We officially started watching Christmas films this weekend gone (alright, three weekends ago). One of them was the hilariously awful Jingle All the Way, starring Schwarzenegger, Sinbad (the comedian, not the sailor) and that kid who played Darth Vader.
Like many festive films, it has become a relatable cult classic. Two dads scrambling for a sold-out superhero toy on Christmas Eve, having failed to get their act together earlier.
It is an ordeal many parents know all too well, including my own. My mum still remembers being harangued to within an inch of her sanity while hunting for a Tamagotchi for me in the 90s. She succeeded where Arnie failed, because she’s brilliant.
All of which raises a valid question. Why do some toys create such desperate demand, especially when a few of them come with very real safety concerns?
Clackers
People born in the 1960s or 70s may remember the children’s toy clackers. They were two hard polymer spheres attached to either end of a cord. When swung in an up-and-down rhythm, they clacked together repeatedly and loudly. Often unnervingly. See for yourself.
The nervous sideways glances in the commercial make sense. Children had good reason to fear these things. Clackers were capable of causing as many injuries as the Argentinian bolas, the weapon they were based on.
Early versions were made of glass which could, and regularly did, shatter on impact. This sent sharp fragments flying everywhere and occasionally into eyes. Plastic versions replaced the glass but did not make them much safer. Children used them as makeshift flails which resulted in black eyes, nosebleeds and even fractures. Many schools banned them, alongside conkers and other “wizzo” games straight out of Just William.
Variants still exist, usually as cheap plastic versions with far less force behind them. They have even enjoyed a recent revival in Egypt (where they were briefly banned for being crude) and in Indonesia and the Philippines, where they are known as lato-lato and have sparked competitions. Injuries presumably continue.
Magnets
My daughter once had a set of magnetised building blocks shaped like triangles and squares. She adored them. Magnets are used in many other different toys, and it is easy to overlook how hazardous they can be.
The danger stems from magnetic attraction. If two or more magnets, or other metallic toy parts, are swallowed, they can attract each other through the walls of the intestines and effectively pin sections of the gut together. This can cause obstruction, perforations and internal bleeding, among other serious complications. Swallowed magnets or metallic objects of any number should never be left to pass naturally. It is always a medical emergency.
Water beads
Water beads are a more recent addition to the toy world. They are small polymer pellets that expand dramatically when placed in water. Originally marketed for floral displays, they have become popular in arts and crafts and as sensory toys.
The beads are made from super-absorbent polymers that can swell to a diameter of one or two centimetres within hours. Like magnets, they are a choking hazard. If swallowed, they can also swell inside the body and block the intestines. A recent study described two cases of intestinal obstruction caused by water beads. In one case, a bead had expanded to four centimetres in size, and required surgery.
Sadly, these are not isolated incidents, and some cases have involved other severe medical complications. Water beads have also been marketed for children with sensory processing disorders and autism. This is especially concerning, as these children may not be able to communicate early symptoms of discomfort should they happen to swallow any beads.
Won’t someone think of the parents?
Spare a thought for the adults who find themselves in the thick of these toy crazes. Not just my poor mum who endured something close to the seventh circle of hell in a packed John Lewis to locate the digital pet I wanted. Power Rangers, Teletubbies and Buzz Lightyears have caused similar panics over the years. There have even been cases of serious injuries and fatalities caused by stampedes during Black Friday toy rushes.
The message is simple. Choose toys that are safe and age appropriate, and supervise playtime where necessary. A seemingly harmless children’s toy can turn into something much more dangerous in seconds. At Christmas, when homes are busy and distractions are many, a little extra caution goes a long, long way.
Dan Baumgardt 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.
When Donald Trump stood on the White House lawn in April 2025 holding a large, laminated poster announcing the first round of trade tariffs to be imposed on different countries, the Trade Policy Uncertainty Index shot through the roof.
Every month, this index, which is overseen by five board members of the Federal Reserve (America’s central bank), crosschecks the frequency of usage of terms relating to trade policy and uncertainty in seven leading newspapers including the New York Times and the Guardian. Here’s the chart since 1960:
Trump’s so-called “liberation day” sparked volatile shifts in the value of financial products and currencies as governments across the world scrambled to respond. The levels of uncertainty were unprecedented – the outbreak of the COVID pandemic was nothing in comparison, according to the index.
In highly complex systems, conditions of uncertainty and even ignorance – where we don’t know what we don’t know – are extremely common. These conditions become even more likely when such systems, such as those which control global finance, are opaque and poorly regulated. Add in a maverick US president and an administration determined to overturn the status quo, and the old, orderly assumptions are thrown out of the window.
Uncertainty is where we don’t know the likelihood of different things happening: we can’t predict, we can’t manage, we can’t control. For many people, conditions of uncertainty result in precarious jobs, insecure housing and rising inequality. Vulnerabilities including mental illness can become even more exposed when life is so uncertain – only serving to accentuate these perceptions of uncertainty.
However, for a lucky few, uncertainty is an opportunity to make a fortune. Financial capitalism thrives off uncertainty and asymmetric information, which may be encouraged by some who can pocket the profit, betting on the unknowns.
In politics too, uncertainty is being capitalised on. Rising economic precarity in the wake of COVID-19 has been linked with increased support for populist parties in many European countries. And this nationalist politics sweeping much of the world reduces the possibilities of transnational collaboration and multilateral regulation.
The Insights section is committed to high-quality longform journalism. Our editors work with academics from many different backgrounds who are tackling a wide range of societal and scientific challenges.
There are real and present dangers in this age of uncertainty. But through my research at the Institute of Development Studies, I have witnessed inspiring innovations that I believe could be applied across other fields of work and life. My latest book, Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World, explores the strategies used to counter uncertainty in fields as seemingly different as corporate finance and pastoral farming, in settings stretching from southern Zimbabwe to the Midlands of England.
The book highlights some surprising commonalities between these different worlds in their use of diverse sources of knowledge, social networks and human interactions. Above all, I believe the loss of the central role of people in today’s complex systems is the greatest danger of all.
Uncertainties of global finance
The 2008 financial crisis can be explained in part by a lack of such human engagement, and the reliance on a trading system where the assumption of control turned out to be highly misleading.
The international financial system involves a multitude of players, each with different sorts of information about the future. In the build-up to the crisis, many new financial instruments were devised to extract profit. The investment banks – Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley – perfected the art of managing the huge amounts of cash generated in the financial system through a range of derivative instruments, including the fateful mortgage-backed securities that triggered the crash. But the bewildering array of acronyms and actors involved meant few actually understood the system and its dynamics.
Who was to blame for the 2008 financial crisis? Video: BBC News.
At the centre of this complex web of financial interactions were mathematical models designed to offset uncertainty and provide control. The notorious Black-Scholes-Merton equation helped manage the transactions that were occurring in ever greater volumes and super-fast speeds, with billions of dollars being exchanged in nanoseconds across high-speed internet links.
However, when you are overly confident in risk-based models within a narrowly defined regulatory system, uncertainties have the nasty habit of creeping up behind you and catching you by surprise. As Andy Haldane, then chief economist at the Bank of England, commented in the aftermath:
The financial cat’s-cradle became dense and opaque. As a result, the precise source and location of underlying claims became anyone’s guess. Follow-the-leader became blind-man’s buff. In short, diversification strategies by individual firms generated heightened uncertainty across the system as a whole.
The crisis was rooted in what Haldane called “an exaggerated sense of knowledge and control”. Since then, there has been much reflection on what went wrong and what to do about it. One response has been to add new layers of regulation, but many argue that this may just hide the underlying uncertainties, as happened before.
The financial system was ill-equipped to respond to the shocks that emerged from the sub-prime mortgage collapse, and precious little appears to have changed since – as was demonstrated so vividly following the announcement of Trump’s tariffs.
Today’s financial system is increasingly reliant on algorithmic models to make decisions, driven by even ever more sophisticated AI applications. The large language machine learning models take accumulated past data to predict the future – but as well as increasing opacity, there is a decrease in accountability. AI offers an illusion of control, and this can be very dangerous.
The reality is that conditions of uncertainty are not unusual, freak occurrences, but the normal consequences of complex systems. So what if the standard assumptions of modernity – planning, management, regulation, control – have to be radically rethought? Is it possible to embrace uncertainty for the benefit of all – rather than denying or ignoring it until it is too late?
