives imperfect data, as some people will have undiagnosed diabetes and others will be misdiagnosed with the wrong type of diabetes. Some dementia cases may also have been missed. The follow-up period in this study was also relatively short at roughly two and a half years.

However, the data follows trends similar to that seen in a smaller Swedish study, published in 2025. In this study, those with type 1 diabetes had a roughly twofold higher risk of dementia. This study also had a longer follow-up of 14 years.

Why type 1 diabetes, specifically?

This raises the question of why type 1 diabetes appears to carry a higher risk of dementia. There are a number of reasons, including that those with type 1 diabetes may have lived with diabetes for more years than type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes can occur in younger people, and having a chronic disease for more years increases the risk for other conditions.

There is also the rollercoaster of blood sugar levels. The peaks and troughs are typically more extreme in type 1 diabetes.

It is particularly the low blood sugar levels that are dangerous. Very low blood sugar can harm the brain by putting stress on its nerve cells. Those with type 1 diabetes have roughly twice as many bouts of low blood sugar compared to type 2 diabetes.

Also, after a low, rapid and extreme high blood sugar further worsens brain cell health. A recent study in mice found that having high blood sugar after a low blood sugar episode may cause even more harm – especially to the hippocampus, the part of the brain that helps with learning and memory.

One of the main reasons for the extreme variation in blood sugar seen in type 1 diabetes is insulin. Compared to tablet-controlled type 2 diabetes, multiple daily insulin injections always carry an increased risk of low blood sugar.

Despite careful monitoring and carbohydrate counting, accurately managing blood sugar using insulin is difficult. Patches that continuously monitor blood sugar and insulin pumps (devices that automatically infuse insulin) have helped to reduce but not eliminate hypoglycaemia. However, the link between insulin and dementia runs deeper.

The insulin connection

Insulin levels are controlled by how much hormone gets made and how quickly it is broken down. In the case of breakdown, this is controlled by a molecule called insulin-degrading enzyme. Despite the name, this molecule also breaks down a protein strongly linked with dementia, called amyloid beta.

If there’s too much insulin, the enzyme focuses on insulin first. This means less amyloid beta gets broken down, so it can build up in the brain.

This is bad as amyloid is a sticky protein that clumps together in the brain to make amyloid plaques. These clumps are thought to damage the way brain cells communicate, eventually causing an increasing number of brain cells to die. The brain begins to shrink, impairing cognition.

These plaques are linked strongly with Alzheimer’s disease specifically. And type 1 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

There is also an increased risk of developing vascular dementia, the type caused by poor blood supply to the brain. This is because high blood sugar damages blood vessels throughout the body, including the brain.

Despite these rather gloomy links, there is cause for some optimism. Diabetes is now more treatable than ever. Many older people with type 1 diabetes have lived with the disease for 60, 70 or even 80 years.

There are many classes of drugs for all forms of diabetes. With combinations, there are over 50 different treatments available.

Some diabetes drugs may lower the risk of dementia. For example, metformin – the main treatment for type 2 diabetes – can reduce dementia risk by more than 10%. It works by helping the body use insulin more effectively.

Whether the brain benefits of this drug also occur in those without diabetes is currently being tested in the Metformin in Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention trial. This drug is increasingly used in people with type 1 diabetes, particularly those with reduced insulin sensitivity.

There are mixed results on whether weight-loss drugs reduce dementia risk. A large trial showed limited to no benefit of oral weight-loss drugs on dementia progression in people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s.

Another study using the weight-loss drug liraglutide, however, showed some benefit. This smaller drug – potentially more able to get into the brain – helped to better protect cognition in people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s.

These drugs are increasingly being used in type 1 diabetes, as early evidence suggests they help blood sugar control. Whether this can also protect the brain in type 1 diabetes remains to be determined.

However, physical activity can lower the risk of dementia. A 2025 study found that the more people exercised, the lower their risk of developing dementia. Around 30 minutes of exercise each week decreased risk by about 40%. Those who were the most active, doing over 140 minutes per week, had nearly 70% decreased risk.

Staying active and tailoring diabetes treatment over time may help reduce the higher risk of dementia in people with type 1 diabetes. The continuing progress in stem cell therapies for type 1 diabetes gives further reason for optimism.

Craig Beall currently receives funding from Diabetes UK, Breakthrough T1D, Steve Morgan Foundation Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge, Medical Research Council, NC3Rs, Society for Endocrinology and British Society for Neuroendocrinology.

– ref. Type 1 diabetes linked to higher dementia risk – new study – https://theconversation.com/type-1-diabetes-linked-to-higher-dementia-risk-new-study-278474

March 19, 2026

Trump’s new child care subsidy rules compound an already dire situation for providers and families

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Beth Kania-Gosche, Professor of Education, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Students play with toys in a basin of soapy water at a child care center in New Britain, Conn., in March 2025. Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public via Getty Images

I live in the small city of Rolla, Missouri, where half the child care centers have closed in the past six years. In the past year, my state has lost 1,771 child care slots due to closures.

