tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/new-york-university-1016/articlesNew York University2024-03-25T12:40:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225842024-03-25T12:40:21Z2024-03-25T12:40:21ZSchools can close summer learning gaps with these 4 strategies<p>When it comes to summer learning, the benefits are well documented. Students who consistently attend <a href="https://doi.org/10.7249/RR3201">well-planned, high-quality programs</a> achieve higher scores on math and language arts testing. They also earn higher ratings from teachers on their social and emotional skills, research shows. Unfortunately, research also shows that students from low-income and minority backgrounds are <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/25546/chapter/1">less likely to attend</a> – and benefit from – summer learning programs than their affluent and white peers.</p>
<p>Summer learning can play a crucial role in helping these students – and all kids – recover learning lost during the pandemic. The federal government has also acknowledged the importance of summer learning through its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER. The fund infused states with <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/in-dc/standing-committees/education/elementary-and-secondary-school-emergency-relief-fund-tracker">nearly US$190.5 billion</a>, with 20% allocated to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/20/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-invests-in-summer-learning-and-enrichment-programs-to-help-students-catch-up/">academic recovery, including summer programs</a>.</p>
<p>So how can school districts capitalize on the crucial summer months and make learning more equitable? </p>
<p>In partnership with the <a href="http://www.wallacefoundation.org">Wallace Foundation</a> and the <a href="https://www.fhi360.org/projects/district-summer-learning-network">District Summer Learning Network</a> implemented by the nonprofit development organization FHI 360, our team at the <a href="https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/research-evaluation">Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation</a> at <a href="https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/rhea-almeida">New York University</a> is studying how districts implement high-quality summer programs with an eye toward equity. We analyzed 2022 summer planning documents from 26 districts and identified four strategies they’re using to make the programs more equitable.</p>
<h2>1. Strategically target students</h2>
<p>Of the summer learning plans we analyzed, we found that half prioritized students who need academic or behavioral support. Additionally, 42% mentioned English-language learners, and 35% mentioned students with disabilities.</p>
<p>Other distinct groups included low-income students, migrants, racial and ethnic minorities and gifted and talented students. Among districts that prioritized special groups, almost all of them included more than one group in their strategic outreach. </p>
<p>Which students get served in summer learning programs, and how they are served, has implications for equity. For instance, research has found that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/summer-learning-loss-what-is-it-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/">middle-income students often benefit more</a> from summer learning programs than lower-income students.</p>
<p>This could be because high-quality programs tend to serve higher-income students, which raises concerns that summer learning programs may actually increase the summer gap if they are not targeted. High-quality programs that target lower-income students and other minority students can move the needle toward equity.</p>
<h2>2. Reduce barriers to access</h2>
<p>For students to access programs outside of the regular school day in an equitable way, <a href="https://education.virginia.edu/documents/how-do-districts-implement-equity-afterschool-and-summer-programs">simple accommodations</a>, such as transportation, are key. </p>
<p>Several district summer learning plans we analyzed went above and beyond academics. They provided not just transportation but also free and nutritious meals, outreach material in different languages and extended day care services to support working families.</p>
<h2>3. Design courses for specific student populations</h2>
<p>Students learn best when they feel a sense of safety and belonging. By <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/summer-learning-creating-equity-report">affirming and nurturing</a> the unique identities of students, districts can make summer programming more equitable and accelerate learning. Research shows, for instance, that summer supports for <a href="https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/achievement-and-growth-for-english-learners/">English-language learners</a> are key for their overall academic development. </p>
<p>Some districts tailored their programming to the individual interests and cultural needs of their students. For example, three districts – in both urban and rural communities – provided language classes for English-language learners, including adults. </p>
<p>Another district designed an arts program for students to explore and celebrate their culture. The program featured programming around ethnic and racial identities. </p>
<p>Despite a shortage of teacher applicants across the country, some districts also made efforts to hire teachers who are not only effective and well credentialed but also reflect the demographics of the student body they serve. </p>
<h2>4. Engage families in planning and programming</h2>
<p>Some districts held regular family education sessions to provide updates about student needs and progress. Some also engaged families by offering information sessions on topics such as immigration and health.</p>
<p>Programs that include the whole family or community are particularly helpful for racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse populations and families in rural areas, where young people have <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/25546/chapter/7#145">limited access to adults</a> other than their caregivers. </p>
<p>When parents are included in the planning process, programs can be designed to better fit their schedules. This might mean districts offer full-day, six-week camps to support children throughout the summer while their parents work. This type of arrangement makes it more likely that kids will be able to attend summer programs – and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/499195">stave off summer learning loss</a>. </p>
<p>These four approaches help make summer learning programs more culturally responsive, accessible and inclusive. Over the next two years, our research will dive deeper into how districts strengthen equity-based practices and strategies to sustain them long term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rhea Almeida 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.</span></em></p>By targeting specific students, removing barriers and involving families and communities, school districts can make summer learning more accessible to students who need it.Rhea Almeida, Research Project Manager, NYU Metro Center, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248832024-03-05T08:23:39Z2024-03-05T08:23:39ZCrise entre la RDC et le Rwanda : ce qu'il faut faire pour éviter une guerre régionale<p>Dans l'est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), les <a href="https://www.sadc.int/latest-news/deployment-sadc-mission-democratic-republic-congo#:%7E:text=The%20Southern%20African%20Development%20Community,by%20the%20resurgence%20of%20armed">troupes sud-africaines, burundaises et tanzaniennes</a> se battent contre l’<a href="https://www.state.gov/escalation-of-hostilities-in-eastern-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/">armée rwandaise</a>, qui s'est déployée pour soutenir la rébellion du Mouvement du 23 mars, ou M23. </p>
<p>Des soldats de <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/south-african-soldiers-killed-in-dr-congo-return-home-e082c87d">l'Afrique du Sud</a> et du <a href="https://apanews.net/m23-rebels-claim-burundian-soldiers-killed-and-captured/">Burundi</a>, ainsi que de la <a href="https://monusco.unmissions.org/en/pr-monusco-denounces-attack-helicopter-which-wounds-two-un-peacekeepers-north-kivu">mission</a> de maintien de la paix des Nations unies, ont récemment été tués. Les civils pris au piège des tirs croisés, ont fui : <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/drc-least-78000-children-displaced-and-families-ripped-apart-fighting-escalates#:%7E:text=La%20RDC%20a%20longtemps%20souffert,et%20plus%20de%20sept%20millions%20de%20d%C3%A9plac%C3%A9s.">sept millions</a> de Congolais sont aujourd'hui déplacés en raison de cette crise et de multiples autres crises en RDC.</p>
<p>Les diplomates sont préoccupés : le conflit dans l'est de la RDC a fait l'objet d'une <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15596.doc.htm">réunion spéciale</a> au Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies le 20 février 2024 et d'un <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/mini-summit-discusses-peace-efforts-for-east-democratic-republic-of-congo-/7491551.html">mini-sommet</a> en marge de la réunion annuelle des chefs d'État de l'Union africaine le 16 février. </p>
<p>Le Rwanda, qui a nié soutenir le M23, <a href="https://www.minaffet.gov.rw/updates/news-details/rwanda-clarifies-security-posture">affirme</a> que le groupe rebelle rwandais – Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR) – qui comprend des combattants ayant participé au génocide de 1994, a été pleinement intégré dans l'armée congolaise. Elle affirme également que le gouvernement congolais est engagé dans des “opérations de combat massives” visant à expulser les civils tutsis congolais.</p>
<p>Le gouvernement congolais a mené une campagne contre le Rwanda. En décembre, alors qu'il faisait campagne pour sa réélection, le président Félix Tshisekedi a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67669187">comparé</a> son homologue rwandais à Adolf Hitler et l'a accusé de visées expansionnistes. </p>
<p>En janvier, le président burundais Évariste Ndayishimiye a fermé sa frontière avec le Rwanda et <a href="https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1531125/politique/entre-paul-kagame-et-evariste-ndayishimiye-chronique-dune-reconciliation-avortee/">accusé</a> le pays de soutenir les rebelles contre lui. Il s'est abstenu de réclamer l'éviction de Kagame.</p>
<p>Nous <a href="https://www.congoresearchgroup.org/en/about-us/">travaillons</a> sur le conflit en République démocratique du Congo depuis une vingtaine d'années. Cette vague de violence ressemble aux précédentes, mais elle est aussi différente. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691194080/the-war-that-doesnt-say-its-name">À l'origine</a> du conflit du M23, on trouve des pays comme le Rwanda et l'Ouganda, désireux de projeter leur puissance et leur influence dans l'est de la RDC, alors que le gouvernement congolais semble incapable, et souvent peu désireux, de stabiliser son propre territoire. Les donateurs et les forces de maintien de la paix des Nations unies fournissent une aide humanitaire, mais ne font pas grand-chose pour changer cette dynamique. </p>
<p>Pour résoudre cette crise, il faudra moins d'hypocrisie de la part des donateurs étrangers, la fin de l'agression rwandaise et un gouvernement congolais plus responsable. Mais les espoirs d'un grand accord sont lointains pour l'instant. Les processus de paix actuels - un <a href="https://www.eac.int/nairobiprocess">“processus de Nairobi”</a> pour les négociations nationales et un <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/eastern-drc-peace-processes-miss-the-mark">“processus de Luanda”</a> pour les pourparlers régionaux - sont morts ou sont au point mort. </p>
<p>Les élections à venir au Rwanda (juillet 2024) et aux États-Unis (novembre 2024) ne contribueront probablement pas à calmer les esprits ni à les recentrer. Mais il est clair que la fin de la violence nécessitera une nouvelle approche, une approche qui place la vie des civils congolais innocents au centre de ses préoccupations.</p>
<h2>Début de l'escalade régionale</h2>
<p>Au cours des premiers jours de sa présidence, l'armée de Tshisekedi a <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/fr/afrique/l-arm%C3%A9e-rwandaise-op%C3%A8re-bien-en-rdc-selon-des-experts-de-lonu/2102125">collaboré</a> intensément avec l'armée rwandaise, permettant aux troupes de mener des opérations contre les FDLR sur le territoire congolais en 2019 et 2020. Fin 2019, son gouvernement a même <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/fr/africa/central-africa/democratic-republic-congo/b150-averting-proxy-wars-eastern-dr-congo-and-great-lakes">recommandé</a> l'abandon des poursuites contre les commandants du M23, alors en exil. </p>
<p>Moins de trois ans après sa prise de pouvoir, Tshisekedi a toutefois changé d'approche, rompant sa coalition avec son prédécesseur, Joseph Kabila, et cherchant à consolider sa position au pouvoir. Il a déclaré l'état de siège dans deux provinces de l'Est, a changé les généraux de l'armée et a mis à l'écart les principaux securocrates. Il a également modifié ses relations régionales. </p>
<p>À la mi-2021, Tshisekedi a commencé à <a href="https://observer.ug/news/headlines/70232-museveni-tshisekedi-commission-construction-of-drc-roads">privilégier</a> les relations avec l'Ouganda, qui était alors un rival acharné du Rwanda. Il a notamment donné <a href="https://s42831.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/report-crg-ebuteli-uganda-operation-shujaa-drc-adf-securing-economic-interests-1.pdf">l'autorisation</a> à l'armée ougandaise de déployer entre 2 000 et 4 000 soldats pour traquer les rebelles des Forces démocratiques alliées, une rébellion islamiste ougandaise basée dans l'est de la RDC. Peu après, il a fait de même pour l'armée burundaise, qui avait dans sa ligne de mire le RED-Tabara, des rebelles basés en RDC qui cherchaient à renverser le gouvernement de Ndayishimiye.</p>