For financial systems, Haldane and others have argued that this means rethinking financial network configurations and enabling new practices (requiring new skills) for those involved. A shift from reliance on opaque and highly complex risk-based model algorithms to allowing more human discretion and judgment. Active deliberation on the appropriate responses to inevitably incomplete information in a world where uncertainty, even ignorance, is not only accepted but embraced.
Where can we look for inspiration? I’d suggest that the pastoral systems of northern Kenya and Amdo Tibet in China are good places to start. In both settings, pastoralists – mobile livestock keepers – must manage highly variable climates, and volatile market conditions alongside conflict and political uncertainties to keep their animals healthy and provide for their families. Like the global financial system, pastoralists trade across borders, manage highly variable supply and demand, and interact across networks in real time.
During my research with Kenyan and Chinese colleagues in both places since 2018, we have been struck by how pastoralists expertly live with, and benefit from, uncertainties. I believe that this offers some important lessons for elsewhere in the world – including its centres of global finance.
Livestock markets in northern Kenya
Meet Mohamed Hassan, a livestock trader from Moyale in northern Kenya on the border of Ethiopia. He manages a large and fluctuating trade in livestock – cattle, camels, goats, sheep – buying from producers, dealing with brokers and transporters, and selling animals on to terminal markets in Nairobi and further afield. He explains:
I have connections all over this region and buy cattle from as far as Garissa and Moyale [in Kenya], even Somalia. I transport cattle on trucks and sell on to customers in Nairobi. I also buy up small stock in bush markets around here, and sell to other traders in nearby areas for sale in local towns.
The pastoral areas of the Horn of Africa – from Somalia to Ethiopia to Kenya and beyond – are the centre of a massive international market in livestock. Estimates vary, but each year around US$1 billion in trade in live animals passes through the ports along the Somali coast destined for the Gulf countries, notably Saudi Arabia.
This is an internationalised, cross-border market affected by multiple uncertainties. It requires considerable financing, sophisticated coordination and complex governance arrangements. It operates almost completely informally outside the grip of state regulation and taxation, yet in a highly sensitive geopolitical arena.
Central to this complex international market is a network of traders and brokers who source animals from diverse locations across pastoral regions and organise their transport to and subsequent sale in terminal markets. This requires a great deal of collective skill by traders like Hassan, galvanising different knowledge, connecting people and negotiating trade in real time.
This includes negotiating with border police, customs officials and veterinary officers. One of the key features is the willingness of all parties to accept that the entire system requires a deliberate maintenance of ambiguities around regulation to ensure the flexibility of movement when official rules would prevent it.
These pastoralists in northern Kenya are part of a complex network of traders and brokers. Ian Scoones, CC BY-NC-SA
Brokers – intermediaries in the system with knowledge of the whole network – are relied on by the traders for knowledge about conditions in production areas, prices in different places and connections to markets. They operate in multiple languages and can link producers and traders, measuring livestock weights, recommending prices and preventing fraud.
Connected across far-flung areas, they use kinship and cultural connections to build trust between market players, facilitating effective trade. By offering knowledge, credit and informal insurance, they smooth the operation of the market, reducing sources of uncertainty. Collective arrangements for trading animals also diminish risks and enhance capacities for financing and transportation.
Such markets are always social, connected by trust-based relationships frequently over long distances, but with the end result being an efficient, effective market that can respond to multiple shocks – whether trade bans, price volatility, insecurity or drought.
Unlike with global finance and its addiction to predictive algorithms, the web of interactions between actors in this market are based on close connections among kin and clan groups, rooted in sustained social relations. Facilitated by increasingly robust mobile-phone coverage enabling rapid and secure money transfers, the system is remarkably effective given the volume of exchanges in this informal cross-border trade.
In contrast to contemporary financial systems, this is a system where networks of people keep a close eye on any potential failure, and respond in real time. Uncertainty is accepted, not dismissed or ignored. Informality means that a rapid response to changing circumstances is possible, with everyone contributing to generating reliability. The “human touch” is always present, and there is no opportunity for the system to collapse.
Studies of these livestock markets have highlighted differences between “long” and “short” market chains. While the former are run mostly by men, short market chains are more local, more embedded in local social relations and involve more women, particularly in the sheep and goat trade.
As uncertainties increase, it is these shorter, more locally managed chains that can adjust most rapidly. A much more variegated pattern is emerging, replacing the “big man”-dominated long chains of the past. With more players connected in networks through more diverse and decentralised social relations, the capacity to respond to uncertain events increases.
All this may seem very far from the challenges of global finance, but I believe there are important lessons to be learned. Livestock markets are similarly non-linear and complex, operate internationally and have limited formal regulatory control – yet they remain firmly embedded in social settings. A more social basis for “the economy” and “the market”, rooted in collective, networked responses, is apparent, where responses to uncertainty are central. This contrasts with the idealised image of an individualised, risk management response promoted in mainstream finance and banking systems,
The livestock markets of northern Kenya are facilitated by personal, culturally imbued interactions, while also using technologies that support the efficient and rapid flows of money and information. It is the human touch, involving a range of networked social practices, that is central to grappling continuously with uncertainties.
Buddhist herders in Amdo Tibet
Next, meet Loba Tsering from Dreinag village in the north of Kokonor, in the high pastures of Amdo Tibet, China. Like Hassan, he and his family must navigate many uncertainties. Heavy snowfall and an extended winter can wreak havoc with herding arrangements as people move yaks and sheep from winter to summer pastures at altitudes in excess of 4,000 metres.
Access to land, particularly for winter grazing by Qinghai lake – China’s largest – is increasingly constrained, as land along the lakeshore is divided up, privatised and acquired for tourism development and conservation projects. Markets for yak meat, as well as milk, butter and cheese, are expanding in the lower altitude areas as towns grow and lakeside tourist resorts are established, but in this volatile context new market connections must be found.
Uncertainties are accepted as part-and-parcel of life. As Tsega Norbu, a 40-year-old herder and father of three from Darnama village in the south of Kokonor, explains: “What happened is already in the past, and what is going to happen is unpredictable. All we can depend on is the present, we deal with what is happening now.”
Access to land for winter grazing by Qinghai lake in Kokonor is increasingly constrained. Palden Tsering, CC BY-NC-SA
Uncertainty is central to a Buddhist sensibility governing life. The world cannot be stable and controlled, but is part of a cycle of ongoing change. According to Tibetan Buddhist teachings and practices, uncertainties from whatever source – climatic, economic, political – should never be feared. They are part of how knowledges and experiences are constructed.
Unlike the anxiety and stress that uncertainties may create amid the western ideal of an ordered, regular, stable world, for Loba Tsering and others, there is no such expectation of a linear path. The assumptions of western-style modernity are fundamentally challenged.
But this doesn’t mean that they reject the trappings of a modern life. Mobile phones and internet connectivity, reliable off-grid electricity, functioning transport infrastructure, good healthcare, education for children and commercial market interactions are all crucial for pastoralists living in Kokonor. But these are integrated within an outlook that makes use of ambiguity and embraces uncertainty as part of daily life.
This requires particular skills for generating reliability which, just like for Mohamed Hassan and his fellow Kenyan traders, involve relying on social relations and networks. But in contrast to northern Kenya, where state presence and regulation is limited, in areas such as Kokonor there is much more interaction with state officials and government investment projects. This has implications for how uncertainties are navigated.
Infrastructure development continues apace in Amdo Tibet, with the Chinese state investing in large settlement programmes alongside road and rail infrastructure and conservation projects to protect watersheds. While Amdo Tibet remains a largely rural and very mountainous area, land access is always contentious as different actors – local people, investors, the government – compete for control. This generates heightened uncertainties for pastoralists. However, despite the increasing state presence, whether through local county officials or national-level projects, there is always room for manoeuvre.
Loba Tsering and others make use of this latitude to navigate within often ambiguous, hybrid arrangements around market or land access. Policies coming from the centre are never specified in detail, but provide guidance around broad objectives set by the Chinese state.
This approach to navigating uncertainty is what the Singaporean political scientist and author Yuen Yuen Ang calls “directed improvisation”. It provides a route to responding to complexity and uncertainty that allows flexibility and the possibilities of adaptation, avoiding top-down imposition. It is a combination of central facilitation and local innovation – one that makes use of ambiguity and thrives off uncertainty.