This problem isn’t isolated to Rolla – child care providers are closing in other rural areas. Some of the challenges these centers face are widespread. U.S. child care workers typically earn little money, yet child care costs are high for many families.

Approximately 1.4 million children whose families are low-income benefit from child care subsidies, which means the federal and state government partially cover the cost of child care. States typically receive federal funding that they match and then give to subsidize individual children’s care at child care centers.

In early January 2026, the Trump administration announced that it had temporarily frozen federal child care subsidy payments to all states because of fraud concerns in Minnesota.

A group of states – Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado – then sued the Trump administration. A federal judge ruled on Jan. 26 that the administration must deliver nearly US$10 billion in federal child care subsidies to these states.

The new policy also creates new verification rules – like stricter proof of parents’ employment – that are making it more time-consuming and complicated to receive subsidies.

Despite the lawsuit, these other new subsidy rules remain in place – meaning that, among other things, child care providers have to do more paperwork and receive reimbursement from the federal government later than they typically do.

A woman leans over three babies and toddlers who are sitting on the floor among plastic toys. One of them is crying. — A child care worker cares for young children in the infant room at TLC for Tots day care center in Nampa, Idaho, in November 2024.
Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

An already tough situation

Already, many child care providers are struggling to keep their doors open.

I am a professor and the chair of the education department at Missouri University of Science and Technology. I help prepare my students – future teachers – to become the next generation of educators. Part of my job is also supporting our campus child development center, which cares for babies and young children of staff, faculty and students.

Across the nation, over 14 million children potentially need child care, but only 10 million slots exist.

Even if parents can find child care, its high cost can be prohibitive, sometimes leading to young parents with low-paying jobs leaving the workforce.

How child care subsidies work

Placing an infant in an early childhood or day care center can cost parents annually an average of $15,000. These costs can rise up to more than $28,000 in places like Washington, D.C.

While subsidies can help offset the high cost of child care, only approximately 15% of children whose families are eligible for subsidies receive them.

The federal government distributes subsidies to designated state agencies that are responsible for contracting with providers and verifying family eligibility. States must match some of these funds. Parents then apply through their state to receive a subsidy.

Families generally pay the rest of their child care center costs on a sliding scale.

The exact requirements for receiving child care subsidies vary across states, both when it comes to families and providers. Often, states require that parents are working or are in school, and that they make less than a certain income.

In New York, a family of four could qualify if they earn up to nearly $110,000 each year. In Florida, a family of four could earn as much as about $56,000 a year and qualify.

The amount families receive in subsidies also varies, but getting them could save a family approximately $10,000 a year in a place like Seattle.

Getting a child care spot isn’t a guarantee

It can be difficult for families to apply for and receive child care subsidies. It requires extensive paperwork, and families often have to spend hours on the phone and deal with confusing instructions about how to receive the benefits.

In some states, there is a wait list to receive a child care subsidy.

In March 2026, Missouri started a child care subsidy waitlist. Before, families used to be able to receive child care subsidies immediately after approval, if they could find a provider. Now, families must wait until funding becomes available.

Providers may be reluctant to accept subsidies to help pay for a child’s care, in part because of the additional work of submitting a child’s attendance records to the state and verifying other information. Some providers simply cannot afford to gamble on delayed payments, which happened during the 2025 federal shutdown, for example.

In Missouri, child care center providers had their subsidy payments delayed for months when the state simply switched to a new system to process payments in 2023 and 2024.

Some states, including Arkansas and Oregon, have also cut their own funding for child care subsidies over the past few years.

Rural and other underserved communities are particularly hard hit by any subsidy delays and cuts.

When there is high demand for child care, there is little incentive for providers to accept subsidies and receive state reimbursement six weeks later, after they file extensive paperwork. The alternative for some providers is to largely enroll wealthier families to pay the full cost of care.

The math doesn’t work

The child care industry faces other challenges.

Despite some recent wage increases, child care workers are among the lowest-paid professionals in the U.S. They earn, on average, about $15 an hour, depending on where they live. They often do not receive other benefits like insurance or retirement.

Child care workers earn so little in part because child care centers typically run on thin margins. They often do not make a profit, unless they are part of a large, national chain, like Bright Horizons.

Most child care providers are small businesses, whether they are run out of a designated center or someone’s private home. Unlike K-12 public school districts, these child care providers typically do not receive any government funding.

If a child care provider raises the wages of child care workers too much, and subsequently increases its tuition rates, most families cannot afford to send their kids there – especially babies.

At the child care center on my campus, for example, raising child care worker wages from $15 to $17 an hour would cost over $85,000 annually. We would need to raise tuition rates by $1,000 per year, per child, to offset that cost.