<p>Le Rwanda se sent soudain isolé, voire vulnérable, entouré de <a href="https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=s/2022/967&Lang=E">voisins hostiles</a>. Il a probablement recommencé à peser de tout son poids sur le M23 en novembre 2021. Ce sont surtout ces tensions régionales, couplées à son objectif de maintenir son influence au Congo, qui l'ont poussé à bouger. </p>
<p>Depuis, les lignes de fracture régionales se sont déplacées. Le Rwanda a renoué avec l'Ouganda, et la force d'intervention de la Communauté d'Afrique de l'Est - des troupes kenyanes, sud-soudanaises, burundaises et ougandaises - qui s'est déployée en 2022 pour aider à réprimer les violences a été priée de repartir à peine un an plus tard. En effet, leurs hôtes les considéraient comme traînant les pieds, voire comme complices du M23. Tshisekedi, qui avait pris ses fonctions en considérant les pays d'Afrique de l'Est comme des alliés, s'est maintenant tourné vers le Sud. </p>
<h2>Changements militaires dans l'est de la RDC</h2>
<p>À partir de la fin de l'année 2023, une nouvelle force de la Communauté de développement de l'Afrique australe (SADC) a commencé à <a href="https://www.sadc.int/latest-news/deployment-sadc-mission-democratic-republic-congo">déployer</a> des troupes d'Afrique du Sud, de Tanzanie et du Malawi pour combattre le M23, aux côtés de l'armée burundaise.</p>
<p>Ces forces ont déjà commencé à subir des pertes. Deux soldats sud-africains ont été <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/south-african-soldiers-killed-in-dr-congo-return-home-e082c87d">tués</a> le 14 février par un tir de mortier ; deux autres ont été <a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/joint/diplomacy-a-peace/south-africa-commits-2-900-sandf-personnel-to-samidrc/">blessés</a> lorsque leur hélicoptère a essuyé des tirs. Certaines sources indiquent que les soldats burundais ont subi <a href="https://www.sosmediasburundi.org/2023/11/16/bujumbura-larmee-burundaise-reste-muette-sur-la-mort-de-ses-militaires-en-rdc-mais-les-enterre/">de lourdes pertes</a>. </p>
<p>Le degré croissant de sophistication militaire est également préoccupant. Le gouvernement américain a <a href="https://www.state.gov/escalation-of-hostilities-in-eastern-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/">accusé</a> le Rwanda de déployer des missiles sol-air, des fonctionnaires de l'ONU ont signalé que des drones armés avaient frappé leurs bases, tandis que la Tanzanie a <a href="https://chimpreports.com/tanzania-army-employs-saba-saba-guns-against-m23-rebels/">envoyé</a> des lance-roquettes BM-21 Grad de l'ère soviétique. La RDC a <a href="https://www.military.africa/2023/06/drc-receives-ch-4-drones-from-china/">acheté</a> neuf drones de combat CH-4 chinois (dont trois auraient déjà été abattus). </p>
<p>Entre-temps, l'armée congolaise s'est associée à des <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/dr-congo-conflict-pulls-in-more-players-to-tackle-rebels/a-68304390">entreprises de sécurité privées</a> ainsi qu'à un ensemble de milices locales, appelées Wazalendo (patriotes), qui sont mal formées et peu disciplinées. Des <a href="https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=s/2023/990&Lang=E">rapports</a> crédibles datant de la fin de l'année 2023 indiquent que, comme <a href="https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=s/2022/967&Lang=E">l'année précédente</a>, ils s'associent également aux rebelles rwandais des FDLR.</p>
<p>Pourtant, le gouvernement congolais n'a pas réussi à faire beaucoup de progrès. Début février, les forces du M23 ont encerclé la ville lacustre de Sake, à seulement 30 km à l'ouest de la capitale provinciale, Goma. Cette dernière poussée a déplacé 135 000 personnes supplémentaires vers Goma ; il y a environ <a href="https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/democratic-republic-congo/democratic-republic-congo-north-kivu-flash-update-1-new-surge-violence-masisi-forced-displacement-goma-08-february-2024">un demi-million</a> de personnes déplacées autour de la ville à l'heure actuelle.</p>
<h2>Des signaux contradictoires</h2>
<p>Contrairement à la crise précédente du M23, des acteurs étrangers influents ont envoyé des signaux contradictoires. Lors du <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15596.doc.htm">Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies</a> du 20 février <a href="https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-un-security-council-briefing-on-the-situation-concerning-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-3/">les États-Unis</a> et <a href="https://onu.delegfrance.org/france-condemns-the-m23-offensive-launched-on-february-7-against-the-town-of">la France</a> ont appelé le Rwanda à retirer ses troupes de la RDC. Parmi les donateurs du Rwanda, les États-Unis sont allés le plus loin, <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1703">sanctionnant</a> un général rwandais, suspendant toute aide militaire et tentant de négocier un <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/01/biden-congo-war-00129620">cessez-le-feu</a> en décembre 2023. </p>
<p>Et pourtant, les États-Unis restent, de loin, le <a href="https://public.tableau.com/views/OECDDACAidataglancebyrecipient_new/Recipients?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y&:toolbar=no?&:showVizHome=no">plus grand donateur</a> du Rwanda, qui reçoit l'équivalent d'environ un tiers de son budget sous forme d'aide. D'autres pays ont agi avec beaucoup moins de fermeté, voire pas du tout. Alors que la rébellion du M23 était en cours, le Commonwealth britannique a tenu sa grande réunion semestrielle à Kigali en 2022 et le Royaume-Uni a conclu un <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/10/uk-abandon-rwanda-asylum-transfer-plan?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIy-Gol_PhAMVwCWtBh2uhg8nEAAYAiAAEgKsSPD_BwE">accord d'asile</a> controversé avec le Rwanda.</p>
<p>L'UE a <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/12/01/european-peace-facility-council-adopts-assistance-measures-in-support-of-the-armed-forces-of-five-countries/#:%7E:text=et%20%C3%A9quipement%20m%C3%A9dical.-,Support%20to%20the%20deployment%20the%20Rwanda%20Defence%20Force%20in,Force%20in%20Cabo%20Delgado%20province">donné 22 millions de dollars</a> pour soutenir le déploiement de la force de défense rwandaise au Mozambique. Le 19 février, l'UE a annoncé un <a href="https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/eu-and-rwanda-strike-deal-for-sustainable-raw-materials-value-chains/44015/">accord</a> pour stimuler les exportations de minerais du Rwanda.</p>
<p>Cette dernière nouvelle a suscité un tollé en RDC, en raison de la croyance populaire selon laquelle les minerais sont à l'origine de la crise. Bien que les causes de la violence soient beaucoup plus complexes que cela, il est vrai que la la <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/country/uga">principale exportation</a> de l'Ouganda (56 % en 2021), du Rwanda (23 %) et du Burundi (29 %) au cours des dernières années a été l'or, dont la quasi-totalité est <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-12-28/where-does-gold-come-from-in-africa-suspected-smuggling-to-dubai-rings-alarms?embedded-checkout=true">passée en contrebande</a> vers leurs pays à partir de la RDC.</p>
<p>À long terme, le gouvernement de la RDC devra entreprendre une série de réformes pour mettre fin à ces cycles de conflit. Celles-ci comprennent la réforme de l'armée congolaise, un nouveau programme de démobilisation des groupes armés, un programme de développement économique qui permettrait aux Congolais de bénéficier de leurs ressources, un plan de réconciliation communale et la fin de la discrimination à l'encontre des locuteurs du kinyarwanda. Mais rien de tout cela ne pourra se faire tant que les voisins du Congo continueront à le déstabiliser.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Stearns a reçu des fonds, dans le cadre de son travail pour le Congo Research Group, du gouvernement suédois, de l'Union européenne, de la Schmidt Family Foundation, de l'Agence américaine pour le développement international et de la Bridgeway Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Z. Walker a reçu des fonds, dans le cadre de ses fonctions au Congo Research Group, du gouvernement suédois, du gouvernement néerlandais, de l'Union européenne, de la Schmidt Family Foundation, de l'Agence américaine pour le développement international et de la Bridgeway Foundation.</span></em></p>Les pays de la région sont engagés dans une lutte géopolitique pour l'influence et la survie.Jason Stearns, Assistant Professor, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser UniversityJoshua Z. Walker, Director of Programs, Congo Research Group, Center on International Cooperation, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243452024-02-29T14:42:22Z2024-02-29T14:42:22ZDRC-Rwanda crisis: what’s needed to prevent a regional war<p>In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), <a href="https://www.sadc.int/latest-news/deployment-sadc-mission-democratic-republic-congo#:%7E:text=The%20Southern%20African%20Development%20Community,by%20the%20resurgence%20of%20armed">South African, Burundian and Tanzanian troops</a> are fighting against the <a href="https://www.state.gov/escalation-of-hostilities-in-eastern-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/">Rwandan army</a>, which has deployed in support of the rebellion by the March 23 Movement, or M23. </p>
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<p>Soldiers from <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/south-african-soldiers-killed-in-dr-congo-return-home-e082c87d">South Africa</a> and <a href="https://apanews.net/m23-rebels-claim-burundian-soldiers-killed-and-captured/">Burundi</a>, as well as from the United Nations peacekeeping <a href="https://monusco.unmissions.org/en/pr-monusco-denounces-attack-helicopter-which-wounds-two-un-peacekeepers-north-kivu">mission</a>, have recently suffered casualties. In the crossfire, civilians have fled: <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/drc-least-78000-children-displaced-and-families-ripped-apart-fighting-escalates#:%7E:text=The%20DRC%20has%20long%20suffered,and%20over%20seven%20million%20displaced.">seven million</a> Congolese are now displaced due to this and multiple other crises in the DRC.</p>
<p>Diplomats are concerned: the conflict in the eastern DRC was the subject of a <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15596.doc.htm">special meeting</a> at the United Nations Security Council on 20 February 2024 and a <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/mini-summit-discusses-peace-efforts-for-east-democratic-republic-of-congo-/7491551.html">mini-summit</a> on the sidelines of the African Union annual meeting of heads of state on 16 February. </p>
<p>Rwanda, which has denied backing M23, <a href="https://www.minaffet.gov.rw/updates/news-details/rwanda-clarifies-security-posture">says</a> the Rwandan rebel group – Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) – which includes combatants who participated in the 1994 genocide, has been fully integrated into the Congolese army. It also claims that the Congolese government is engaged in “massive combat operations” aimed at expelling Congolese Tutsi civilians.</p>
<p>The Congolese government has mounted a campaign against Rwanda. In December, while he campaigned for re-election, President Félix Tshisekedi <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67669187">compared</a> his Rwandan counterpart to Adolf Hitler and accused him of expansionist aims. </p>
<p>In January, the Burundian president Évariste Ndayishimiye closed his border with Rwanda and <a href="https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1531125/politique/entre-paul-kagame-et-evariste-ndayishimiye-chronique-dune-reconciliation-avortee/">accused</a> the country of backing rebels against him. He stopped just short of calling for Kagame’s ouster.</p>
<p>We have been <a href="https://www.congoresearchgroup.org/en/about-us/">working</a> on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for around 20 years. This wave of violence resembles previous ones, but is also different. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691194080/the-war-that-doesnt-say-its-name">At the root</a> of the M23 conflict are countries such as Rwanda and Uganda, intent on projecting power and influence into the eastern DRC, while the Congolese government seems incapable and often unwilling to stabilise its own territory. Donors and United Nations peacekeepers provide humanitarian aid, but do little to transform these dynamics. </p>
<p>Resolving this crisis will require less hypocrisy from foreign donors, the end of Rwandan aggression, and a more accountable Congolese government. But the hopes of a grand bargain are far off, for now. The current peace processes – a <a href="https://www.eac.int/nairobiprocess">“Nairobi process”</a> for domestic negotiations and a <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/eastern-drc-peace-processes-miss-the-mark">“Luanda process”</a> for regional talks – are dead or on life support. </p>
<p>The upcoming elections in Rwanda (July 2024) and the US (November 2024) will likely not help cool heads or focus minds. But it is clear that ending the violence will require a new approach, one that places the lives of innocent Congolese civilians at its centre.</p>
<h2>Beginning of regional escalation</h2>
<p>During the early days of his presidency, Tshisekedi’s army <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/fr/afrique/l-arm%C3%A9e-rwandaise-op%C3%A8re-bien-en-rdc-selon-des-experts-de-lonu/2102125">collaborated</a> intensely with the Rwandan army, allowing troops to conduct operations against the FDLR on Congolese territory in 2019 and 2020. In late 2019, his government even <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/fr/africa/central-africa/democratic-republic-congo/b150-averting-proxy-wars-eastern-dr-congo-and-great-lakes">recommended</a> dropping charges against the M23 commanders, then in exile. </p>