Yuen Yuen Ang on the pros and cons of China’s economic approach. Video: New Economic Thinking.
So, for example, when Loba Tsering and other villagers wanted to secure land for winter grazing to fatten their animals for sale to nearby markets, they had to exploit this flexibility and navigate the uncertainties. Their original winter grazing sites had shrunk, both because of encroachment of urban areas and expansion of the lake, due to increasing snow melt thanks to climate change. This meant that land was scarce and their opportunities for livestock marketing had declined.
First, they approached the local township officials to put their case. They were already connected with some officials who came from the same village, so conversations could start easily. Working together with these representatives, they then approached the county officials.
Although there were limits imposed by central state policies due to environmental regulations and plans for a conservation area, a creative, improvised solution was found through dialogue and deliberation. A two-year compensation for the loss of the winter pasture was offered, and a new area allocated for the landless pastoralists in the village. This ensured their animals could be fed and fattened, allowing new marketing opportunities in the fast-growing nearby towns and tourist resorts.
This was “directed improvisation” in action, with solutions being found that responded to changing circumstances. It is not an isolated example but, as many have commented before, central to the style of centralised-yet-flexible, pragmatic policymaking that China has adopted – an approach that has been central to its rapid economic transformation and poverty reduction following the reform era.
In a highly complex system with many different requirements and operating across a vast geographic area, a singular, designed solution rolled out from the centre clearly will not work. Rather, an approach to economic change that is responsive to uncertain conditions is required, with flexible institutions and governance systems – very unlike the fixed regulatory protocols of global finance.
No standardised blueprint model of either design or regulation will work. Solutions must allow for experimentation and improvisation, and be built on social relations where trust is essential. Once again, it is the human touch that is key.
Rethinking an uncertain world
Despite the very different contexts, the experiences from northern Kenya and Amdo Tibet in China offer some important insights into how to navigate uncertainty in our turbulent times. Could such insights help us avoid the chaos and collapse we saw during the financial crash and following the imposition of Trump’s tariffs? Interestingly, the principles that emerge are similar to those suggested by Haldane and others following the 2007-08 financial crash.
What does this involve? The need to decentralise and rely on social interactions in localised networks. The need to avoid reliance on simple, centralised solutions, whether from algorithmic or state diktats. The need to be careful about relying on top-down imposition of regulations, and to seek adaptive, flexible solutions. The need to develop collective options based on trust-based relations – avoiding either an atomised, individualised response or one emerging from a centralised, dirigiste imposition.
Above all, it highlights the need for the human touch – the social, networked relations that are only possible to develop when people interact with each other and build trust.
What does this suggest for the future? A modernist vision of control – whether through markets or states – towards a singular understanding of progress is clearly inappropriate. Instead, a more flexible, adaptive path is required. This means opening up to alternatives, decentralising activities, facilitating experimentation and improvisation and accepting uncertainty.
Embracing uncertainty and encouraging democratic deliberation is also a route to avoiding the future being captured by those who seek to profit from uncertainty, or who seek to close down options through the populist rhetoric of “taking back control”.
Whether responding to a financial shock, new technologies, land use change, a pandemic or the climate crisis, this requires – as in citizen assemblies and other forms of deliberative democratic practice – diverse people interacting and building trust for collective responses. AI and predictive mathematical models are no replacement in our current age of uncertainty.
To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. Subscribe to our newsletter.
Ian Scoones was a recipient of a European Research Council Advanced Grant for the PASTRES project – Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience: Global Lessons from the Margins (https://pastres.org/). He is the author of Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World (Polity Books, 2024, https://bit.ly/44f9sqe).
But history tells a different story. Scientific theories do not simply reveal themselves; they compete for attention, credibility and uptake. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once suggested that “the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market,” a line that helped popularize the metaphor of a “marketplace of ideas.”
In this view, science is not outside the market, but inside a public arena where claims vie for audiences, resources and belief – and where power, persuasion and social position shape which ideas are heard, trusted or forgotten.
When I tell people that one of the areas I study is the marketing of science, they are often surprised at the concept. Yet persuasion is an integral part of the scientific process.
From Isaac Newton’s followers and their coffeehouse demonstrations of physics wonders to today’s TED Talks and TikTok explainers, scientists have long relied on storytelling and demonstration to make invisible truths visible. For scientific theories to supplant other plausible theories, to challenge existing theories and win acceptance, they must be correct – but they must also be convincing.
People didn’t need to read Isaac Newton’s indecipherable Latin or understand his incomprehensible mathematics; they could just watch the live demonstrations, as in this depiction of an 18th-century nighttime scientific lecture on pneumatics. Joseph Wright of Derby/Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images
The original science influencers
In the early 1700s, Isaac Newton’s followers turned abstract theory into public performance and cultural fashion.
At the time, Cartesian philosophy dominated intellectual life. Newton’s 1687 book “Principia Mathematica” proposed a new worldview of gravity, optics and motion, but the mathematics was so dense that few could grasp it.
Although Newton himself was a recluse, a circle of zealous Newtonian men of science, described by historians as devoted disciples and even evangelists for Newton’s natural philosophy, took his new theories on the road. These itinerant lecturers performed experiments and spectaculars in London coffeehouses and aristocratic salons, demonstrating Newtonian physics. They sold tickets, pamphlets and even branded scientific instruments so audiences could reproduce these marvels at home.
My own research finds that these men of science also used a suite of early marketing activities. Besides developing products to sell to promote Newtonian science, they came up with promotions that targeted different audiences, adjusted their pricing and used varied distribution strategies.
Along with their pure entertainment value, these public demonstrations were integrally entwined with Newtonian scientific viewpoints and helped these ideas gain popularity and legitimacy in public life.
Three centuries later, the marketing of science is more visible, and more complicated, than ever.
Scientists can now promote their work on social media platforms like Bluesky, YouTube and TikTok, crafting personal brands and cultivating audiences. Influencer-scientists use storytelling, humor and design to reach millions. If scientists don’t do this themselves, their proponents, just like Newton’s disciples, may do it for them.
I call this process the marketization of moral authority: when historically sacred or ostensibly impartial institutions such as science, religion and education increasingly organize themselves as markets, adopting promotional, pricing and product logics to secure their legitimacy, authority, appeal and funding.
None of this effort is inherently bad. As in Newton’s time, effective marketing communications can make complex work accessible and even inspiring. It can publicize and defend important theoretical and practical findings in a competitive, skeptical world.
But it raises questions.
Today’s scientists may spend time making videos and other content for social media. Ignatiev/E+ via Getty Images
Value of recognizing that science gets marketed
You might wonder why anyone beyond academia should care whether science is marketed. After all, every field uses communication and outreach.
It matters because science is one of the few institutions people still rely on to anchor truth claims in evidence. And when the boundary between scientific fact and promotion blurs, it becomes easy to confuse confidence with credibility, or charisma with responsible consensus.
Scientific rhetoric can easily be co-opted. Think of wellness influencers using “quantum” jargon to sell supplements; AI companies invoking neuroscience to legitimatize untested technologies; charlatans mimicking the language of peer review to sow doubt.
But awareness is a form of protection. When you recognize that scientific authority can be built through persuasion, you become more discerning consumers of it. Faced with a message involving science, you can consider:
Who is framing this message, and why?
What evidence supports it? Is this evidence vetted and validated by rigorous studies?
Is it appealing to emotion or identity, rather than objective logic?
This process can help you become more scientifically literate.
Science has never been the pristine, market-free ideal many imagine. It has always lived – sometimes uneasily – within a marketplace of ideas, competing for belief, attention and authority.
Recognizing that reality humanizes science and reminds us that truth must be discovered, communicated and, ultimately, accepted.
Beth DuFault has received funding from the Ahmanson Foundation.
What is dark matter and what is antimatter? Are they the same or different? – Namrata, age 13, Ghaziabad, India
Imagine an epic video game with your favorite hero as a character. Another character is a mirror-image twin who shows up occasionally, exploding everything they touch. And, to add an extra level of difficulty, the game includes a mysterious hive of minions hiding at every corner, changing the rules of the game, but never showing themselves.
If you think of these characters as types of matter, this video game is basically how our universe works.
The hero is regular matter, which is everything we can see around us. Antimatter is the mirror-image explosive twin that scientists understand well but can barely find. And dark matter is the invisible minions. It is everywhere, but we cannot see it, and scientists have no idea what it is.