The younger the children that a center has in a program, the more child care workers it needs to employ. In Missouri, for example, state regulations require that there is one caregiver for every four babies in a child care center.

A person wearing a green shirt holds a sign that says in purple and black 'I spend $21,000 a year on child care.' — People hold signs lamenting high child care costs as they attend a news conference on universal child care in November 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

No clear way forward

There are 16,000 fewer child care providers in the country than there were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government distributed $53 billion to support the child care industry during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Nearly all child care providers received money as part of this funding. But the money that kept some centers afloat during that time has now been spent.

Now, it remains difficult for many families to find affordable child care within a reasonable distance.

While the Trump administration’s freeze on child care subsidies may never take effect, the stricter verification rules are already making an impossible situation for families a whole lot worse. And if subsidies are cut off as well, more American families will simply be unable to afford child care.

Beth Kania-Gosche is the Missouri University of Science & Technology education department chair. Part of the department includes the on campus Child Development Center, which is contracted with Missouri DESE to receive childcare subsidy. The Child Development Center also received state covid relief funds for childcare. She is the current president of the Missouri Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

– ref. Trump’s new child care subsidy rules compound an already dire situation for providers and families – https://theconversation.com/trumps-new-child-care-subsidy-rules-compound-an-already-dire-situation-for-providers-and-families-275295

March 19, 2026

Global copper demand outstrips supply, threatening electrification and industrial growth

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Morgan Bazilian, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines

Capstone Copper’s Pinto Valley Mine in Miami, Arizona. Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Demand for copper is surging because of demand from new technologies, but suppliers are struggling to keep up, and they are likely to fall further behind in the coming years, resulting in shortfalls globally. Even though copper prices are at historically high levels, the financial risk involved in mining means that prices will need to go much higher before mining companies see profit in addressing the supply shortage.

Those are the key findings from our March 2026 analysis of the global copper market.

Copper is an essential material that is used in generating and distributing electrical power; cables, wires, motor windings, transformers and cooling equipment in data centers; and advanced manufacturing of consumer and defense products.

It’s so important that in 2025, the U.S. Geological Survey designated copper as a mineral “vital to the U.S. economy and national security.”

Copper is abundant in the ground, but there’s not enough being extracted to be able to meet the demand. That’s because investors want higher and more reliable returns than copper mines currently offer, and the industry faces complex permitting processes and can’t find enough workers. Our analysis found that for new technologies to continue to develop, and for the global economy to continue to grow, even higher prices are ahead.

Few options other than mining

In the United States, the increased effort to build data centers for artificial intelligence systems has created a massive need for copper. Car manufacturers require some copper for internal combustion vehicles and four to five times more for the batteries and other parts of electric vehicles. In addition, as global temperatures increase, demand for power-hungry air conditioning in many emerging and developing economies has been growing, too, requiring copper inside the equipment and more wiring to power them.

Recycling existing copper could help reduce the amount needed from new mines, but it would not be enough to meet the rising demand. Even under generous assumptions, we found that recycling might provide 35% of the global copper supply by 2050, with mining producing the remaining 65%.

Substituting another material for copper won’t really work either – at least in the short-to-medium term. Copper has an unmatched combination of physical properties such as electrical conductivity, durability and flexibility – which is why it became popular for so many purposes in the first place.

Aluminum could replace it in some cases, but not all – and that would amount to only about 2% of total copper use.

Fiber optics can also replace copper at times. Their glass fibers can carry more data more quickly than copper wires, but they can’t also carry power. New copper substitutes, like ultra-conductive aluminum, carbon nanotubes, and niobium phosphide, are promising but still in their infancy.

Complicated circumstances

The only other way to get more copper is to mine more of it. But building a new mine can take 20 to 30 years – a period during which investors are spending money but not yet getting returns, and a time when costs can rise significantly from preliminary estimates.

If industrial and economic growth is to stay on track in the 2030s, new mines would need to be in the financing and permitting processes right now. But they aren’t.

Even Resolution Copper, which started decades ago trying to develop a mine in Arizona outside Phoenix, has more work to do before being able to start mining. Since 1995, the project’s developers have spent several billion dollars on planning, permitting and legal cases.

Once in place, it could meet as much as 25% of U.S. copper demand from a high-concentration body of ore located near existing truck and rail lines.

Evaluating the environmental and community effects of proposed mining projects is essential, but in many countries there are overlapping levels of review that have different, and variable, timelines. And many parts of the process can be appealed to courts by opponents or supporters. That increases costs and imposes time delays for mine developers – and means consumers will have to wait longer, and pay more, for copper-intensive products and services.

Yet even though copper prices are near historic highs – over US$13,000 per ton on the London Metals Exchange – the profit margins are still too low and price swings are too volatile for companies to forecast reliable returns on the risky investment of building new mines.

Two large metal frames sit in a rocky landscape. — Metal structures on the site of Resolution Copper’s proposed underground copper mine in Arizona, in a place that has been sacred to Native American people for thousands of years.
Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Global inequalities

Copper is produced in a handful of countries but used widely around the world.