<p>Less than three years after winning power, however, Tshisekedi changed his approach, breaking his coalition with his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, and moving to cement his position in power. He declared a state of siege in two eastern provinces, shuffled generals around in the army, and sidelined key securocrats. He also shifted gears in his regional relations. </p>
<p>By mid-2021, Tshisekedi had begun to <a href="https://observer.ug/news/headlines/70232-museveni-tshisekedi-commission-construction-of-drc-roads">privilege</a> relations with Uganda, then a bitter rival of Rwanda. Notably, Tshisekedi gave <a href="https://s42831.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/report-crg-ebuteli-uganda-operation-shujaa-drc-adf-securing-economic-interests-1.pdf">permission</a> to the Ugandan army to deploy somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 troops to hunt down Allied Democratic Forces rebels, an Islamist Ugandan rebellion based in the eastern DRC. Shortly after that, he did the same for the Burundian army, which had its sights on RED-Tabara, rebels based in the DRC seeking to overthrow the government of Ndayishimiye.</p>
<p>Rwanda suddenly felt isolated, even vulnerable, surrounded by hostile neighbours. <a href="https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=s/2022/967&Lang=E">According to United Nations investigators</a>, it probably resumed throwing its weight behind the M23 in November 2021. It is above all these regional tensions, coupled with its goal of maintaining influence in the Congo, that pushed it to move. </p>
<p>Since then, the regional fault lines have shifted. Rwanda has patched up relations with Uganda, and the East African Community intervention force – Kenyan, South Sudanese, Burundian and Ugandan troops – that deployed in 2022 to help quell the violence was asked to leave just a year later. This is because their hosts saw them as dragging their feet, if not complicit with the M23. Tshisekedi, who came into office seeing east African countries as allies, has now turned southwards. </p>
<h2>Military changes in eastern DRC</h2>
<p>Beginning in late 2023, a new force from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) began <a href="https://www.sadc.int/latest-news/deployment-sadc-mission-democratic-republic-congo">deploying</a> troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi to take the fight to the M23, alongside the Burundian army.</p>
<p>Already, these forces have begun to take casualties. Two South African soldiers were <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/south-african-soldiers-killed-in-dr-congo-return-home-e082c87d">killed</a> on 14 February by a mortar strike; two others were <a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/joint/diplomacy-a-peace/south-africa-commits-2-900-sandf-personnel-to-samidrc/">injured</a> when their helicopter took fire. Some sources indicate that Burundian soldiers have taken <a href="https://www.sosmediasburundi.org/2023/11/16/bujumbura-larmee-burundaise-reste-muette-sur-la-mort-de-ses-militaires-en-rdc-mais-les-enterre/">heavy losses</a>. </p>
<p>The rising degree of military sophistication also raises eyebrows. The US government has <a href="https://www.state.gov/escalation-of-hostilities-in-eastern-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/">accused</a> Rwanda of deploying surface-to-air missiles, UN officials have reported armed drones striking their bases, while Tanzania has <a href="https://chimpreports.com/tanzania-army-employs-saba-saba-guns-against-m23-rebels/">sent</a> Soviet-era BM-21 Grad rocket launchers. The DRC has <a href="https://www.military.africa/2023/06/drc-receives-ch-4-drones-from-china/">bought</a> nine Chinese CH-4 combat drones (three of which have reportedly been shot down already). </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Congolese army has partnered with <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/dr-congo-conflict-pulls-in-more-players-to-tackle-rebels/a-68304390">private security contractors</a> as well as with an array of local militia, collectively dubbed Wazalendo (patriots), who are poorly trained and disciplined. There are credible <a href="https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=s/2023/990&Lang=E">reports</a> from late 2023 that, as in the <a href="https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=s/2022/967&Lang=E">previous year</a>, they are also partnering with the Rwandan FDLR rebels.</p>
<p>And yet, the Congolese government has been unable to make much headway. In early February, M23 forces surrounded the lakeside town of Sake, just 30km west of the provincial capital Goma. This most recent push has displaced another 135,000 people toward Goma; there are around <a href="https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/democratic-republic-congo/democratic-republic-congo-north-kivu-flash-update-1-new-surge-violence-masisi-forced-displacement-goma-08-february-2024">half a million</a> displaced people around the town now.</p>
<h2>Mixed signals</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/85966/a-decade-ago-the-obama-administration-acted-when-the-m23-terrorized-eastern-drc-will-biden-do-the-same/">Unlike</a> the previous M23 crisis, influential foreign actors have sent mixed signals. At the <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15596.doc.htm">UN Security Council on 20 February</a>, the <a href="https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-un-security-council-briefing-on-the-situation-concerning-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-3/">US</a> and <a href="https://onu.delegfrance.org/france-condemns-the-m23-offensive-launched-on-february-7-against-the-town-of">France</a> called on Rwanda to withdraw their troops from the DRC. The US has gone the furthest of all of Rwanda’s donors, <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1703">sanctioning</a> a Rwandan general, suspending all military aid, and attempting to broker a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/01/biden-congo-war-00129620">ceasefire</a> in December 2023. </p>
<p>And yet, the US remains, by far, the <a href="https://public.tableau.com/views/OECDDACAidataglancebyrecipient_new/Recipients?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y&:toolbar=no?&:showVizHome=no">largest donor</a> to Rwanda, which receives the equivalent of around a third of its budget in aid. Other countries have pushed much less or not at all. While the M23 rebellion was going on, the British Commonwealth held its big biannual meeting in Kigali in 2022 and the UK struck a controversial <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/10/uk-abandon-rwanda-asylum-transfer-plan?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIy-Gol_PBhAMVwCWtBh2uhg8nEAAYAiAAEgKsSPD_BwE">asylum deal</a> with Rwanda.</p>
<p>The EU <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/12/01/european-peace-facility-council-adopts-assistance-measures-in-support-of-the-armed-forces-of-five-countries/#:%7E:text=and%20medical%20equipment.-,Support%20to%20the%20deployment%20of%20the%20Rwanda%20Defence%20Force%20in,Force%20in%20Cabo%20Delgado%20province.">gave</a> US$22 million to support the deployment of the Rwanda Defence Force in Mozambique. On 19 February, the EU announced a <a href="https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/eu-and-rwanda-strike-deal-for-sustainable-raw-materials-value-chains/44015/">deal</a> to boost mineral exports from Rwanda.</p>
<p>This last piece of news caused an uproar in the DRC, touching on the popular belief that minerals are the root of the crisis. While the causes of the violence are far more complex than that, they have a point: the <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/country/uga">largest export</a> from Uganda (56% in 2021), Rwanda (23%), and Burundi (29%) in recent years has been gold, almost all of which is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-12-28/where-does-gold-come-from-in-africa-suspected-smuggling-to-dubai-rings-alarms?embedded-checkout=true">smuggled</a> to their countries from the DRC.</p>
<p>In the long term, the DRC government will need to undertake a host of reforms to quell these cycles of conflict. They include reforming the Congolese army, a new demobilisation programme for armed groups, an economic development programme that would allow Congolese to benefit from their resources, a plan for communal reconciliation, and an end to discrimination against Kinyarwanda speakers. But none of that can happen as long as Congo’s neighbours continue to destabilise it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Stearns has received funding, through his work for the Congo Research Group, from the Swedish government, the European Union, the Schmidt Family Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, and Bridgeway Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Z. Walker has received funding, in his role at the Congo Research Group, from the Swedish government, Dutch government, the European Union, the Schmidt Family Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Bridgeway Foundation.</span></em></p>Regional countries are embroiled in a geopolitical struggle over influence and survival.Jason Stearns, Assistant Professor, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser UniversityJoshua Z. Walker, Director of Programs, Congo Research Group, Center on International Cooperation, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2226772024-02-13T13:23:41Z2024-02-13T13:23:41ZSaving the news media means moving beyond the benevolence of billionaires<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574711/original/file-20240209-18-vtb36b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C26%2C5973%2C3961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Billionaire media owners can't change inhospitable market dynamics.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-los-angeles-times-building-and-newsroom-along-imperial-news-photo/1211874817?adppopup=true">Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the journalism industry, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/26/media-layoffs-strikes-journalism-dying">2024 is off to a brutal start</a>. </p>
<p>Most spectacularly, the Los Angeles Times recently slashed <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-23/latimes-layoffs-115-newsroom-soon-shiong">more than 20% of its newsroom</a>.</p>
<p>Though trouble had long been brewing, the layoffs were particularly disheartening because many employees and readers hoped the Times’ billionaire owner, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/01/how-patrick-soon-shiong-made-his-fortune-before-buying-the-la-times">Patrick Soon-Shiong</a>, would stay the course in good times and bad – that he would be a steward less interested in turning a profit and more concerned with ensuring the storied publication could serve the public. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-23/latimes-layoffs-115-newsroom-soon-shiong#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CToday's%20decision%20is%20painful%20for,%2C%E2%80%9D%20Soon%2DShiong%20said.">According to the LA Times</a>, Soon-Shiong explained that the cuts were necessary because the paper “could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year.” </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/1749890710118301751">As one X user pointed out</a>, Soon-Shiong could weather US$40 million in annual losses for decades and still remain a billionaire. You could say the same of another billionaire owner, The Washington Post’s Jeff Bezos, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/12/19/washington-post-cut-jobs-voluntary-buyouts">who eliminated hundreds of jobs in 2023</a> after making a long stretch of steady investments. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1749890710118301751"}"></div></p>
<p>Of course, it helps if your owner has deep pockets and is satisfied with breaking even or earning modest profits – a far cry from the slash-and-burn, profit-harvesting of the two largest newspaper owners: the hedge fund <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/alden-global-capital-killing-americas-newspapers/620171/">Alden Global Capital</a> and <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/03/the-scale-of-local-news-destruction-in-gannetts-markets-is-astonishing/">the publicly traded Gannett</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, as we’ve previously argued, relying on the benevolence of billionaire owners isn’t a viable long-term solution to journalism’s crises. In what we call the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-slippery-slope-of-the-oligarchy-media-model-81931">oligarchy media model</a>,” it often creates distinct hazards for democracy. The recent layoffs simply reinforce these concerns. </p>
<h2>Systemic market failure</h2>
<p>This carnage is part of a longer story: <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/report/">Ongoing research on news deserts</a> shows that the U.S. has lost almost one-third of its newspapers and nearly two-thirds of its newspaper journalists since 2005.</p>
<p>It’s become clear that this downturn isn’t temporary. Rather, it’s a <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/12/we-will-finally-confront-systemic-market-failure/">systemic market failure</a> with no signs of reversal.</p>
<p>As print advertising continues to decline, Meta’s and Google’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-and-metas-advertising-dominance-fades-as-tiktok-netflix-emerge-11672711107">dominance over digital advertising</a> has deprived news publishers of a major online revenue source. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/11/the-print-apocalypse-and-how-to-survive-it/506429/">The advertising-based news business model has collapsed</a> and, to the extent it ever did, won’t adequately support the public service journalism that democracy requires.</p>