Despite having similar-sounding names, dark matter and antimatter are completely different. Interestingly, physicists like me know exactly what antimatter is, but there is almost none of it around. On the other hand, we have no idea what dark matter is, but there is a lot of it everywhere.
Luckily, antimatter is very rare in our universe. But some special regular matter atoms, such as potassium, can decay to produce antimatter. For example, when you eat a banana, or any food rich in potassium, you are eating tiny amounts of these antimatter-producing atoms. The amount is too small to affect your health.
Antimatter was discovered almost 100 years ago. Today, scientists can create, store and study antimatter in the laboratory. They understand its properties very well. Doctors even use it for PET scans. They inject tiny amounts of antimatter-producing atoms into your body, and as these atoms travel through your body, the scan takes pictures of the flashes of light from the annihilation of the antimatter and regular matter in your body. This process lets doctors see what is happening inside your body.
Scientists have also figured out that when the universe was born, there were almost equal amounts of matter and antimatter. They met and annihilated each other. Fortunately, just a tiny bit more regular matter survived to make stars, planets and all of us.
If matter and antimatter annihilate each other when they touch, and there were once equal amounts of each, how is it possible that there is now so much more matter than antimatter in the universe?
Dark matter: The invisible minions
Dark matter is far more mysterious. Have you ever spun very fast on a merry-go-round? If so, you know how hard it is to stay on it without getting thrown off, especially if you’re the only one on the merry-go-round.
Now imagine there are a bunch of invisible minions on that merry-go-round with you. You can’t see them and you can’t touch them, but they hold you and keep you from flying off as it spins super-fast. You know they’re there because the merry-go-round is heavier than it looks, and it is harder to push and get it spinning. The invisible minions don’t play or talk to anybody; they just hang around, adding their weight to everything.
About 50 years ago, astronomer Vera Rubin discovered a similar mystery in spiral galaxies. She looked at spinning galaxies, which are like cosmic merry-go-rounds, and noticed something strange: The outer stars in these galaxies were spinning much faster than they should. They should have gone flying off into space like sparks from a firework display. But they did not.
It was like watching kids on a merry-go-round move at incredible speed but somehow stay perfectly in place.
The astronomer Vera Rubin discovered a strong mismatch in spiral galaxies that scientists now understand as dark matter. Carnegie Institution for Science, CC BY
The only explanation? There must be a sea of invisible “stuff” holding everything together with their extra gravity. Scientists called this mystery material “dark matter.”
Since then, astronomers have observed similar strange behavior happening throughout the universe. Galaxies within large clusters move in unexpected ways. Light gets bent around galaxies more than it should be. Galaxies stick together far more than the visible matter alone can explain.
It is as if our cosmic playground has swings moving by themselves, and seesaws tipping with nobody visible sitting on them.
Dark matter is just a placeholder name until scientists figure out what it is. For the past 50 years, many scientists have been running experiments that are trying to detect dark matter or produce it in the lab. But so far, they have come up empty-handed.
We don’t know what dark matter is, but it’s everywhere. It could be unusual particles scientists have not discovered yet. It could be something completely unexpected. But astronomers can tell by observing how fast galaxies rotate that there is about five times more dark matter than all the regular matter in the entire universe.
Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.
And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
Dipangkar Dutta receives funding from US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
Both scenarios were unusual – and they were largely directed by the polar jet stream.
What is a jet stream?
Jet streams are narrow bands of high-speed winds in the upper troposphere, around four to eight miles (seven to 13 kilometers) above the surface of the Earth, flowing west to east around the entire planet. They form where strong temperature contrasts exist.
Each hemisphere hosts two primary jet streams:
The polar and subtropical jet streams in positions similar to much of summer 2025. NOAA
The polar jet stream is typically found near 50 to 60 degrees latitude, across Canada in the Northern Hemisphere, where cold polar air meets warmer midlatitude air. It plays a major role in modulating weather systems in the midlatitudes, including the continental U.S. With winds up to 200 mph, it’s also the usual steering force that brings those bitter cold storms down from Canada.
The subtropical jet stream is typically closer to 30 degrees latitude, which in the Northern Hemisphere crosses Florida. It follows the boundary between tropical air masses and subtropical air masses. It’s generally the weaker and steadier of the two jet streams.
A cross section of atmospheric circulations shows where the jet streams exist between large cells of rising and falling air, movements largely driven by solar heating in the tropics. NOAA
Stronger (faster) jet streams can intensify storm systems, whereas weaker (slower) jet streams can stall storm systems, leading to prolonged rainfall and flooding.
2025’s intense summer of flooding
Most summers, the polar jet stream retreats northward into Canada and weakens considerably, leaving the continental U.S. with calmer weather. When rainstorms pop up, they’re typically caused by localized convection due to uneven heating of the land – picture afternoon pop-up thunderstorms.
During the summer of 2025, however, the polar jet stream shifted unusually far south and steered larger storm systems into the midlatitudes of the U.S. At the same time, the jet stream weakened, with two critical consequences.
First, instead of moving storms quickly eastward, the sluggish jet stream stalled storm systems in place, causing prolonged downpours and flash flooding.
Second, a weak jet stream tends to meander more dramatically. Its broad north-south swings in summer 2025 funneled humid air from the Gulf of Mexico deep into the interior, supplying storm systems with abundant moisture and intensifying rainfall.
Search-and-rescue crews look for survivors in Texas Hill Country after a devastating July 4, 2025, flash flood on the Guadalupe River swept through a girls’ camp, tearing walls off buildings. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
This moisture surge was amplified by unusually warm conditions over the Atlantic and Gulf regions. A warmer ocean evaporates more water, and warmer air holds a greater amount of moisture. As a result, extraordinary levels of atmospheric moisture were directed into storm systems, fueling stronger convection and heavier precipitation.
Finally, the wavy jet stream became locked in place by persistent high-pressure systems, anchoring storm tracks over the same regions. This led to repeated episodes of heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding across much of the continental U.S. The same behavior can leave other regions facing days of unrelenting heat waves.
The jet stream buffered US in hurricane season
The jet stream also played a role in the 2025 hurricane season.
Given its west-to-east wind direction, the southward dip of the jet stream – along with a weak high pressure system over the Atlantic – helped steer all five hurricanes away from the U.S. mainland.
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season’s storm tracks show how most of the storms steered clear of the U.S. mainland and veered off into the Atlantic. Sandy14156/Wikimedia Commons
Most of the year’s 13 tropical storms and hurricanes veered off into the Atlantic before even reaching the Caribbean.
A higher temperature contrast leads to stronger jet streams. As the planet warms, the Arctic is heating up at more than twice the global average rate, and that is reducing the equator-to-pole temperature difference. As that temperature gradient weakens, jet streams lose their strength and become more prone to stalling.
This increases the risk of persistent extreme rainfall events.
Weaker jet streams also meander more, producing larger waves and more erratic behavior. This increases the likelihood of unusual shifts, such as the southward swing of the jet stream in the summer of 2025.
A recent study found that amplified planetary waves in the jet streams, which can cause weather systems to stay in place for days or weeks, are occurring three times more frequently than in the 1950s.
What’s ahead?
As the global climate continues to warm, extreme weather events driven by erratic behavior of jet streams are expected to become more common. Combined with additional moisture that warmer oceans and air masses supply, these events will intensify, producing storms that are more frequent and more destructive to societies and ecosystems.
In the short term, the polar jet stream will be shaping the winter ahead. It is most powerful in winter, when it dips southward into the central and even southern U.S., driving frequent storm systems, blizzards and cold air outbreaks.
Shuang-Ye Wu 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.
Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Sherry Thatcher, Regal Distinguished Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, University of Tennessee
More than 20% of Americans will be diagnosed with mental illness in their lifetimes. They will, that is, experience conditions that influence the way they think, feel and act – and that may initially seem incompatible with the demands of work.
Our new research suggests that what people living with chronic mental illnesses need most to succeed at work is for their managers to be flexible and trust them.
This includes the freedom to adjust their schedules and workloads to make their jobs more compatible with their efforts to manage and treat their symptoms. For that to happen, managers need to trust that these workers are committed to their jobs and their employers.
We’re managementprofessors who reviewed hundreds of blog and Reddit posts and conducted in-depth interviews with 59 people. And those are the most significant findings from our peer-reviewed study, published in the October 2025 issue of the Academy of Management Journal.