That leaves copper vulnerable to national policies about imports and exports, leading to trade disruptions and price shocks.

Countries with low and middle per-capita income are likely to require substantial amounts of copper to grow their economies. Right now, wealthy countries like the U.S. and members of the European Union have about 440 pounds (200 kilograms) per person in existing physical infrastructure – electrical wiring, plumbing systems, architectural elements and transportation. But that figure is 20 pounds (9 kilograms) per person in Africa and less than 2 pounds (1 kilogram) per capita.
in India.

A large metal structure sits near a pile of rock. — A copper mine in Miami, Ariz.
Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Shortages are likely

To get a picture of what might be possible if there were a significant global effort to increase copper availability, we evaluated several optimistic scenarios. We looked at faster permitting for new mines, higher recycling rates and smoother mining processes than those currently in place. But even then, economic development drove demand to grow far faster than the available supply.

Existing mines will have decreasing amounts of ore available and will produce less copper in 2050 than they do in 2025. Yet even if all known copper deposits with known mine-opening dates go into production as scheduled copper supplies will not keep up with demand.

Our best-case scenario has global mine production at about 30 million metric tons of copper a year by 2050. But to keep pace with global economic development, the world will need 37 million metric tons of mined copper a year by then.

To meet that additional need, more mines will need to be opened, and extra production developed – including extracting residual copper from old mine debris that was previously viewed as having too little copper to be worth processing.

An aerial view of a large industrial operation with a water pit and gravel roads. — The open-pit Cobre Panama copper mine in Donoso, Panama.
AP Photo/Matias Delacroix

A role for government

We found that more copper could be made available more quickly if permitting were streamlined in ways that preserve environmental standards but offer companies proposing new mines some predictability for regulatory approval.

If society wants more copper, faster, then people must accept that higher, more stable prices are part of the solution. Speculative trading contributes to price volatility, which complicates financial projections that are central to deal-making and makes it more expensive to invest in the large, long-term and irreversible expenses that new mines require.

Higher copper prices will ripple through the economy, raising costs for construction, energy and technology. But pretending those costs can be avoided doesn’t make them disappear. Underinvestment across the supply chain from mines to processing today shows up as bottlenecks tomorrow, including delayed grid upgrades and constrained digital growth.

Adam Charles Simon is a co-founder of VectOres Science, Inc.

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

– ref. Global copper demand outstrips supply, threatening electrification and industrial growth – https://theconversation.com/global-copper-demand-outstrips-supply-threatening-electrification-and-industrial-growth-276843

March 19, 2026

Pittsburgh’s air pollution estimated to claim 3,000+ lives per year − and EPA rollbacks aren’t helping

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Philip Landrigan, Professor of Biology, Boston College

Pittsburgh’s air pollution not only led to increased deaths, but it also had other negative effects, from lowered IQ in children to adverse birth outcomes. G Fiume/Getty Images Sport via Getty Images

In October 1948, a thick haze rolled into Donora, Pennsylvania, a steel town in the Monongahela Valley, south of Pittsburgh. For five days, toxic fumes from a zinc smelter – a plant that turns zinc ore into pure zinc metal – poured out of the factory’s stacks, became trapped in the valley and thus blanketed Donora. The air was filled with sulfur oxides, heavy metal dust and airborne particulates.

Firefighters carried 60-pound oxygen tanks door to door to relieve elderly and asthmatic victims. Nurses attended to mill workers in the infirmary, laying patients on the floor as hospital beds filled to capacity. Funeral homes ran out of space. The disaster eventually claimed 20 lives and caused chronic lung disease in many more.

In a old black and white photo, two nurses administer oxygen to patients in tented hospital beds. — In 1948, 40 patients were hospitalized in Donora, Pa., due to a smoke and fog disaster that led to the death of 20 residents.
Bettmann/Bettman Collection via Getty Images

This was one of the first clear demonstrations in the U.S. that air pollution could kill. Today, new global health research quantifying the risks of pollution exposure helps explain why disasters like Donora were so deadly, and why similar health threats persist.

As a public health researcher and a public health physician, we recently published a study in the journal Annals of Global Health on the health impacts of air pollution in southwestern Pennsylvania that shows the Pittsburgh area as a hot spot for pollution.

A turning point

Research triggered by the Donora disaster uncovered that air pollution causes serious health issues, including chronic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and diabetes in adults, and can lead to premature birth, low birth weight, stillbirth, asthma and impaired lung development in children.

Emerging evidence indicates that air pollution is also associated with dementia in adults and with IQ loss, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in children.

Before the Donora disaster, the federal government did not regulate air quality. Pollution was legally viewed as a local nuisance – the unavoidable price of progress.