<p>What about digital subscriptions as a revenue source? </p>
<p>For years, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2013.865967">paywalls have been hailed</a> as an alternative to advertising. While some news organizations have recently stopped requiring subscriptions <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/02/06/great-subscription-news-reversal">or have created a tiered pricing system</a>, how has this approach fared overall?</p>
<p>Well, it’s been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/business/media/new-york-times-q4-earnings.html">a fantastic financial success for The New York Times</a> and, actually, almost no one else – while denying millions of citizens access to essential news.</p>
<p>The paywall model has also worked reasonably well for The Wall Street Journal, with its assured audience of business professionals, though its management still felt compelled <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/wall-street-journal-shakes-up-d-c-bureau-with-big-layoffs/ar-BB1hDv9V?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds">to make deep cuts</a> in its Washington, D.C., bureau on Feb. 1, 2024. And at The Washington Post, even 2.5 million digital subscriptions haven’t been enough for the publication to break even.</p>
<p>To be fair, the billionaire owners of <a href="https://twitter.com/aidanfitzryan/status/1748098450963460180">The Boston Globe</a> and <a href="https://startribunecompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Click-here.pdf">the Minneapolis Star Tribune</a> have sown fertile ground; the papers seem to be turning modest profits, and there isn’t any news of looming layoffs.</p>
<p>But they’re outliers; in the end, billionaire owners can’t change these inhospitable market dynamics. Plus, because they made their money in other industries, the owners often create conflicts of interest that their news outlets’ journalists must continually navigate with care.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three female protestors shout, while one holds a sign reading 'Don't cut our future.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5525%2C3755&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Los Angeles Times employees stage a walkout on Jan. 19, 2024, after learning about layoffs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/los-angeles-times-guild-members-rally-outside-city-hall-news-photo/1945953066?adppopup=true">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>While the market dynamics for news media are only getting worse, the civic need for quality, accessible public service journalism is greater than ever. </p>
<p>When quality journalism disappears, <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1170919800">it intensifies a host of problems</a> – from rising corruption to decreasing civic engagement to greater polarization – that threaten the vitality of U.S. democracy.</p>
<p>That’s why we believe it’s urgently important to grow the number of outlets capable of independently resisting destructive market forces.</p>
<p>Billionaire owners willing to release their media properties could help facilitate this process. Some of them already have. </p>
<p>In 2016, the billionaire Gerry Lenfest donated his sole ownership of The Philadelphia Inquirer along with a $20 million endowment to an eponymously named <a href="https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/about/">nonprofit institute</a>, with bylaws preventing profit pressures from taking precedence over its civic mission. Its nonprofit ownership model has enabled the Inquirer to <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/brightspots/philadelphia-inquirer-jim-friedlich-q-and-a/">invest in news</a> at a time when so many others have cut to the bone.</p>
<p>In 2019, wealthy businessman Paul Huntsman ceded his ownership of The Salt Lake Tribune to a <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/11/04/historic-shift-salt-lake/">501(c)(3) nonprofit</a>, easing its tax burden and setting it up to receive philanthropic funding. After continuing as board chairman, in early February he announced that he was permanently <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2024/02/02/paul-huntsman-its-time-step-away/">stepping down</a>. </p>
<p>And in September 2023, the French newspaper <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/about-us/article/2023/09/24/two-major-milestones-for-le-monde-s-independence_6139073_115.html">Le Monde</a>’s billionaire shareholders, led by tech entrepreneur Xavier Niel, officially confirmed a plan to move their capital into an endowment fund that’s effectively controlled by journalists and other employees of the Le Monde Group. </p>
<p>On a smaller and far more precarious scale, U.S. journalists have founded hundreds of <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/many-small-news-nonprofits-feel-overlooked-by-funders-a-new-coalition-is-giving-them-a-voice/">small nonprofits</a> across the country over the past decade to provide crucial public affairs coverage. However, most struggle mightily to generate enough revenues to even pay themselves and a few reporters a living wage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Workers sit at a table in a large, open workspace." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Philadelphia Inquirer moved to a new headquarters in May 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://meyerdesigninc.com/news/the-philadelphia-inquirers-hybrid-headquarters/">Jeffrey Totaro/Meyer Design, Inc.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Donors can still play a role</h2>
<p>The crucial next step is to ensure these civic, mission-driven forms of ownership have the necessary funding to survive and thrive. </p>
<p>One part of this approach can be philanthropic funding.</p>
<p><a href="https://mediaimpactfunders.org/philanthropys-growing-role-in-american-journalism-a-new-study-reveals-increased-funding-and-ethical-considerations/">A 2023 Media Impact Funders report</a> pointed out that foundation funders once primarily focused on providing a bridge to an ever-elusive new business model. The thinking went that they could provide seed money until the operation was up and running and then redirect their investments elsewhere. </p>
<p>However, journalists are increasingly calling for <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/patterns-in-philanthropy-leave-small-newsrooms-behind-can-that-change/">long-term sustaining support</a> as the extent of market failure has become clear. In a promising development, the <a href="https://www.pressforward.news/press-forward-will-award-more-than-500-million-to-revitalize-local-news/">Press Forward initiative</a> recently pledged $500 million over five years for local journalism, including for-profit as well as nonprofit and public newsrooms. </p>
<p>Charitable giving can also make news more accessible. If donations pay the bills – as they do at The Guardian – <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/10/rich-americans-more-likely-to-pay-for-news/">paywalls</a>, which limit content to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/01/11/media-startups-subscriptions-elite">subscribers who are disproportionately wealthy and white</a>, may become unnecessary. </p>
<h2>The limits of private capital</h2>
<p>Still, philanthropic support for journalism falls far short of what’s needed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers/">Total revenues for newspapers have fallen</a> from a historic high of $49.4 billion in 2005 to $9.8 billion in 2022.</p>
<p>Philanthropy could help fill a portion of this deficit but, even with the recent increase in donations, nowhere near all of it. Nor, in our view, should it. Too often, donations come with conditions and potential conflicts of interest. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man wearing blue hat sits on a bench reading a newspaper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philanthropic giving hasn’t made up for the billions lost in advertising revenue over the past two decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-sitting-on-a-bench-reading-the-newspaper-news-photo/144075964?adppopup=true">Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same <a href="https://mediaimpactfunders.org/philanthropys-growing-role-in-american-journalism-a-new-study-reveals-increased-funding-and-ethical-considerations/">2023 Media Impact Funders survey</a> found that 57% of U.S. foundation funders of news organizations offered grants for reporting on issues for which they had policy stances. </p>
<p>In the end, philanthropy <a href="https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/a-qa-with-phil-napoli.php">can’t completely escape oligarchic influence</a>.</p>
<h2>Public funds for local journalism</h2>
<p>A strong, accessible media system that serves the public interest will ultimately require significant public funding. </p>
<p>Along with libraries, schools and research universities, journalism is an essential part of a democracy’s critical information infrastructure. Democracies in western and northern Europe earmark taxes or dedicated fees not only for legacy TV and radio but also for newspapers and digital media – and they make sure there’s always <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4779">an arm’s-length relationship</a> between the government and the news outlets so that their journalistic independence is assured. It’s worth noting that U.S. investment in public media is <a href="https://www.cjr.org/opinion/public-funding-media-democracy.php">a smaller percentage of GDP</a> than in virtually any other major democracy in the world.</p>
<p>State-level experiments in places such as <a href="https://njcivicinfo.org/about/">New Jersey</a>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/20/local-news-vouchers-bill-dc">Washington, D.C.</a>, <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/09/the-state-of-california-will-fund-25-million-in-local-reporting-fellowships/">California</a> <a href="https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/free-press-action-applauds-groundbreaking-wisconsin-bills-addressing-local-journalism-crisis">and Wisconsin</a> suggest that public funding for newspapers and online-only outlets can also work in the U.S. Under these plans, news outlets prioritizing local journalism receive various kinds of public subsidies and grants. </p>
<p>The time has come to dramatically scale up these projects, from millions of dollars to billions, whether through “<a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2019/academics-craft-a-plan-to-infuse-billions-into-journalism-give-every-american-50-to-donate-to-news-orgs/">media vouchers</a>” that <a href="https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/the-local-journalism-initiative.php">allow voters</a> to allocate funds or other ambitious <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/local-news-crisis-plan-fix-perry-bacon/">proposals</a> for creating tens of thousands of new journalism jobs across the country.</p>
<p>Is it worth it?</p>
<p>In our view, a crisis that imperils American democracy demands no less than a bold and comprehensive civic response.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>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.</span></em></p>How can an industry experiencing systemic failure get back on its feet?Rodney Benson, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York UniversityVictor Pickard, C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145202023-12-08T13:35:54Z2023-12-08T13:35:54ZMichigan is spending $107M more on pre-K − here’s what the money will buy<p><em>About <a href="https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/YB2022_FullReport.pdf">one-third</a> of the nation’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in state-funded prekindergarten programs.</em></p>
<p><em>In Michigan, 32% of 4-year-olds attend the state’s public pre-K program. However, the state has invested an additional <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2023/08/16/expansions-to-gsrp-will-benefit-thousands-of-children-and-families">US$107 million</a> from its 2023-24 budget to educate 4-year-olds, 20% more money compared to the prior year.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://marsal.umich.edu/directory/faculty-staff/christina-j-weiland">Christina Weiland</a>, associate professor of education at the University of Michigan, and <a href="https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/ajay-chaudry">Ajay Chaudry</a>, research scholar at New York University, are co-authors of “<a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/cradle-kindergarten-2ndEdition">Cradle to Kindergarten: A New Plan to Combat Inequality</a>,” a book about how to make affordable, high-quality early care and education available for all U.S. families.</em></p>
<p><em>Here, they answer five questions about Michigan’s new investment in preschool education.</em></p>
<p><strong>How many kids attend public pre-K in Michigan?</strong></p>
<p>Michigan’s <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mileap/early-childhood-education/early-learners-and-care/gsrp">Great Start Readiness Program</a> is a voluntary public pre-K program for 4-year-olds operating in all but one of Michigan’s 83 counties. Classrooms are offered in both public schools and in community-based partner organizations.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://cep.msu.edu/upload/gsrp/GSRP%20Annual%20Report%202021-22.pdf">majority of children</a> who attend qualify based on their family’s income. Kids whose parents earn up to 300% of the federal poverty line, or <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1c92a9207f3ed5915ca020d58fe77696/detailed-guidelines-2023.pdf">$90,000 for a family of 4</a>, are eligible. Children can also <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mde/gsrp/implementation/risk_factor_definitions.pdf?rev=578c7255aee44ef4a94199f6956bf3d8">gain access to the program</a> if they have a disability, at least one of their parents has not graduated from high school or is illiterate, or English is not the primary language in their home. </p>