Scouring Reddit posts and conducting interviews
We gathered our data from three sources: anonymous blog posts from 171 people, Reddit posts from 781 people, and in-depth interviews with 59 workers employed in a variety of jobs across multiple industries.
All these people worked while dealing with chronic mental illness, such as major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and bipolar disorder. The blog posts were maintained by a nonprofit concerned with the experiences of individuals living with mental illness. We focused on posts tagged “work.”
To identify relevant data on Reddit, we searched using a combination of the word “work” with several terms associated with mental illness. Additionally, we restricted our data collection to unsolicited narratives published prior to mid-March 2020 to avoid overlap with the employment changes that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because this data was gathered from the internet, we couldn’t obtain details about participants’ gender, age, profession or education.
We also recruited people to interview through social media postings, advertising in a public university’s alumni listserv and contacting an organization that focuses on men’s mental health. We also made requests of those we’d already interviewed to see whether they had recommendations for other people to possibly interview.
The interviews took place in 2020 and 2021.
Speaking with people from all walks of working life
About 37% of the people we interviewed identified as women, and their average age was 41.5 years. Approximately 80% of them identified as Caucasian, 3.5% Black, 3.5% Hispanic, and less than 2% identified as either Indian, Korean American, mixed race or Middle Eastern and North African. About 3.5% chose not to answer.
They held a variety of jobs, including lawyer, professor, touring musician, consultant, teacher, real estate manager, chief technology officer, salesperson, restaurant server, travel agency manager, graphic designer, tester for manufacturing plant, chemical engineer and bus driver. Several worked in tech fields.
When the employees who we studied were trusted and given flexibility, they became better able to do their jobs while also attending to their well-being.
Employees who had lived with their condition for years used what we call “personalized disengagement and engagement strategies” to manage their symptoms. That refers to the fact that people with mental illness respond best to different coping strategies depending on their own preferences and symptoms, instead of using generic techniques they learned from self-help resources or peers.
Examples of personalized disengagement strategies ranged from leaving workspaces to meditate to taking a walk, to finding a quiet space to cry.
Engagement strategies included immersing more deeply into work and having conversations with co-workers. These coping strategies will sound familiar to most people, including those without any chronic mental health conditions. But workplaces don’t always give employees, regardless of their disability status, the flexibility and self-determination necessary to enact their strategies. In fact, a recent survey by Mind Share Partners found that nearly half of employees didn’t even feel like they could disconnect from their jobs after working hours or while on vacation.
Many employees also told us that they benefited from trust and flexibility in the period after they were diagnosed, when they needed to explore different therapies and treatment techniques.
When managers allow for flexibility, trust workers to do what they need to do to address their symptoms, and convey their compassion, employees with chronic mental illness are more likely to keep their jobs and get their work done.
People with anxiety and mood disorders, including bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, may periodically have symptoms that interfere with their ability to do their jobs.
Extremely high performers, such as the late actor Carrie Fisher and the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, are two such examples of people with a mental illness who were top achievers in their field.
If you were a manager, wouldn’t you want people of this caliber working for you? If so, then it’s important to create the right conditions, which many employers fail to do despite their best efforts.
Needing more mental health support
Companies will face increasing pressure to support those with mental illness and other mental health challenges.
Monster’s 2024 State of the Graduate Report found that Gen Z employees, people born between 1996 and 2010 and are currently in their teens and 20s, are increasingly prioritizing support for mental health at work, with 92% of 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed wanting a job where they are comfortable discussing their mental health at work.
This trend suggests that employers wishing to attract top entry-level talent will need to effectively support mental health, highlighting the importance of continuing to research this issue.
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.
Même si l’argent joue un rôle important dans le sport de haut niveau, la gestion d’un club sportif, ni vraiment différent ni vraiment semblable à une autre entreprise, obéit à des contraintes particulières. Les raisons ne manquent pas pour expliquer pourquoi leur management ne peut être identique.
Du fait de la professionnalisation de l’univers du sport, la gestion d’un club sportif professionnel (CSP) semble tout à fait comparable à celle d’une entreprise. En France, dans les années 1990-2000, Anny Courtade, à la fois PDG de Locasud (la centrale d’achat des magasins Leclerc dans le sud-est de la France) et du Racing Club de Cannes (volley-ball féminin) a par exemple souvent été présentée comme un brillant exemple de réussite combinée.
Au vu de cet exemple, le transfert de compétences semble assez simple : il faut s’inspirer des facteurs clés de succès existants dans le monde des affaires, en s’adaptant à l’environnement du sport. Et pourtant… Nombreux sont, à l’inverse, les chefs d’entreprise (Laurent Tapie, Laurent Platini, Peter Lim…) qui ont brillamment réussi dans leurs activités professionnelles mais qui ont échoué dans le domaine sportif. Un argument souvent avancé pour expliquer ces échecs est l’aveuglement qui serait lié à la passion conduisant à des problèmes de gouvernance. Notre vision des choses est quelque peu différente pour les sports collectifs.
Des contraintes différentes
Si le management d’un club sportif professionnel (CSP) ne peut pas emprunter les mêmes voies qu’une entreprise classique, c’est d’abord parce que ces deux types d’organisation ne se ressemblent pas autant qu’il pourrait sembler de premier abord.
Une autre divergence cruciale concerne l’exposition médiatique : faible pour la majorité des chefs d’entreprise, elle est très forte pour les dirigeants des CSP. Cela produit des obligations très éloignées. À la différence d’un chef d’entreprise qui communique rarement auprès d’un large public mais plutôt auprès d’acteurs ciblés (collaborateurs, actionnaires, fournisseurs, clients…), les décisions, les déclarations, les réactions d’un président de CSP sont scrutées en permanence et peuvent générer de nombreuses crises (médiatiques, avec les supporters, les partenaires…).
Par répercussion, les horizons temporels de l’action s’opposent : de très court-terme pour un président de CSP, plus lointain pour un chef d’entreprise. Ces différences influent sur leur notoriété, leur popularité, leurs relations avec les parties prenantes et donc leurs motivations. Souvent inconnues du grand public, celles-ci finissent souvent par transparaître et donc par avoir des conséquences sur la légitimité des uns et des autres. Les chefs d’entreprise tirent leur légitimité de leur efficacité économique et de la confiance inspirée aux investisseurs. Celle des présidents de CSP repose sur une combinaison beaucoup plus fragile entre légitimité institutionnelle, populaire, sportive et même souvent symbolique.
La majorité des CSP ambitionnent de maximiser leurs résultats sportifs (se maintenir dans la division dans laquelle ils évoluent, participer aux compétitions européennes) sous contrainte économique (du fait de leur budget ou des décisions des instances de régulation. Les entreprises cherchent à maximiser leurs résultats économiques en prenant en compte les contraintes réglementaires des pays où ils sont implantés.
Un rapport différent à l’incertitude
Indirectement, cela produit un rapport différent à l’incertitude. Les chefs d’entreprise mobilisent des techniques pour la limiter. Les présidents de CSP font de même dans leur gestion courante mais souhaitent la voir perdurer au niveau sportif – on parle même de la glorieuse incertitude du sport– pour maintenir l’intérêt des compétitions et donc des spectacles sportifs.
Autre différence : les marchés sur lesquels interviennent les entreprises sont le plus souvent libres et ouverts, les marchés sur lesquels évoluent les CSP sont davantage encadrés. L’existence de ces réglementations résulte en partie de la nature de la production : elle est jointe. Un CSP ne peut pas produire seul une rencontre sportive, il faut a minima deux équipes pour un match. Cela implique, obligatoirement, une forme de coopération entre les concurrents alors que les entreprises peuvent librement décider de leur stratégie.
La pression des résultats
Ces différences induisent que le management des unes et des autres ne peut pas être le même. Au niveau stratégique, la première différence, concerne la temporalité. Pour les chefs d’entreprise, l’horizon est le moyen ou long terme ; pour les présidents de CSP la saison sportive, soit plus qu’un trimestre. Dans ce domaine, la nature même de l’activité impose une gestion temporelle réactive avec de fréquents ajustements en fonction des blessures, des résultats, de l’évolution de l’effectif.
À l’inverse, dans de nombreuses entreprises, la notion de planification conserve un intérêt. Plus précisément, dans les CSP la diversification, est la seule option envisageable, la stratégie volume/coût étant hors de portée puisqu’il n’est pas possible d’augmenter de façon importante le nombre de matchs joués, ni de réduire drastiquement les coûts de fonctionnement, la majorité d’entre eux étant fixes.