But the tragedy in Donora forced policymakers, scientists and the public to recognize that air pollution is a serious threat to health. Donora thus laid the groundwork for the Clean Air Act, the federal air pollution law initially enacted in 1963, then strengthened in 1970 and again in 1990. It also catalyzed the nation’s first air pollution research programs.

Pollution persists

Despite this progress, air pollution is still responsible for an estimated 200,000 deaths across the U.S. each year. These deaths are not evenly distributed. Instead, they are concentrated in pollution hot spots.

A riverside steel plant emits smoke from its smokestacks. — Because of its heavy industry and lack of local enforcement of the Clean Air Act, Pittsburgh is still one of the most polluted regions of the country.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images News via Getty Images

Our research shows southwestern Pennsylvania, the region around Donora and including Pittsburgh, is one of these hot spots.

Because of its steel mills, coke ovens – which burn coal to produce fuel for steel production – steep valleys that trap pollution and a history of inadequate local enforcement of the Clean Air Act, the Pittsburgh metropolitan area continues to rank among the nation’s most polluted regions.

Breaking down the new data

Fine particle air pollution, known as PM2.5, doesn’t just dirty the air in Pittsburgh and surrounding communities. It can kill people and harm children before they are even born.

To understand the full toll, we conducted an epidemiological study. Using NASA satellite images to measure pollution levels in each census tract, we linked that data to death and birth records from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The findings were stark. In 2019, between 3,085 and 3,467 deaths in southwestern Pennsylvania – roughly 11% to 12.5% of all adult deaths that year – were likely attributable to PM2.5 pollution. The damage extended to newborns as well: We estimated pollution caused 229 premature births, 177 infants with low birth weight and 12 stillbirths.

Using existing scientific data showing that every small increase in air pollution is linked to a measurable drop in children’s IQ, we applied that formula to Pittsburgh’s pollution levels across all 24,604 children born there in 2019. That calculation produced an estimated collective loss of more than 60,000 IQ points across the group. That’s an average of approximately 2.5 IQ points per child.

Children playing in water along a riverfront park in Pittsburgh. — Fine particulate air pollution was responsible for the loss of 2.5 IQ points per child born in Pittsburgh in 2019.
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images News via Getty Images

Importantly, many of the harms we saw in Pittsburgh occurred at PM2.5 levels below EPA’s air quality standard of 9 micrograms per cubic meter. This indicates that even low-level PM2.5 exposures carry significant risks to health.

Our findings arrive at a pivotal moment for U.S. air policy. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has announced his intention to raise the allowable limit for PM2.5, relax enforcement of the Clean Air Act and repeal the greenhouse gas endangerment finding, which allows the EPA to regulate the emissions that drive climate change.

The EPA has also eliminated its long-standing practice of counting the economic benefits of pollution control. According to new calculations, the EPA will count only the costs of pollution control while stripping out the economic value of lives saved – a metric known as the “value of a statistical life” that agencies have long used to justify health regulations.

What happens next?

During the first Trump administration, environmental rollbacks and a lack of pollution prevention efforts led to an estimated 20,000 deaths per year, according to the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit organization consisting of EPA alumni who volunteer their expertise to protect environmental integrity and public health. The deaths were clustered mostly in Southern and Midwestern states with heavy industry and lax pollution rules. States that had already put strong pollution controls in place were able to cushion the blow of the federal cutbacks.

Public health researchers point to local enforcement of the Clean Air Act as a way to limit health impacts of federal agency rollbacks. Allegheny County has legal authority under the Clean Air Act to set and enforce pollution standards stricter than federal minimums, but has not consistently used that authority.

Community and advocacy groups, including the Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment, have pushed the county health department to adopt stricter standards and increase permit enforcement. The Allegheny County Health Department holds regular public meetings where air quality rules and enforcement priorities are subject to review.

As the regulatory landscape shifts, the data from communities like southwestern Pennsylvania will be critical to understanding and documenting what is lost due to air pollution.

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

– ref. Pittsburgh’s air pollution estimated to claim 3,000+ lives per year − and EPA rollbacks aren’t helping – https://theconversation.com/pittsburghs-air-pollution-estimated-to-claim-3-000-lives-per-year-and-epa-rollbacks-arent-helping-277461

March 19, 2026

Notre conception de ce qu’est un quartier a changé

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Christina Bouchard, professeur à temps partiel I Part-time professor, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

À Montréal, plusieurs projets de logement sont en cours, qui prévoient des aspects à l’échelle communautaire, notamment des rues piétonnes, des corridors commerciaux dynamiques, des galeries et des espaces publics. Si la construction sur des sites déjà situés au cœur de villes établies présente de nombreux avantages, la mise en œuvre de projets de densification peut entraîner également des défis complexes.

En m’appuyant sur mon expérience en tant qu’urbaniste et en enseignement de la gouvernance à l’université d’Ottawa, j’examine dans cet article des tendances qui se dégagent des projets de densification urbaine actuels.