<p>In the 2021-22 school year, <a href="https://cep.msu.edu/upload/gsrp/GSRP%20Annual%20Report%202021-22.pdf">the program operated</a> in 2,524 classrooms and enrolled 30,872 children across Michigan. By our team’s estimates, enrollment increased to 33,200 in 2022-23. </p>
<p><iframe id="JAMAW" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/JAMAW/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>What are the strengths of the program, and where could it do better?</strong> </p>
<p>Michigan is <a href="https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/YB2022_FullReport.pdf">one of only five states</a> to meet all 10 quality benchmarks set by the National Institute for Early Education Research, a research institution based at Rutgers University. </p>
<p>Some of the program’s notable strengths include requiring universal developmental and health screenings for students, offering in-classroom coaching for all Great Start teachers and requiring lead teachers to have a college degree and specialized early education training. Nationally, only about half of state pre-K programs require a college degree for teachers and only about a third require coaching. </p>
<p>Like all state-funded pre-K programs, Great Start also has some room for improvement. In a recent <a href="https://edpolicy.umich.edu/sites/epi/files/2023-12/MI%20Pre-K%20for%20All%20Report_v8_0.pdf">policy brief</a>, our team highlighted several critical areas for further investment. For example, there are large gaps in pay and benefits for Great Start teachers compared with K-12 teachers in the state. <a href="https://cep.msu.edu/upload/gsrp/GSRP%20Annual%20Report%202021-22.pdf">These gaps</a> amount to an average of $17,500 less per year for state pre-K teachers in public schools and $25,000 less per year for those in community-based programs. </p>
<p>These pay gaps help explain why 18% of lead teachers and 28% of assistant teachers still needed additional courses to meet the program’s educational requirements in the 2021-22 school year. </p>
<p>Pay parity for Great Start teachers would help Michigan school systems recruit additional qualified teachers. In 2021-22, <a href="https://cep.msu.edu/upload/gsrp/GSRP%20Annual%20Report%202021-22.pdf">the vacancy rate</a> was 4% for lead teachers and 6% for assistant teachers.</p>
<p>Also, Michigan ranks <a href="https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/SE_FullReport.pdf">near the bottom</a> of states in early childhood inclusion, a model that allows children with special needs to attend preschool alongside their typically developing peers.</p>
<p>And finally, just as in most public pre-K programs nationally, most Great Start classrooms use curricula that have been repeatedly outperformed by other options. Children – especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds – learn more from <a href="https://www.srcd.org/sites/default/files/resources/FINAL_SRCDCEB-CurriculaCoaching.pdf">evidence-based curricula</a>. However, less effective curricula persist in preschool programs around the country due in part to the history of early childhood education but also because of policy decisions.</p>
<p><strong>What is Michigan’s new investment slated to fund?</strong></p>
<p>The $107 million in additional funding for Great Start covers three critical areas. </p>
<p>First, new funding is meant to increase the number of children served and get kids off waitlists. </p>
<p>Second, additional funding is targeted to better meet the needs of working families. Historically, Great Start programs have served children four days per week for 30 weeks per year. With this new investment, some programs will offer children instruction five days per week and 36 weeks per year, bringing Great Start in line with the public school calendar. The expanded schedule stands to boost child learning, better match family work schedules and enable some families who were previously shut out to enroll.</p>
<p>Finally, $35 million is slated for classroom startup grants of $25,000 to help open new classrooms and expand existing programs in public schools and community-based organizations. </p>
<p><strong>What does research say about the benefits of public pre-K?</strong></p>
<p>Decades of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/puzzling-it-out-the-current-state-of-scientific-knowledge-on-pre-kindergarten-effects/">rigorous research</a> show that children who attend high-quality pre-K programs are more ready for kindergarten, meaning they have on average stronger language, literacy, math, social emotional and executive function skills than their peers who did not attend preschool. Dual-language learners, children of color, children from families with low incomes and children with disabilities <a href="https://www.srcd.org/news/investing-our-future-evidence-base-preschool-education">particularly benefit</a> from high-quality pre-K. </p>
<p>Pre-K also <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/effects-universal-preschool-washington-d-c/">supports families</a> by giving parents time to work. </p>
<p>The benefits of preschool can <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/puzzling-it-out-the-current-state-of-scientific-knowledge-on-pre-kindergarten-effects/">last into adulthood</a>, improving high school graduation rates, college enrollment rates and the long-term health of kids who attend.</p>
<p>Families with higher incomes in the U.S. have historically had <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/do-we-already-have-universal-preschool/">more access</a> to high-quality preschool than families with less means. Public pre-K programs help fill that gap.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young Black boy pushes a car along a colorful playmat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children who attend high-quality preschools can reap benefits into adulthood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/boy-playing-chevrolet-camaro-toy-on-floor-3BztcJxliEM">Segun Osunyomi/unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>What’s next in Michigan?</strong></p>
<p>Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2023/01/26/michigans-children-to-benefit-from-governor-whitmers-education-proposals">announced intentions</a> to continue to expand public pre-K, including a goal of offering universal pre-K to all Michigan 4-year-olds by <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2023/08/16/expansions-to-gsrp-will-benefit-thousands-of-children-and-families">the end of 2026</a>.</p>
<p>To date, only six states – Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin – plus D.C. have achieved <a href="https://nieer.org/the-state-of-preschool-yearbook-2022">universal preschool</a> for 4-year-olds, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina J. Weiland 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.</span></em></p>Scholars who study disparities in early care and education answer five questions about Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program.Christina J. Weiland, Associate Professor of Education, University of MichiganAjay Chaudry, Research Scholar, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2113982023-08-22T12:25:59Z2023-08-22T12:25:59ZMost US nursing homes are understaffed, potentially compromising health care for more than a million elderly residents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542411/original/file-20230811-21-ml692x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C7959%2C5266&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nursing homes in poorer neighborhoods tend to have more critical staffing issues.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-male-care-worker-helping-woman-off-bed-with-royalty-free-image/1433524154?phrase=nursing+home&adppopup=true">10'000 Hours/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>More than 80% of U.S. nursing homes <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/longevity/3809450-more-than-8-in-10-nursing-homes-face-staffing-shortages-survey/#:%7E">reported staffing shortages</a> in early 2023. SciLine interviewed <a href="https://nursing.nyu.edu/directory/faculty/jasmine-travers">Dr. Jasmine Travers</a>, a gerontological nurse practitioner and assistant professor of nursing at New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, and asked her how the shortage affects health care for nursing home residents, if nursing homes in poorer neighborhoods have been hit harder by the shortages, and what can be done to fix the problem.</em></p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/853130474" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Dr. Jasmine Travers discussed the impact when nursing homes are short-staffed.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Below are some highlights from the discussion. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
<p><strong>Who lives in nursing homes in the United States?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Jasmine Travers:</strong> There are 15,000 nursing homes with approximately <a href="https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/featured-topics/nursing-homes/">1.2 million residents</a>. That population can range in age, although most commonly it’s those 65 years of age or older.</p>
<p><strong>What is the current state of nursing home staffing?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Jasmine Travers:</strong> In 2001, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed minimum staffing standards. They indicated that total nursing hours should be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1178632920934785">4.1 hours per resident per day</a>. And that’s including the registered nurse, the licensed practical nurse and the certified nursing assistants. Only 25% of nursing homes were found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17678">to be meeting those total nursing hours</a> in 2019.</p>
<p><strong>How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect nursing home occupancy and staffing?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Jasmine Travers:</strong> Occupancy levels hovered at about 80% prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, occupancy went down to a low of 67%. By the end of 2022, those levels <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1223881/occupancy-rate-of-certified-nursing-facilities-in-the-united-states/">had gone up to 72%</a>. </p>
<p>Lower occupancy levels can be a significant issue. Higher occupancy brings in more revenue to the nursing homes. With lower occupancy and less revenue coming in, then that’s a decrease in financial support that the nursing home needs to run their day-to-day activities.</p>
<p><strong>How does nursing home staffing affect the quality of care and health outcomes for residents?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Jasmine Travers:</strong> A number of studies show that when staffing is low, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1178632920934785">emergency hospitalization visits</a> increase. Some of these visits could have been addressed by care provided in the nursing home setting. We also see increased instances of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2004.12.003">pressure ulcers</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/55.5.S278">urinary tract infections</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jnhrs.2020.24">falls</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2011.532011">deficiency citations</a> – issued when a nursing home does not <a href="https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/downloads/SCLetter08-10.pdf">meet a certification minimum standard</a>. </p>
<p>When nursing homes are understaffed, that means there might not be a sufficient number of certified nursing assistants to, for example, answer call bells. That might translate to residents sitting in their beds needing help for longer periods of time. </p>
<p>In those instances, if a person doesn’t have someone to get them out of bed, sometimes they might try to get up themselves. And when they do that, they could be at risk of falling. Or if they stay in bed and they’re soiled, they’re at increased risk for urinary tract infections or pressure ulcers. </p>
<p><strong>What can be done to alleviate nursing home staffing challenges?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Jasmine Travers:</strong> Areas that are socioeconomically deprived or that lack good transportation, housing and schools are less <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17990">desirable places to work</a>. </p>
<p>Just recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released an announcement that they are going to allow for those in pediatric specialties to receive loan reimbursements and loan forgiveness <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/06/09/hhs-announces-new-15-million-loan-repayment-program-strengthen-pediatric-health-care-workforce.html">for working in underserved areas</a>. A similar program for those working in nursing homes would likely increase staffing. </p>
<p>I’d also like to see improved wages and benefits and more investment in retention efforts to keep the people who are already working in nursing homes working there.</p>
<p>One of the biggest issues when it comes to staffing is turnover. People will stay when the work environment is changed. And when people stay longer, they know their residents more. That consistency translates to better quality of care.</p>