En ce qui concerne le marketing et la gestion commerciale, si la majorité des entreprises définissent et choisissent un positionnement, peu de CSP le font. Les déterminants de l’image de marque diffèrent sur de nombreux points. Il en va de même des déterminants de la valeur perçue et donc indirectement de l’attractivité.
Le poids de l’histoire
Beaucoup plus que dans les entreprises, l’histoire du club joue un rôle dans la perception de la valeur de la marque par les « clients-fans », valeur difficile à apprécier. Les « expériences client » divergent également : elles sont « classiques » dans les entreprises ; dans les CSP « immersives ». Les interactions qui apparaissent entre les fans d’un club (simples spectateurs, supporters, partenaires, élus..) sont primordiales. Ces interactions n’existent quasiment pas dans les entreprises.
la commercialisation de nombreux droits (entrés, TV, image, exposition, appellation, numériques) ;
l’apport en compte courant d’actionnaires ;
à cela s’ajoute pour le football, le trading joueurs soit la pratique consistant à vendre une partie des actifs immatériels détenus par les clubs, c’est-à-dire, certains joueurs « sous contrat ».
En dépit du recours à ces possibilités, l’équilibre budgétaire n’est pas toujours atteint en fin de saison dans les CSP. L’une des causes principales, qui distingue fondamentalement ce secteur de la majorité des autres, réside à la fois dans l’importance des coûts salariaux et dans leur caractère quasiment incompressibles.
France Travail 2024.
Des RH sous contraintes
Pour ce qui est des ressources humaines, les mutations reposent sur des principes différents. Tout d’abord en ce qui concerne l’agenda : possible à tout moment dans l’entreprise, limitées à des périodes précises (mercato) dans les CSP. Les sommes engagées diffèrent également. Dans les entreprises, elles sont plus ou moins explicitement déterminées par des « grilles », dans les CSP elles sont le fruit d’âpres négociations.
Par ailleurs, dans les premières, le plus souvent la décision est prise par l’employeur. Elle l’est fréquemment par les joueurs dans les CSP, ce qui confronte les présidents de club à un dilemme spécifique : faut-il « laisser filer » le joueur au risque d’affaiblir l’équipe ou, au contraire, faut-il le conserver dans l’effectif contre sa volonté, au risque qu’il soit moins performant ?
Patrice Bouvet 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.
_Le Tribut à César_, du peintre Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582-1622), illustre le proverbe « Rendre à César ce qui est à César ».Wikimédia Commons
« À chaque jour suffit sa peine », « rendre à César ce qui est à César », « que chacun balaie devant sa porte », « à l’impossible nul n’est tenu », « aide-toi et le ciel t’aidera », ces cinq proverbes irriguent notre quotidien et notre vie au travail. Que disent-ils de notre façon de concevoir le management ?
Bien sûr, le manager qui ne chercherait pas à anticiper ne remplirait pas totalement son rôle. Mais réaffirmer que chaque journée est en soi une fin, qu’il ne faille pas empiler les difficultés probables ou à venir, est aussi une manière de les traiter dans l’ordre, sans s’y perdre et sans perdre son équipe. Pour le dire autrement, il y a une gestion des temporalités qui nous invite à qualifier et requalifier, sans cesse et avec exigence, les urgences, en les distinguant de ce qui est important – comme nous invite la matrice d’Eisenhower.
Par exemple, la gestion inadaptée des courriels, qui sont pourtant, comme le rappelle la chercheuse en sciences de l’information et de la communication Suzy Canivenc, des outils de communication asynchrone (en dehors du temps réel), illustre notre incapacité à bien gérer notre temps.
Le rôle d’un manager n’est pas nécessairement de tout traiter, de tout lire, d’apporter à toute demande une réponse, de décider de tout. Un temps de germination peut être le bienvenu pour, tout à la fois, laisser se dissoudre d’elles-mêmes certaines requêtes (l’émetteur ayant trouvé la réponse par lui-même ou par une autre voie), voire, qu’une posture managériale souhaitable est précisément de ne pas donner réponse ou audience à tout.
Laisser « reposer à feu doux » un sujet problématique est une façon de ne pas traiter dans l’urgence, et de s’ôter le stress associé. S’en remettre au lendemain, c’est alors faire confiance à cette part de nous-mêmes qui, même au repos, fait que notre cerveau continue à œuvrer.
« Rendre à César ce qui est à César »
Affiche française de 1788 illustrant le proverbe « il faut rendre à César ce qui est à César et a la nation ce qui est à la nation ». Wikimedia
Cet emprunt à l’Évangile de Saint-Luc pourrait nous inspirer cette réflexion : que chacun se contente de s’attirer les louanges qu’il mérite, sans éprouver le besoin de s’approprier celles d’autrui.
Si la reconnaissance est un enjeu majeur, il semble hélas que nombre d’organisations ont « la mémoire courte ». Elles oublient d’où elles viennent, ce qu’elles ont entrepris, et à qui elles le doivent. Les inspirateurs, les pionniers, les innovateurs ou les transformateurs n’ont pas toujours la reconnaissance qu’ils méritent. Prendre le temps de remercier, aussi, le concours d’un service support (l’informatique, les achats ou la communication), sans lequel un projet n’aurait pu être mené à bien, peut figurer ici.
« Que chacun balaie devant sa porte et les rues seront nettes »
L’exemplarité, comme le précise la professeure en comportement organisationnel Tessa Melkonian, invite à la congruence. Soit cet alignement entre ce que je dis, ce que je fais et ce que je communique de façon explicite et implicite. Un manager est reconnu pour sa capacité à incarner les valeurs et les postures attendues de chacun, à montrer la voie quand une décision nouvelle doit s’appliquer au collectif de travail.
De même, avant de prononcer une critique, il doit veiller à ce que sa propre pratique ne puisse faire l’objet d’une semblable observation. Devoir être exemplaire en tout requiert de l’énergie, de l’attention, de la constance. C’est une discipline, sans laquelle l’exigence devient un vœu pieux. Mais elle fonctionne dans une logique de réciprocité : ses collaborateurs doivent pouvoir eux-mêmes démontrer leur exemplarité avant de l’exposer à leurs propres critiques.
« À l’impossible nul n’est tenu »
Planche illustrant le proverbe en 1815–1825. Wikimedia
Certaines missions, certaines tâches, excèdent les capacités d’une personne ou d’un collectif. Il est essentiel de le rappeler, dans une époque marquée par la quête de l’exploit et les logiques de « performance ».
Dans ce contexte, oser dire que l’échéance n’est pas tenable, sauf à dégrader la qualité des tâches (ce qui, dans certaines circonstances, peut parfaitement être audible), témoigne plutôt d’une forme de courage. Cette posture implique des contre-propositions, une voie de sortie, et non seulement une fin de non-recevoir.
Le droit à l’erreur prend ici toute sa place. Reconnaître aux équipes et se reconnaître ce même droit en tant que leader, comme nous y invite Tessa Melkonian, c’est l’un des marqueurs de l’époque. Comment rassurer une équipe sur ce droit si le manager lui-même ne sait pas évoquer ses propres échecs et ne s’autorise par des essais-erreurs ?
Il s’agit bien d’oser dire que l’on s’est trompé, que l’on a le droit de se tromper, mais le devoir de réparer, et, surtout, de ne pas reproduire la même erreur. Ici, plus qu’ailleurs peut-être, l’exemplarité managériale aurait un impact fort : entendre un dirigeant reconnaître publiquement une erreur pourrait faire beaucoup. L’ouvrage « Un pilote dans la tempête », paru récemment, de Carlos Tavares, l’ancien PDG de Stellantis, constitue un témoignage éloquent de cette absence de remise en question – notamment pour ce qui concerne les décès dus aux dysfonctionnements de certains airbags.
« Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera »
Ce proverbe popularisé par Jean de la Fontaine dans Le Chartier embourbé introduit la notion de care en management. Issue des travaux pionniers de la psychologue Carol Gilligan, cette forme d’éthique nous invite à considérer les relations entre humains à travers le prisme de la vulnérabilité, de facto du soin, reçu et prodigué.