Cet article fait partie de notre série Nos villes d’hier à demain. Le tissu urbain connaît de multiples mutations, avec chacune ses implications culturelles, économiques, sociales et – tout particulièrement en cette année électorale – politiques. Pour éclairer ces divers enjeux, La Conversation invite les chercheuses et chercheurs à aborder l’actualité de nos villes.

Construire un quartier

On peut se demander, au juste, quand a commencé cette pratique consistant à construire plusieurs bâtiments à la fois, avec les équipements communautaires (par exemple des parcs, jardins, patios, terrasses, zones de jeu, centres sportifs et culturels) en parallèle au développement de logements. L’objectif de l’urbanisme a toujours été d’organiser les espaces, tant publics que privés. Cependant, l’équilibre entre la gestion des ces espaces peut être envisagé de différentes manières et a eu des caractéristiques différentes selon les époques.

En Amérique du Nord, la commercialisation de la construction de lotissements s’est considérablement développée après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Une nouvelle technologie de transport a vu le jour : l’automobile. La prolifération, à partir de ces années, des constructions à très faible densité, est une conséquence directe de la démocratisation de l’automobile. Le quartier Levittown, à New York, est souvent cité comme exemple à la fois de morphologies suburbaines, mais aussi de l’émergence de la construction de logements comme une chaîne de production.

En effet, le caractère homogène et standardisé du mode de vie suburbain s’accordait naturellement avec la mentalité du marché de masse de la construction immobilière, qui a rapidement donné naissance à des quartiers entiers. Les maisons construites ne reflétaient plus les préférences individuelles des propriétaires. Malgré cela, elles étaient populaires auprès des consommateurs et donc attrayantes pour les promoteurs immobiliers, qui ont pendant des décennies axé leurs activités sur ces produits.

De leur côté, les gouvernements nord-américains ont encouragé les promoteurs immobiliers à construire des banlieues en appliquant de manière rigide des règles de zonage qui séparaient les habitations des zones commerciales. Les gouvernements ont mis en place un zonage fonctionnel qui séparait les espaces résidentiels des espaces commerciaux et sociaux. La distance entre ces derniers, et même par rapport aux centres d’emploi, était souvent telle qu’il fallait disposer d’une voiture privée pour se déplacer.

En revanche, les développements actuels à Montréal (Canoë, Quartier des Lumières, Bridge-Bonaventure, Langelier, Quartier Molson, Esplanad-Cartier, etc.) mettent en avant leur accessibilité à pied et leur proximité avec les stations de métro dans leur marketing auprès des acheteurs.

Adopter le zonage à usage mixte et la piétonnisation

À la fin des années 1970, les critiques commençaient déjà à dénoncer les faiblesses des communautés trop centrées sur l’automobile (mode de vie sédentaire, problèmes de fragmentation sociale, diminution des interactions communautaires, pertes de terres agricoles, et autres coûts économiques et environnementaux).

Les tendances actuelles vers le zonage à usage mixte et la piétonnisation remontent aux années 1980, quand les urbanistes nord-américains ont commencé à organiser le mouvement du Nouvel Urbanisme. On considère généralement que les principes du mouvement comprennent :

La conviction qu’un bon design crée de bonnes communautés
Promouvoir les usages mixtes et accorder une attention particulière au design urbain de haute qualité.
Appréciation de l’aménagement urbain compact des villes des siècles précédents (par opposition à l’étalement urbain).
Soutien à la conception axée sur les transports en commun.
Privilégier les immeubles de moyenne hauteur (urbanisme préindustriel) plutôt que les gratte-ciel (urbanisme moderniste).
Valoriser le patrimoine urbain.
Promotion du développement (ou réaménagement) des quartiers historiques des villes (en particulier ceux qui ont été abandonnés par l’industrie ou touchés par la pauvreté).
Soutien des pratiques de conception plus participatives, impliquant divers acteurs.

Même si les villes canadiennes ont continué à construire des banlieues à leurs abords, plusieurs initiatives visent maintenant à encourager le développement urbain en parallèle. De nombreuses administrations municipales reviennent sur les politiques de zonage régressives qu’elles appliquaient auparavant. Le consensus a tellement changé que le gouvernement fédéral a même proposé un financement direct aux municipalités qui prennent des mesures pour augmenter la densité urbaine.

Ces questions fondamentales relatives au développement à usage mixte s’accompagnent de détails de conception importants qui contribuent à rendre les villes agréables et à échelle humaine. Les développements modernistes de type « Tower on the Park » comprenaient souvent des pelouses avec des allées piétonnes. Cependant, ces installations piétonnes mettaient l’accent sur l’activité récréative de la marche à côté de l’herbe. En revanche, les projets de densification urbaine d’aujourd’hui sont plus axés sur le social, ce qui permet d’aller à pied ou vélo aux magasins, aux centres communautaires, aux écoles et à d’autres endroits pratiques. Les nouveaux aménagements placent à proximité des espaces communautaires et des espaces commerciaux, tels que des épiceries.