<p>Watch the <em><a href="https://www.sciline.org/health-medicine/nursing-home-staffing/">full interview</a></em> to hear more.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.sciline.org/">SciLine</a> is a free service based at the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science that helps journalists include scientific evidence and experts in their news stories.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Travers receives funding from Robert Wood Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>Reduced staffing means nursing home residents make more unnecessary trips to the hospital.Jasmine Travers, Assistant Professor of Nursing, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2097712023-08-17T12:35:12Z2023-08-17T12:35:12ZPotentially faulty data spotted in surveys of drug use and other behaviors among LGBQ youth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541296/original/file-20230804-26-63jilc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=202%2C166%2C7737%2C5130&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new study found that youth were providing extreme or untruthful responses to CDC surveys on LGBQ student health. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/female-hands-of-a-student-taking-a-test-royalty-free-image/1305362771?phrase=students+taking+a+survey&adppopup=true">FG Trade/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Federal data on LGBQ student health <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13957">contain a significant amount of potentially exaggerated or untruthful responses</a>, raising questions about how they might skew people’s understanding of risky behavior among teens. These inaccuracies affect some responses more than others. That’s according to an analysis my colleagues and I did of high school surveys administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, better known as the CDC.</p>
<p>Without accounting for this invalid data, the CDC results suggest that for every heterosexual boy who uses steroids, three LGBQ boys use steroids. After accounting for the invalid data, neither group is shown to use steroids more. In contrast, disparities for being bullied or considering suicide were not affected by potentially invalid data.</p>
<p>Over 12,800 high school students during the 2018-2019 school year reported whether they identified as LGBQ – that is, lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning – or heterosexual on the national <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/data.htm">Youth Risk Behavior Survey</a>. They also responded to items related to their health and well-being. </p>
<p>We first estimated what the risk disparities between LGBQ and heterosexual youth were before accounting for potentially invalid data. We then used a machine-learning algorithm to detect response patterns that suggested when youth were providing extreme or untruthful responses.</p>
<p>For example, we treated their responses with suspicion if they reported eating carrots four or more times every day and said they were impossibly tall. That means we gave less weight to their responses when we re-estimated all of the disparities. We then saw how the disparities changed after the potentially invalid responses were taken into account.</p>
<p>After accounting for invalid data, disparities in drug use – including steroids – injected drugs, cocaine, ecstasy and pain medication without a prescription were not as pronounced. LGBQ boys appeared to use injected drugs four times as often as heterosexual boys. But after accounting for the likely invalid data, neither group was more likely to use injected drugs. </p>
<p>Yet, while some outcomes were susceptible to invalid data, others were not. For example, LGBQ boys and girls were about twice as likely to be bullied at school and two to three times as likely to consider suicide. This shows that not all outcomes are equally affected by invalid data. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The Youth Risk Behavior Survey provides vital information on the health and behaviors of high school students. It informs research regarding <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/yrbs_data_summary_and_trends.htm">teen sexual behaviors, drug use and suicide risk</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13957">Our study</a> and others using different methods to account for invalid data <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X11422112">consistently</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304407">find</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419888892">that</a> LGBQ students are at a much higher risk for being bullied and for suicide, consistent with <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/yrbs_data_summary_and_trends.htm">CDC reports</a> on these outcomes. </p>
<p>It is critical to address the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights">ongoing stigmatization that LGBTQ+ people face</a> to reduce these mental health disparities. Yet, when researchers don’t check for invalid data, they might conclude that other differences are larger and more deserving of attention and resources than they are.</p>
<p>Policymakers and researchers must ensure that large-scale data collection efforts have safeguards for data quality.</p>
<p>We asked the CDC for a comment on our study’s findings. In response, they directed our attention to an <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/faq.htm">FAQ page</a> that discussed validity and reliability in a general sense. The CDC’s response did not specifically address the issue of how invalid data can have a disproportionate effect on minorities, which is a significant concern raised by our research.</p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>Other studies have found that invalid data can disproportionately influence <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13957">low-incidence outcomes like heroin use</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000479">minority populations</a>, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J145v06n02_02">adoptees</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/152822X06289161">disabled</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X14534297">individuals</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024824">racial or ethnic minorities</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/152822X06289161">immigrants</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X14534297">transgender individuals</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, the issue of invalid data is not confined to youth surveys. Studies examining <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287837">public health behaviors</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic and surveys on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617698203">sexual orientation among adults</a> have also encountered invalid responses, raising further questions about their accuracy.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Cimpian receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences and the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>Potential inaccuracies in CDC high school surveys may have created an exaggerated perception that LGBQ youth engage in risky behaviors, new research shows.Joseph Cimpian, Professor of Economics and Education Policy, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2050902023-07-11T14:48:11Z2023-07-11T14:48:11ZCourse à pied, fabrication de pain : traverser la pandémie grâce à de nouvelles passions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526903/original/file-20230517-18592-xkares.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C995%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lors de périodes de vie difficiles, avoir une passion peut aider les personnes à rebondir des épreuves et à surmonter les obstacles auxquels elles sont confrontées.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Au cœur de la pandémie, alors que de nombreuses personnes ont développé une nouvelle passion pour la course à pied et la fabrication du pain, d’autres ont dû mettre de côté leur amour du voyage. </p>
<p>Chercheuses en psychologie, nous avons mené avec notre équipe de recherche <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019188692300140X">trois études durant la pandémie de Covid-19</a> afin d’examiner les bienfaits reliés au développement de nouvelles passions en contexte d’adversité. </p>
<p>Nous avons trouvé que les personnes ayant développé une passion harmonieuse ont vécu des émotions agréables et ont réussi à se désengager d’une activité passionnante irréalisable, ce qui les a amenés à ressentir du bien-être psychologique. </p>
<p>Les personnes ayant développé une passion obsessive, quant à elles, ont vécu un peu de bien-être, mais majoritairement des émotions désagréables et du mal-être (symptômes anxieux et dépressifs). </p>
<h2>Les passions ne sont pas toutes égales</h2>
<p>Prenons l’exemple d’Alex et de Charlie, deux personnages fictifs, afin d’illustrer les différents types de passion. Durant la pandémie, Alex a développé une passion pour la cuisine. Chaque soir, il adorait préparer une nouvelle recette et passer du temps en famille autour de bons repas. Dans la ville voisine, Charlie a quant à elle développé une passion pour le ski. Souhaitant participer à des compétitions, elle s’entraînait sur une base régulière et elle se sentait coupable les jours où elle ne skiait pas. Elle négligeait également ses études afin d’optimiser sa performance et se sentir fière d’elle dans son sport favori.</p>
<p>Alex et Charlie ont tous deux développé une passion pour une nouvelle activité, c’est-à-dire que cette activité aimée est devenue une partie de leur identité et ils y ont investi beaucoup de temps et d’énergie. Toutefois, ils ne se sont pas engagés dans cette activité de la même manière, ce qui a affecté différemment leur santé mentale. En effet, il existe <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-3514.85.4.756">deux types de passion</a>. </p>
<p>La <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/12063?login=false">passion harmonieuse</a> est bien intégrée aux autres sphères de vie des individus. Ainsi, elle interfère peu avec leur travail, leurs loisirs ou leurs relations interpersonnelles. C’est le cas d’Alex, qui passe du temps en famille tout en poursuivant sa passion pour la cuisine. De plus, les personnes ayant une passion harmonieuse sont en mesure de se désengager de leur activité passionnante au besoin, par exemple lors d’un confinement qui les empêche de la pratiquer. </p>
<p>Au contraire, la <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/12063?login=false">passion obsessive</a> est caractérisée par un besoin incontrôlable de pratiquer l’activité aimée. Les personnes ayant une passion obsessive basent souvent leur estime de soi sur leur performance dans leur activité passionnante, comme Charlie qui ne peut s’empêcher de skier.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528060/original/file-20230524-22-wrjmsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="personne debout sur une piste de ski" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528060/original/file-20230524-22-wrjmsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528060/original/file-20230524-22-wrjmsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528060/original/file-20230524-22-wrjmsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528060/original/file-20230524-22-wrjmsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528060/original/file-20230524-22-wrjmsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528060/original/file-20230524-22-wrjmsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528060/original/file-20230524-22-wrjmsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Durant la pandémie, les personnes ayant développé une passion obsessive ont vécu un peu de bien-être, mais majoritairement des émotions désagréables et du mal-être.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Le rôle des émotions agréables et désagréables</h2>
<p>Alors que la passion harmonieuse d’Alex risque de lui procurer de nombreux bienfaits, la passion obsessive de Charlie pourrait engendrer des conséquences négatives sur sa santé mentale. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019188692300140X">Nos études</a> ont montré que les liens entre les types de passion et la santé psychologique peuvent être partiellement expliqués par la présence d’émotions agréables et désagréables. </p>
<p>Les <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780124072367000012">émotions agréables</a> permettent d’ouvrir ses horizons et de développer des ressources personnelles (p. ex., la présence attentive, qui réfère à la capacité d’être conscient de ses états internes et de son environnement) qui pourront être utilisées pour faire face aux situations stressantes. Les émotions désagréables ont également leurs fonctions. Par exemple, la <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597818305193">culpabilité</a> nous permet de reconnaître des comportements immoraux. Cependant, elles peuvent être associées à un repli sur soi et à des problèmes de santé psychologique.</p>
<p>Nos résultats indiquent que les personnes qui ont poursuivi une passion harmonieuse préexistante durant la pandémie et ceux qui en ont développé une nouvelle vivaient davantage d’émotions agréables, ce qui menait à un bien-être psychologique accru (satisfaction de vie, bonheur et trouver un sens à son existence). Au contraire, les personnes qui ont poursuivi une passion obsessive (préexistante et nouvelle) vivaient un peu de bien-être, mais surtout des émotions désagréables et des symptômes anxieux et dépressifs. </p>
<h2>Développer sa capacité à se désengager d’une passion</h2>
<p>La capacité à se désengager d’une passion est importante pour la santé mentale. Durant la pandémie, les personnes qui se désengageaient plus facilement de leur passion irréalisable, comme le voyage ou l’entraînement en salle, vivaient moins de symptômes d’anxiété et de dépression. </p>