« L’incapacité à assumer sa vulnérabilité est la cause d’un grand nombre de difficultés dans le monde du travail, tant pour les managers que pour les managés. […] Qu’il s’agisse de difficulté propre au travail ou concernant la compatibilité entre vie professionnelle et vie personnelle ou familiale, on n’ose en parler ni à ses pairs ni à ses supérieurs de peur de passer pour incompétent, pour faible ou incapable. […] Alors, qu’en revanche, si chacun percevait sa propre vulnérabilité et celle des autres avec une plus grande sollicitude, personne n’hésiterait à demander de l’aide et à aider les autres ».
Il s’agit bien d’oser, simplement, requérir l’aide d’un collègue. En entreprise, demander un soutien demeure complexe. L’éthique du care nous ouvre une perspective inédite et bienvenue : aide ton prochain et réciproquement, sollicite son aide. Car l’autre ne m’aidera que si je lui permets de le faire, si j’accepte donc de me révéler dans toute ma vulnérabilité.
Affiche de la fable le Charretier embourbé de Jean de La Fontaine. Wikimedia
Benoît Meyronin 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.
Source: The Conversation – in French – By Jérôme Coullaré, Docteur en sciences de gestion, laboratoire IAE Paris Sorbonne, IAE Paris – Sorbonne Business School
Gare aux fausses promesses. Si les salariés semblent silencieux, des mouvements souterrains sont à l’œuvre qui pourraient aboutir à une nouvelle forme d’insurrection. Après le « quiet quitting » – ou démission silencieuse, le phénomène de « quiet fighting » pointe maintenant.
Alerte pour les grandes entreprises ! Le fossé entre les discours éthiques et les réalités opérationnelles nourrit à la fois un désengagement manifeste et une confrontation silencieuse qu’il faut traiter sans délai. À côté du quiet quitting, popularisé en 2022 comme la stricte limitation au périmètre du rôle et des efforts des collaborateurs, s’installe un quiet fighting plus insidieux, attisé par un sentiment d’injustice organisationnelle que le cadre théorique de Cropanzano et Folger permet de disséquer (cf. encadré 1).
Si les deux phénomènes possèdent un point commun, un déficit de justice interactionnelle, ces deux dynamiques ne forment pas un continuum. Quand le quiet quitting abaisse l’engagement au minimum, le quiet fighting combine dissidence empêchée et silence de résignation. L’une et l’autre peuvent préparer en sourdine à une confrontation avec l’entreprise. Notre enquête, prolongeant un premier travail réalisé dans le cadre d’une thèse de doctorat, établit que « l’hypocrisie organisationnelle » perçue autour des ambitions éthiques ouvre une brèche entre les entreprises et leurs collaborateurs, qui rejettent désormais l’éthique de façade.
Inégalités « justes » ou injustices illégitimes
Deux vagues d’entretiens approfondis, en 2024 et 2025 selon la méthode des incidents critiques, ont été conduites auprès d’une cinquantaine de collaborateurs volontaires dans le cadre d’une demande faite en commission « qualité de vie au travail » du Conseil social et économique d’un grand groupe du CAC 40. Plus de 120 incidents ont été recensés, croisant la vision de décideurs RH du siège (sur des sujets éthiques, diversité/discrimination) et de salariés d’une direction territoriale au plus près des opérations. Résultat clé : la majorité des situations relève aujourd’hui de sujets de « justice interactionnelle », bien davantage que de « justice distributive » ou « procédurale », telles qu’elles ont été conceptualisées par Cropanzano & Folger.
Dans les organisations, les inégalités entre collaborateurs ne sont ni fortuites ni anormales. Elles sont souvent assumées, voire encouragées, comme des leviers d’incitation fondés sur la différenciation des performances et la hiérarchie des positions. Aux DRH d’en expliciter la légitimité et d’en travailler l’acceptabilité aux yeux des collaborateurs. Dans ce cadre, la grille des stratégies réactionnelles (Exit, Voice, Loyalty, Neglect) proposée par le socioéconomiste Albert Hirschman reste un outil utile pour éclairer les réactions des salariés face à des situations d’insatisfaction au travail (cf. encadré 2).
De la justice à la morale
Or notre étude montre que cette grille, si utile pour repérer et gérer les réactions des collaborateurs, ne suffit plus. La nature des injustices se déplace et suscite de nouvelles stratégies réactionnelles chez les salariés. Ce ne sont plus seulement les règles ou la répartition des résultats qui sont contestées, mais l’écart entre les discours éthiques et les pratiques organisationnelles. Quand l’expérience dément la promesse, le « contrat psychologique » se fissure et la question devient morale, touchant l’identité, la dignité, et une responsabilité qui dépasse les conflits transactionnels. Notre étude montre que l’on ne « négocie » plus une injustice morale jugée illégitime ; on la refuse.
Dans ce contexte, l’approche par l’EVLN apparaît incomplète. Elle saisit justement mal la dimension morale des conflits et l’incohérence ente les politiques affichées et les pratiques. L’épreuve de réalité est amplifiée par les exigences de publication extra-financière imposée par la directive de durabilité (CSRD), la vigilance citoyenne face au diversity/social washing et, en toile de fond, la tension décrite par le juriste Alain Supiot entre l’entreprise marchandise (ius proprietatis) et l’entreprise communauté morale (ius societatis) (cf. encadré 3).
Plus une organisation revendique une raison d’être morale, plus elle doit en apporter la preuve ; sinon, la loyauté de ses collaborateurs se mue en allégeance à contrecœur, porteuse de ressentiment.
Les sources du « quiet fighting »
Depuis les ordonnances « travail » de 2017, l’affaiblissement des médiations et de « dialogue social » ouvre un espace aux minorités actives décrites par Serge Moscovici. Dans notre étude, nous constatons qu’elles sont emmenées par des femmes racisées en position de cadres intermédiaires : elles formulent des récits cohérents et assument le risque de dissidence, mais se heurtent à des procédures neutralisantes et à l’absence de relais hiérarchiques. Il en résulte une [ dissidence empêchée] qui s’appuie en partie sur les travaux de la sociologue Maryvonne David-Jougneau : une mobilisation collective inachevée, dont l’influence reste pour le moment sans effet transformateur, mais qui contribue à accroître l’expérience organisationnelle et la capacité d’agir de ces cadres et des collectifs qu’elles animent.
À l’autre pôle émerge une colère souvent masculine, silencieuse et résignée. Ancrée dans un idéal méritocratique, elle repose sur la conviction que la performance, à elle seule, devrait protéger et « parler d’elle-même », sans qu’il soit besoin de la revendiquer. Cette colère est renforcée par l’attente, souvent déçue, d’une réparation portée par la DRH. Mais lorsque les circuits correctifs internes sont lents, incertains, ou centrés sur la conformité plutôt que sur l’explication et la reconnaissance du tort, la trahison institutionnelle s’impose et l’attente des collaborateurs devient ressentiment, prémisse d’un désir de revanche à fort potentiel déstabilisateur.
Ce silence de résignation, n’est pas un signe de paix sociale : il est la traduction d’une résistance contrainte, une colère froide qui prépare la confrontation, nourrie par l’empilement de micro-injustices, la polarisation, l’usure des institutions de dialogue et l’ascension d’acteurs minoritaires déterminés. Si l’explosion n’advient pas, c’est moins par loyauté que par contraintes économiques et sociales.
France Culture 2022.
Une gouvernance à revoir
À l’échelle managériale, l’exigence est claire : gouverner par la justice interactionnelle. Cette gouvernance implique de :
aligner promesses et pratiques organisationnelles ;
expliquer les décisions sensibles et prévoir des voies d’escalade claires et sûres (manager N+1/N+2 → RH/Business Partner → référent éthique → dispositif d’alerte interne), assorties de garanties explicites de protection : interdiction de toute mesure liée au signalement (blâme, sanction, rétrogradation, baisse de variable, modification de poste, mise à l’écart, licenciement), confidentialité et possibilité d’anonymat, restitution motivée ;
proposer des médiations internes crédibles (médiateur interne formé, IRP ou Employee Resource Group) et en dernier ressort, des recours externes balisés : Inspection du travail, Défenseur des droits), pour pallier la faiblesse des instances de représentation du personnel ;
installer des capteurs précoces (baromètres qualitatifs, création d’espaces de délibération protégés) pour « reconnaître et réparer vite » toute inégalité illégitime ;
intégrer des objectifs de justice interactionnelle dans la performance sociale des dirigeants ;
Le quiet fighting est un signal pré-insurrectionnel. Tandis que les coûts de sortie et l’incertitude du marché rendent l’exit improbable, le quiet fighting traduit une conflictualité interne croissante plutôt que des départs : ancré dans des enjeux moraux et identitaires, il s’exprime par une résistance à bas bruit et des coalitions discrètes. Les dirigeants disposent toutefois des leviers essentiels. Ils peuvent faire preuve plutôt que promettre, légitimer plutôt qu’imposer, soigner les interactions autant que les résultats. À ce prix, le quiet fighting s’éteindra et le conflit redeviendra une ressource. Répondre par la justice interactionnelle n’est pas un supplément d’âme mais une condition de viabilité sociale et économique et, désormais, un test décisif de crédibilité et de légitimité managériales.
Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.
Une étude internationale, impliquant des chercheurs français, états-uniens et brésiliens, a mis au jour une histoire méconnue. Des années 1920 aux années 1960, le management a contribué à faire des États-Unis la puissance hégémonique que l’on connaît aujourd’hui. Son « momentum » : la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Ses armes : les managers formés dans les grandes écoles, les outils d’aide à la décision et la technostructure de l’État fédéral.
Explorer des archives, c’est évoluer dans un monde à la fois silencieux et étrange vu d’aujourd’hui. Comme l’explique l’historienne Arlette Farge dans son livre le Goût de l’archive (1989), le travail de terrain des historiens est souvent ingrat, fastidieux, voire ennuyeux. Puis au fil de recoupements, à la lumière d’une pièce en particulier, quelque chose de surprenant se passe parfois. Un déclic reconfigurant un ensemble d’idées.
C’est exactement ce qui est arrivé dans le cadre d’un projet sur l’histoire du management états-unien (HIMO) débuté en 2017, impliquant une douzaine de chercheurs français, états-uniens et brésiliens.
Notre idée ? Comprendre le lien entre l’histoire des modes d’organisation managériaux du travail et les épisodes de guerre aux États-Unis. D’abord orientée vers le XXe siècle, la période d’étude a été resserrée des années 1920 à la fin des années 1960, avec comme tournant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
Du taylorisme au management
Au début de notre recherche en 2017, nous nous sommes demandé ce qui guidait cette métamorphose du management des années 1920 aux années 1960.
Au commencement était le taylorisme. On attribue à l’ingénieur américain Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) l’invention d’une nouvelle organisation scientifique du travail dans The Principles of Scientific Management. Ce one best way devient la norme. Au cœur de cette division du travail, la mutation des rôles des contremaîtres est essentielle.
Leur fonction est d’abord de s’assurer à la fois de la présence des ouvriers et du respect des gestes prescrits par les dirigeants. Avec le management, une révolution copernicienne est en marche. Les contremaîtres sont progressivement remplacés par les techniques de management elles-mêmes. Le contrôle se fait à distance, et devient de l’autocontrôle. Des outils et des systèmes d’information sont développés ou généralisés, comme les pointeuses. Peu à peu, toutes ces informations sont connectées à des réseaux… qui dessinent ce qui deviendra des réseaux informatiques. L’objectif : suivre l’activité en temps réel et créer des rapports à même d’aider les managers dans leur prise de décision.
Outils de gestion de projet
C’est ce que la philosophie nomme le représentationnalisme. Le monde devient représentable, et s’il est représentable, il est contrôlable. Sur un temps long, de nombreux outils de gestion de projet sont créés comme :
le diagramme de Gantt, formalisé et diffusé dans les années 1910 par l’ingénieur du même nom, afin de visualiser dans le temps les diverses tâches ;
Nombre de ces techniques ou standards de management ont une genèse américaine comme l’ont montré notamment les travaux de Locke et Spender, Clegg, Djelic ou D’Iribarne. Des années 1910 aux années 1950, une importance croissante est accordée à la visualisation des situations.
L’United States Army Air Forces se dote d’un service de statistiques, comme l’atteste plus tard ce document de 1952. Dafthistory
Dans son introduction de la conférence de l’Academy of Management de 1938, l’économiste Harlow Person, acteur clé de la Taylor Society, revient sur le rôle joué par la visualisation. Concrètement, une mission d’amélioration des processus administratifs est réalisée pour l’armée américaine durant la Première Guerre mondiale. L’organisation scientifique du travail déploie plus que jamais ses outils au-delà des chiffres et du texte.
Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l’obsession pour la représentation est au cœur de la stratégie militaire des États-Unis, en synergie vraisemblablement avec le management. Par exemple, la carte d’état-major doit représenter la situation la plus fidèle possible au champ de bataille. Chaque drapeau, chaque figurine représentant un bataillon ami ou ennemi, doit suivre fidèlement les mouvements de chacun lors du combat. Toutes les pièces évoluant en temps réel permettent au généralissime de prendre les meilleures décisions possibles.
Mise en place d’une technostructure par Franklin Roosevelt
Un président des États-Unis incarne cette rupture managériale dans la sphère politique : Franklin Roosevelt. Secrétaire assistant à la Navy dans sa jeunesse, il assimile l’importance des techniques d’organisation dans les arsenaux maritimes de Philadelphie et New York, pour la plupart mis en œuvre par les disciples de Frederick Winslow Taylor.
Après la crise de 1929, la mise en place de politiques centralisées de relance a pour conséquence organisationnelle d’installer une technostructure. Plus que jamais, il faut contrôler et réguler l’économie. Un véritable État fédéral prend naissance avec la mobilisation industrielle initiée dès 1940.
Lorsque le New Deal est mis en place, Franklin Roosevelt comprend que le management peut lui permettre de changer le rapport de force entre pouvoir exécutif et pouvoir législatif. Progressivement, il oppose la rationalité de l’appareil fédéral et son efficience à la logique plus bureaucratique incarnée par le Congrès. Concrètement, les effectifs de la Maison Blanche passent de quelques dizaines de fonctionnaires avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale à plus de 200 000 en 1943.
Bulletin de la Harvard Business School en hiver 1943. Harvard
Au-delà d’une obsession nouvelle pour la représentation tant organisationnelle que politique, la seconde dimension mise en lumière par cette recherche sur l’histoire du management est plus inattendue. Elle porte sur la mise en place d’une véritable géopolitique états-uniennepar le management. Notre travail sur archive a permis de mieux comprendre la genèse de cette hégémonie américaine.
Il en va de même pour le monde des cabinets de conseil en management de l’après-guerre, dominé par des structures américaines, en particulier pour la stratégie. En 1933, le Glass-Steagall Act impose aux banques la séparation des activités de dépôt de celles d’interventions sur les marchés financiers et de façon connexe, et leur interdit d’auditer et de conseiller leurs clients. Cela ouvre un espace de marché : celui du conseil externe en management, bientôt dopé par la mobilisation industrielle puis la croissance d’après-guerre.
Des cabinets se développent comme celui fondé par James McKinsey en 1926, professeur de comptabilité à l’université de Chicago. Son intuition : les entreprises souffrent d’un déficit de management pour surmonter la Grande Dépression et croître après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. De nombreux cabinets suivent cette tendance comme le Boston Consulting Group créé en 1963.
Près de 500 000 blessés industriels
Un des points les plus frappants de notre recherche est la conséquence du management sur le corps pendant le momentum de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Plus de 86 000 citoyens des États-Unis meurent dans les usines entre 1941 et 1945, 100 000 sont handicapés sévères et plus de 500 000 sont blessés au travail.
Une partie de nos archives sur le Brooklyn Navy Yard de New York l’illustre tristement. Dans le silence, chacun et chacune acceptent une expérience de travail impossible en considérant que leur fils, leur maris, leurs neveux, leurs amis au combat vivaient des situations certainement bien pires. Le management se fait alors patriote, américain et… mortifère.
Salariées du Brooklyn Navy Yard pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Brooklynnavyyard
Au final, les managers ont continué à taire une évidence tellement visible qu’on ne la questionne que trop peu : celle de l’américanité de ce qui est également devenu « nos » modes d’organisation. Au service d’une géopolitique américaine par le management.
Le projet de recherche HIMO (History of Instittutional Management & Organization) mentionné dans cet article a reçu des financements du PSL Seed Fund, de QLife et des bourses de mobilité de DRM.
.jpg){kind=link}