Vue aérienne sur une ville — Exemple typique des constructions « Tower on the Park », la coopérative Penn South (1962) à Manhattan comprend de nombreuses tours entourées d’une bande de terrain paysager afin que l’édifice ne donne pas directement sur la rue.
(Wikimedia)

Combler les lacunes des zones urbaines établies

Les coûts d’infrastructure liés à l’étalement urbain ont aussi aidé les municipalités à voir le potentiel de développement des terrains inutilisés ou sous-utilisés dans leur ville. Cependant, la planification et le développement de ce type de sites peuvent être plus complexes que ceux des terrains vierges en périphérie, précisément parce qu’ils se trouvent à l’intérieur des villes. Le site Molson a l’avantage d’avoir des bâtiments historiques, mais c’est aussi compliqué de repenser un endroit qui servait avant à des fins industrielles.

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Le réaménagement des sites urbains peut entraîner des coûts, comme le temps et les dépenses nécessaires pour remédier à la contamination industrielle, les évaluations archéologiques, ou les consultations avec les parties prenantes concernées. Ces questions peuvent également impliquer des arrangements de gouvernance plus complexes, selon l’ancien propriétaire et les circonstances relatives aux droits fonciers.

Bien que les sites intercalaires soient géographiquement proches des routes, des transports en commun et d’autres infrastructures existantes, les coûts d’infrastructure demeurent. S’agissant par exemple du projet Namur-Hippodrome à Montréal, les promoteurs se sont montrés réticents à construire les routes, égouts, et autres infrastructures nécessaires pour desservir le site, préférant que ces infrastructures soient fournies par le gouvernement. Cette situation nous rappelle qu’en fin de compte, les promoteurs sont des entreprises à but lucratif qui déterminent les coûts et les avantages des projets en fonction de leurs propres frais, et non en fonction d’objectifs sociaux.

Une plus grande mixité

Depuis plusieurs années, Montréal et d’autres villes tentent de créer une morphologie urbaine plus variée et attrayante, qui comprend un mélange de hauteurs de bâtiments, de destinations et de types de logements. Un mélange intriqué d’espaces publics et privés peut attirer des regards bienveillants au niveau de la rue, renforçant ainsi le sentiment de sécurité. Les nouveaux projets de Montréal se présentent tous comme dynamiques, animés et axés sur la communauté.

La création d’espaces sociaux vise à encourager les interactions sociales positives et à éviter les sentiments d’anonymat et de déconnexion par rapport aux activités quotidiennes. Le projet Molson prévoit un grand parc le long des rives du Saint-Laurent. Le projet Esplanade-Cartier a mis l’accent sur les équipements sociaux du projet, avec non seulement une rue piétonne, mais aussi une « maison du projet » avec un jardin communautaire sur le toit-terrasse. Bien que le jardinage sur les toits soit déjà bien développé à Montréal sur le plan commercial, ce projet s’annonce comme le premier jardin communautaire sur le toit d’un édifice privé au Québec.

Embrasser la complexité de la ville, c’est accepter la dimension sociale

Construire dans des villes déjà développées implique une certaine complexité. Le processus de consultation et de planification du projet Namur-Hippodrome à Montréal, qui a duré 10 ans, en est un exemple, mais pas un cas isolé. À quelques pas de la colline du Parlement, le réaménagement des plaines Lebreton à Ottawa est promis depuis des décennies. Le processus de développement du quartier résidentiel Ookwemin Minising dans les terrains portuaires de Toronto est pour sa part en cours depuis 2017.

Les nombreux projets de densification urbaine en cours à Montréal suggèrent une certaine reconnaissance du fait que le programme suburbain n’était pas suffisamment diversifié. Les projets actuels permettent de créer de nouveaux logements à proximité de corridors commerciaux dynamiques. Les ingrédients qui composent le concept de quartier 15 minutes (zonage à usage mixte qui permet des corridors commerciaux praticables à pied), ne sont pas nouveaux. Ce qui est peut-être nouveau, c’est le degré auquel les réseaux d’acteurs ont intégré les idées du Nouvel Urbanisme dans leurs pratiques de planification, de conception, et de construction. Les projets suggèrent qu’il existe désormais un nombre important de professionnels pour qui la notion de quartier a évolué.

Christina Bouchard 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. Notre conception de ce qu’est un quartier a changé – https://theconversation.com/notre-conception-de-ce-quest-un-quartier-a-change-270760

March 19, 2026

Gender conformity starts young – and boys and girls fall in line in different ways

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Adam Stanaland, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Richmond

The messages children receive about how to properly perform their gender carry into adulthood. Fotografia Basica/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Many people have felt the subtle pressure to be “man enough” or “woman enough” in the eyes of others. And research has shown this pressure can have personal and social consequences.