<p>Nos résultats indiquent que le développement d’une nouvelle passion harmonieuse pourrait faciliter le désengagement face à une ancienne passion irréalisable qu’il est nécessaire de délaisser.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528064/original/file-20230524-22-sasd9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="femme assise dans un avion" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528064/original/file-20230524-22-sasd9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528064/original/file-20230524-22-sasd9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528064/original/file-20230524-22-sasd9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528064/original/file-20230524-22-sasd9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528064/original/file-20230524-22-sasd9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528064/original/file-20230524-22-sasd9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528064/original/file-20230524-22-sasd9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Au cœur de la pandémie, alors que de nombreuses personnes ont développé une nouvelle passion pour la course à pied et la fabrication du pain, d’autres ont dû mettre de côté leur amour du voyage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Favoriser la résilience grâce à la passion</h2>
<p>Il est important de souligner que les passions peuvent être des facteurs de résilience. Lors de périodes de vie difficiles, avoir une passion peut aider les personnes à rebondir des épreuves et à surmonter les obstacles auxquels elles sont confrontées. Pendant la pandémie, le développement de nouvelles passions (surtout harmonieuses) était un facteur de protection important pour la santé mentale. </p>
<p>Cela appuie les <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jopy.12774">résultats d’autres études récentes</a> portant sur l’importance des passions harmonieuses pour promouvoir la résilience. En période de stress, il est donc bénéfique de prioriser les activités que l’on aime et de développer de nouveaux intérêts pour promouvoir sa santé mentale tout en veillant à ce que ces activités passionnantes soient intégrées de façon harmonieuse aux autres sphères de vie.</p>
<p>Bien que nos recherches ne se soient pas poursuivies après les confinements reliés à la pandémie, d’autres études ont montré que les passions harmonieuses ont tendance <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-018-0059-z">à perdurer dans le temps</a>. Ainsi, il est fort probable que les passions harmonieuses développées durant la pandémie se maintiennent et continuent d’être bénéfiques à la santé psychologique encore aujourd’hui !</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205090/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Cimon-Paquet a reçu des financements du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada et des Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Holding a reçu des financements de Canadian Social Sciences and Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Virginie Paquette 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.</span></em></p>Durant la pandémie, de nombreuses personnes ont développé une passion alors que d’autres ont dû abandonner une activité passionnante. Ces passions ont joué un rôle dans la santé psychologique.Catherine Cimon-Paquet, Candidate au doctorat, conférencière et chargée de cours, Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Anne Holding, Chercheuse postdoctorale en motivation humaine, New York UniversityVirginie Paquette, Stagiaire postdoctorale en psychologie organisationnelle/industrielle, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092012023-07-06T17:19:16Z2023-07-06T17:19:16ZHow fine dining in Europe and the US came to exclude immigrant cuisine and how social media is pushing back – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535997/original/file-20230706-27-n7njvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=94%2C0%2C5656%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Immigrant chefs feel more constrained in how their food is valued. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/chefs-finishing-dishes-at-kitchen-before-serving-royalty-free-image/495199645?phrase=upscale+food+chef&adppopup=true">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The history of restaurants, food and, especially, fine dining, is deeply tied to the history of immigration to the U.S. and French cultural power in the early 20th century. Not surprisingly, the story that leads to Yelp and Anthony Bourdain is not without its share of racism that the modern food world and its tastemakers are still grappling with today.</p>
<p>In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak to three experts who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=M9A2u_YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">study food culture</a> and <a href="https://gilliangualtieri.com/">fine dining</a> about the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QV8nVH4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">perceptions and definitions</a> of “good food.” We explore how food trends are deeply tied to immigration, how the history of Western culinary techniques limits the creativity and authenticity of modern restaurants and how social media compares with the Michelin Guide as a tool in the quest for good food. </p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/64a6d3078c8a970011c938a1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>The definition of ‘good food’</h2>
<p>Between ever-increasing culinary skill and creativity, the boom in organic and seasonal ingredients, a growing interest in ethnic food and flavors, and a glut of food media – from the Michelin Guide and Zagat to Instagram and TikTok – there has arguably never been a better time to eat, drink and appreciate a truly good meal.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536012/original/file-20230706-29-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A red book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536012/original/file-20230706-29-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536012/original/file-20230706-29-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536012/original/file-20230706-29-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536012/original/file-20230706-29-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536012/original/file-20230706-29-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536012/original/file-20230706-29-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536012/original/file-20230706-29-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Michelin Guide was first published in 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guidem_michelin_1900.jpg#/media/File:Guidem_michelin_1900.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What defines “good food”? This is a subjective question in many ways, but a chef’s career can single-handedly be made or broken by a review in the <a href="https://guide.michelin.com/en">esteemed pages of the Michelin Guide</a> or The New York Times food section. Even in the world of social media, some restaurants consistently rise to the top of Yelp and Instagram, so there is some consensus idea of what “good food” is.</p>
<p>To understand where the ideas that define good food come from, it’s helpful to understand how the modern restaurant came to be. “At the turn of the 20th century, you have Georges Auguste Escoffier, who, with his friend Ritz, opened the Ritz-Carlton,” explains Gillian Gualtieri, a sociologist at Barnard College in New York City. “The Ritz becomes this training ground for European cooks and chefs, and you then send them out to these glamorous hotels all over Europe to cook for the European and American elites.” </p>
<p>To this day, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-haute-cuisine-to-hot-dogs-how-dining-out-has-evolved-over-200-years-and-is-innovating-further-in-the-pandemic-155939">techniques and even the language developed by Escoffier</a> are taught in culinary schools across the world. </p>
<p>As the world urbanized, more and more people began to eat at restaurants, and the concept of the food critic emerged. These critics wield power. When Gualtieri asked 120 New York chefs whose opinions mattered most, they most valued the opinions of their peers – and the Michelin Guide.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536014/original/file-20230706-18-6t0yr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A taco truck in New York City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536014/original/file-20230706-18-6t0yr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536014/original/file-20230706-18-6t0yr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536014/original/file-20230706-18-6t0yr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536014/original/file-20230706-18-6t0yr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536014/original/file-20230706-18-6t0yr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536014/original/file-20230706-18-6t0yr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536014/original/file-20230706-18-6t0yr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Immigrant food often gains popularity before becoming prestigious as an immigrant community becomes enmeshed in a country’s culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-wearing-face-masks-stand-in-line-outside-timo-tacos-news-photo/1260768765?adppopup=true">Noam Galai/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Immigration and ethnic food</h2>
<p>The Michelin Guide and many of its peers in the legacy food media have historically been gatekeepers of fine dining, focusing on white, Eurocentric restaurants and in many ways controlling what kinds of cuisine are worth paying a premium for. But ethnic food – whether it is Mexican, Japanese or, in the past, Italian food – is a massive part of the U.S. food scene. </p>
<p>As Krishnendu Ray, a professor of food studies at New York University in the U.S., explains, the perceptions of immigrant food are closely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2017.17.4.141">tied to perceptions of the immigrants themselves</a>. </p>
<p>“What you see is there’s a kind of a early popularity of immigrant foods, first inside the community, and then slowly it spreads outward. Other people start eating, journalists are eating and writing about it, but it does not acquire prestige,” Ray explains. “That changes over time, depending on which immigrant group is coming into the U.S. in the largest numbers and which cohort is slowly moving up in terms of upward mobility.” </p>
<p>After looking at prices of various types of cuisine over the decades and comparing it with immigration trends, Ray found a consistent pattern. Immigrant foods are first considered cheap and not prestigious when lots of immigrants move to the U.S. but slowly gain clout as the people themselves become more culturally established. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536009/original/file-20230706-27-rkjej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A top-down photo of a plate of food." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536009/original/file-20230706-27-rkjej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536009/original/file-20230706-27-rkjej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536009/original/file-20230706-27-rkjej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536009/original/file-20230706-27-rkjej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536009/original/file-20230706-27-rkjej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536009/original/file-20230706-27-rkjej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536009/original/file-20230706-27-rkjej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Instagram gaze is a normalized style of posting about food that many food influencers on Instagram use.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/fig-toast-with-edible-flowers-directly-above-view-royalty-free-image/1319831755?phrase=fine+dining&adppopup=true">Alexander Spatari/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Social media influencers as food critics</h2>
<p>In an era of social media, many people are now turning to Yelp, TikTok or Instagram to figure out where they want to get a meal. Zeena Feldman is a professor of digital culture at King’s College in London, in the U.K. She was interested in seeing whether Instagram viewed good food in the same Eurocentric ways as the Michelin Guide, or whether, as she explains it, “because anyone can have a voice on Instagram, underrepresented cuisines from different parts of the world and from less expensive price points might be getting more of the attention there.”</p>
<p>To answer this question, Feldman looked at the reviews of Instagram food influencers in London and New York and then compared them with the Michelin Guide. </p>
<p>“Culturally and economically, Instagram food criticism is a lot more inclusive than Michelin,” says Feldman. “So you have many more cuisines, and especially cuisines outside of the Global North, being represented.” </p>
<p>But Instagram wasn’t completely without flaws. “I started out thinking of Instagram food culture as being something created by amateurs, by just people as obsessed with food as I might be,” says Feldman. “What I found is actually these are professionals, either people making money from promoting content or people aspiring to make money from promoting content. And so what that means is that there’s a certain standardization to how food is being represented on Instagram.” </p>
<p>Most people have seen what Feldman has termed the “Instagram gaze.” These are the overhead shots of well-lit food that, Feldman notes, almost never feature any people. </p>
<p>Feldman thinks that, with so much food media out there, there is more opportunity to find good food, but the definition of that, as she puts it, is “food that you actually enjoy eating.”</p>
<hr>
<p>This episode was produced and written by Dan Merino and Katie Flood. Mend Mariwany is the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. </p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209201/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zeena Feldman 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.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gillian Gualtieri 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.