When men feel their manhood is challenged, they can respond with compensatory aggression and other harmful behaviors. When women step outside stereotypical femininity – or even just consider doing so – they often receive backlash.

As researchers who study how gender stereotypes and norms affect people in often unexpected ways, we wondered about the processes by which children feel motivated to conform to stereotypical gender norms. When does this start, and how might it manifest?

In recently published research we conducted with our colleague Andrei Cimpian, we found that when children perceive that their sense of being a “normal” or “proper” member of their gender group is threatened, they feel pushed to conform to stereotypical gender roles in different ways, with lasting consequences.

Two children in dresses sitting on curb on a neighborhood, skateboards before them — Children begin learning how to negotiate gender stereotypes and norms early on.
Petri Oeschger/Moment via Getty Images

Girl questions and boy questions

Borrowing from research on adults, we decided that the best way to assess children’s motivation to conform to gender norms was to challenge their status as a “typical” member of their gender group.

To do this, we asked 147 children ages 5 to 10 in New York City to play two games: a “Girl Questions Game” and a “Boy Questions Game.” Each featured difficult trivia about topics that are stereotypically gendered, such as “Which of these flowers is a poppy flower?” (Girl Questions Game) and “Which of these football teams was the 2016 champion?” (Boy Questions Game).

We randomly assigned children to receive feedback suggesting their performance was either gender-typical or gender-atypical, the latter of which was our version of a threat to their gender conformity. For example, a boy in this threat condition received feedback that he had aced the Girl Questions Game but flopped the Boy Questions Game.

Next, we assessed how they responded to this feedback. Would the boy publicly share or hide his achievement in a “Girl Questions Game Book of Winners”? Would he proudly wear a “Girl Questions Game Winner” sticker, or would he prefer to switch stickers? Would he be worried about what his peers would think?

Responding to gender conformity threats

We found three distinct ways children responded to threats to their gender conformity.

First, girls and boys of all ages were extra concerned about not fitting in with their gender group. This means they anticipated more rejection from their peers and reported lower self-esteem.

Second, certain children actively tried to demonstrate that they fit in with their gender group. Younger girls ratcheted up their femininity, while older boys ratcheted up their masculinity. For example, older boys would tell us they liked action figures more than dolls, or that they wanted to retry the Boy Questions Game over the Girl Questions Game.

This is in line with previous research showing that many young girls are immersed in “princess culture” and are especially motivated to prove their femininity, though this declines with age. In contrast, older boys increasingly learn as they age that masculinity is a precarious social status that is hard-won and must be actively proven.

Third, boys of all ages avoided seeming atypical from their gender group, actively distancing themselves from anything feminine. We didn’t see girls distancing themselves from anything masculine in the same way.

This response mirrors a cultural double standard in the U.S.: Girls are often encouraged to be athletic, assertive or like “tomboys,” while boys face no socially acceptable equivalent in the other direction. There is no benign male version of tomboy. The closest word is “sissy,” which is not typically considered a compliment.

Child wearing pink butterfly wings and holding a wand in a forested area — Boys are often not given much leeway to express their femininity.
Maskot/Getty Images

Building secure gender identities

Our findings show that the seeds of adult gender conformity – including some of its most harmful expressions, such as certain men’s aggression and some women’s anxiety around pursuing careers in male-dominated fields – are planted early.

Boys as young as 5 already recognize that femininity is something to avoid. By middle childhood – around age 7 – they seem to understand that masculinity is a status that must be actively proven and defended, a mindset that can manifest as aggression, sexual violence and resistance to seeking help in adulthood.

For girls, our findings suggest that they are motivated to prove stereotypical femininity at younger ages, but this may dissipate with age. This may be because girls are sometimes encouraged to pursue achievement in historically “masculine” domains, such as sports and in STEM. Or they may realize that masculinity affords men – and boys – success in these fields, so they seek to move away from femininity and toward masculinity.

However, it’s possible that girls in other settings are more pressured to perform femininity and avoid masculinity – that is, to engage in feminine stereotypes – in ways we were not able to capture in our study. It’s also unclear to us why girls’ responses to perceived threats to gender conformity may weaken with age, given that adult women are affected by these threats. Our future goal is to further test how gender conformity develops in more diverse geographic and cultural contexts, as well as among more gender-diverse children.

All said, we believe middle childhood may thus present a critical window for intervention. Programs that help children, especially boys, build secure identities that don’t depend on gender performance could help them have a healthier relationship with gender norms. In this way, children may be less vulnerable to responding to perceived threats to their gender conformity in ways that harm them through adulthood.

Nevertheless, what’s clear is that children don’t simply observe gender norms – they internalize them, actively defend them, and begin to do this earlier than people think.

– ref. Gender conformity starts young – and boys and girls fall in line in different ways – https://theconversation.com/gender-conformity-starts-young-and-boys-and-girls-fall-in-line-in-different-ways-275996