Krishnendu Ray 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.</span></em></p>Immigrant chefs and cuisines are often constrained by Eurocentric definitions of what constitutes good food. As immigrant groups become more assimilated into US culture, so does their food.Daniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationNehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2087602023-06-29T19:11:36Z2023-06-29T19:11:36ZQuand les vibromasseurs étaient censés soigner<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534861/original/file-20230629-29-xiuneg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1920%2C1060&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dans les années 1930, le vibromasseur était un appareil ménager comme les autres. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fiona Hanson/PA Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>À l’heure du <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss434">féminisme « pro-sexe »</a>, les éloges de la capacité orgasmique des vibromasseurs se multiplient. Dans sa bande dessinée <a href="https://www.ohjoysextoy.com/hitachi/"><em>Oh Joy Sex Toy</em></a>, Erica Moen les décrit comme « totalement englobants, comme le serait une couverture faite d’électricité qui passerait dans vos veines pour les parcourir, générant des orgasmes dont vous ne vous seriez pas crue physiquement capable ». Aujourd’hui, ces machines vont souvent de pair avec la masturbation et la sexualité féminines.</p>
<p>Pourtant, pour les ménagères américaines des années 1930, le vibromasseur n’avait rien de sexuel. Fonctionnant avec le même type de moteurs que les mixeurs et les aspirateurs, il ressemblait à n’importe lequel de leurs autres appareils ménagers. Ce n’était ni plus ni moins qu’une nouvelle technologie basée sur l’électricité.</p>
<p>Avant que les coûts de production des moteurs de ces appareils ne diminuent, les fabricants vendaient généralement un moteur unique sur lequel venaient s’adapter des accessoires séparés, qui étaient changés au gré de l’activité ménagère à accomplir. Il pouvait s’agir de poncer du bois, de se sécher les cheveux, ou… de guérir certaines affections grâce aux vibrations d’origine électriques.</p>
<p>J’ai en effet découvert, durant mes recherches sur <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NnKQzLcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">l’histoire médicale de l’électricité</a>, que les vibromasseurs figuraient en bonne place dans l’arsenal des charlatans du début du XX<sup>e</sup> siècle, aux côtés de divers autres remèdes excentriques, tels que les ceintures de batteries galvaniques ou les électrothérapies.</p>
<h2>Vibrer pour la santé</h2>
<p>Le premier vibromasseur électromécanique était un appareil appelé « percuteur » <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/SHAD28020120">inventé par le médecin britannique Joseph Mortimer Granville</a> à la fin des années 1870 ou au début des années 1880. Granville pensait que les vibrations alimentaient en énergie le système nerveux humain. Il a développé le percuteur pour l’utiliser en tant qu’appareil médical, afin de stimuler les nerfs malades.</p>
<p>À l’époque, le consensus médical était que l’hystérie était une maladie nerveuse. Cependant <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/mxUCAAAAIAAJ?hl=en">Granville refusait de traiter les malades de sexe féminin</a> parce que, expliquait-il, il ne voulait pas « être berné […] par les caprices de l’état hystérique » lorsqu’il s’agissait d’évaluer l’efficacité de son appareil. Le vibromasseur a donc initialement été une thérapie réservée aux hommes. Il a ensuite rapidement quitté la sphère de la pratique médicale.</p>
<p>Puis est arrivé le début du XX<sup>e</sup> siècle. À cette époque, l’électricité commençait à envahir les maisons, mais ses bénéfices n’étaient pas aussi évidents qu’aujourd’hui : elle était chère et dangereuse. Cependant, elle était aussi synonyme de <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/electrifying-america">modernité, et source d’excitation</a>. Les appareils électriques tels que les machines à coudre et les machines à laver sont progressivement devenus des marqueurs de la classe moyenne en développement. Et les vibromasseurs ont commencé à entrer dans les foyers, d’abord en tant que simples appareils ménagers.</p>
<p>Ils étaient avant tout considérés comme une manifestation supplémentaire de cette scintillante nouvelle technologie, qui faisait miroiter aux consommateurs l’image d’un mode de vie moderne et électrique. Tout comme, plus tard, dans les années 1960, les banques offriraient des grille-pains pour inciter les potentiels clients à ouvrir un compte, dans les années 1940, la <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2015.97"><em>Rural Electrification Administration</em> distribuait des vibromasseurs gratuitement</a> pour encourager les agriculteurs à électrifier leurs maisons. Ces appareils électriques n’étaient alors pas encore considérés comme des jouets sexuels. Toutefois, leurs utilisateurs, quel que soit leur âge, se voyaient promettre grâce à eux toutes sortes de soulagements…</p>
<h2>De la poudre de Perlimpinpin qui vibre</h2>
<p>Les vibromasseurs étaient censés apaiser les douleurs des ménagères fatiguées, et donc leur faciliter les tâches ménagères. Appliqués sur les dos fatigués et les pieds douloureux, ils permettaient, soi-disant, de revigorer le corps des travailleurs. Maintenus sur la gorge, ils soignaient la laryngite, sur le nez, ils soulageaient la pression des sinus ; et ils agissaient aussi tout ce qui pouvait poser problème entre les deux, bien entendu. Mais ce n’est pas tout : ils stoppaient les cris des enfants malades, car on prêtait à leurs vibrations le pouvoir de calmer l’estomac des bébés souffrant de coliques. On pensait même qu’ils pouvaient aider à guérir les os brisés. Et, selon certains, ils pouvaient stimuler la pousse des cheveux chez les hommes atteints de calvitie…</p>
<p>Une publicité parue en 1910 dans le <em>New York Tribune</em> affirmait que « la vibration bannit les maladies comme le soleil bannit le brouillard ». En 1912, le vibromasseur <em>New Life</em> de <em>Hamilton Beach</em> était accompagné d’un guide d’instruction de 300 pages intitulé <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/TVrlhhwDXvQC?hl=en"><em>Health and How to Get It</em></a> (« La santé, et les moyens de l’obtenir ». Celui-ci proposait des remèdes à tous les maux, de l’obésité à l’appendicite en passant par la tuberculose et le vertige.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339861/original/file-20200604-67383-kb5xw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339861/original/file-20200604-67383-kb5xw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339861/original/file-20200604-67383-kb5xw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339861/original/file-20200604-67383-kb5xw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339861/original/file-20200604-67383-kb5xw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339861/original/file-20200604-67383-kb5xw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339861/original/file-20200604-67383-kb5xw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339861/original/file-20200604-67383-kb5xw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Une publicité de 1913 pour le vibromasseur White Cross dans le <em>New York Tribune</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_Cross_Electric_Vibrator_ad_NYT_1913.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Comme on s’en doute en consultant ces publicités, ces allégations médicales relevaient du charlatanisme. Pourtant, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2015.97">ces « remèdes électriques » se sont vendus par millions</a>.</p>
<p>Et pour cause : sur le marché américain, la forme la plus classique de charlatanisme médical était celle des « remèdes secrets » (« patent medicine »), des concoctions à la composition protégée par brevet, disponibles en vente libre, et censées guérir certains maux. Dépourvues d’effets thérapeutiques, elles contenaient généralement principalement de l’alcool et de la morphine, mais on pouvait parfois y trouver des ingrédients encore plus nocifs, comme le plomb et l’arsenic. </p>
<p>Le gouvernement fédéral a commencé à réglementer la vente de ces « médicaments » sous brevet après l’adoption, en 1906, de la loi <a href="https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/Pure-Food-and-Drug-Act/"><em>Pure Food and Drug Act</em></a>. Les vibromasseurs et autres électrothérapies n’étant alors pas concernés par la nouvelle loi, ils ont pris la part de marché laissée vacante par les concoctions médicales interdites. Le vibromasseur <em>White Cross</em> a remplacé le sirop apaisant de Mme Winslow en tant que remède « maison » populaire, bien que rejeté par l’<em>establishment</em> médical.</p>
<p>En 1915, le <a href="https://ama.nmtvault.com/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=ama_arch%2FAD000001%2F0036GUID&init_width=600&recoffset=0&collection_filter=All&collection_name=e7b3b08e-5d2a-40d6-ac45-b8b6ada9325f&sort_col=title&CurSearchNum=-1&recOffset=0"><em>Journal of the American Medical Association</em></a> écrivait que le <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2015.97">« commerce des vibromasseurs est une illusion et un piège. S’il a un quelconque effet, il est psychologique »</a>. Ce commerce était considéré comme dangereux par les experts non pas parce qu’il était obscène, mais parce qu’il s’agissait d’un mauvais traitement. La possibilité, reconnue par les médecins, que le vibromasseur soit aussi utilisé pour la masturbation constituait seulement une preuve supplémentaire du charlatanisme de cette thérapie.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339893/original/file-20200604-67368-5lsn0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339893/original/file-20200604-67368-5lsn0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339893/original/file-20200604-67368-5lsn0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339893/original/file-20200604-67368-5lsn0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339893/original/file-20200604-67368-5lsn0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339893/original/file-20200604-67368-5lsn0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339893/original/file-20200604-67368-5lsn0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339893/original/file-20200604-67368-5lsn0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">La tête du moteur du vibromasseur Shelton, fabriqués par General Electric au début du XXᵉ siècle, avec divers accessoires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mechanical-masseur-motor-head-with-various-vibratory-news-photo/90763336">Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Un remède à la « maladie masturbatoire »</h2>
<p>Hallie Lieberman, spécialiste des jouets sexuels, souligne que presque tous les fabricants de vibromasseurs du début du XX<sup>e</sup> siècle proposaient des accessoires phalliques qui <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2015.97">« auraient été considérés comme obscènes s’ils avaient été vendus en tant que godemichés »</a>. </p>
<p>Présentés comme des dilatateurs rectaux ou vaginaux, ces appareils étaient censés guérir les hémorroïdes, la constipation, la vaginite, la cervicite (inflammation du col de l’utérus) et d’autres maladies localisées au niveau des organes génitaux et de l’anus. <em>Hamilton Beach</em>, par exemple, proposait un <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/TVrlhhwDXvQC?hl=en">« applicateur rectal spécial »</a> pour « un coût supplémentaire de 1,50 dollar » et recommandait son utilisation pour le traitement de « l’impuissance », des « hémorroïdes » et des « maladies rectales ».</p>
<p>Les deux plus grands spécialistes de l’histoire des vibromasseurs, <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/technology-orgasm">Rachel Maines</a> et <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2015.97">Hallie Lieberman</a>, affirment que les vibromasseurs ont toujours été secrètement utilisés dans des buts sexuels. Cependant, je ne suis pas d’accord avec eux. Les vibromasseurs étaient bien des appareils médicaux populaires, et l’une de leurs nombreuses utilisations médicales visait à guérir les maladies liées aux dysfonctionnements sexuels. Cette utilisation était un argument de vente, pas un secret, à une époque où la rhétorique anti-masturbation était de mise.</p>
<p>Des accessoires spéciaux pour vibromasseurs, comme l’applicateur rectal, proposaient des traitements douteux pour des maladies douteuses. Il s’agissait de remèdes pour des affections prétendument causées par <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814719831/the-body-electric/">« une masturbation calamiteuse et prédominante »</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Plus de 85 000 lecteurs font confiance aux newsletters de The Conversation pour mieux comprendre les grands enjeux du monde</em>. <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=france&region=fr">Abonnez-vous aujourd’hui</a>]</p>
<p>Au début du XX<sup>e</sup> siècle, l’idée que la masturbation était liée à certaines maladies était assez répandue. On pensait par exemple qu’elle provoquait l’impuissance chez les hommes et l’hystérie chez les femmes. Certaines formulations de cette époque sont d’ailleurs parvenues jusqu’à nous, telle celle qui affirme que la masturbation rend sourd (ou aveugle, selon les pays…).</p>
<p>Il est impossible de savoir comment les gens utilisaient réellement les vibromasseurs. Mais un certain nombre de preuves suggère que leur emploi se faisait dans le cadre de traitements « médicaux », et non dans celui d’une masturbation « pécheresse ». Même si les utilisateurs de ces appareils accomplissaient des actes vus aujourd’hui comme de la masturbation, eux-mêmes ne considéraient pas qu’ils se masturbaient. Et donc, ils ne se masturbaient pas…</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339894/original/file-20200604-67372-dt0t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339894/original/file-20200604-67372-dt0t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339894/original/file-20200604-67372-dt0t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339894/original/file-20200604-67372-dt0t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339894/original/file-20200604-67372-dt0t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339894/original/file-20200604-67372-dt0t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339894/original/file-20200604-67372-dt0t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339894/original/file-20200604-67372-dt0t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dans les années 1980, l’image du vibromasseur a changé dans l’esprit du public.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vibrators-and-sex-toys-in-a-sex-shop-window-at-frankfurt-news-photo/523782645">Barbara Alper/Archive Photos via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Repenser l’histoire du vibromasseur</h2>
<p>Pendant la majeure partie du XX<sup>e</sup> siècle, les vibromasseurs sont restés d’inoffensifs objets vendus par des charlatans. Le mensuel féminin <em>Good Housekeeping</em>, destiné aux femmes au foyer, a même <a href="http://pegasusbooks.com/books/buzz-9781681775432-hardcover">validé certains modèles, jusque dans les années 1950</a>. Lorsque la révolution sexuelle a déferlé sur l’Amérique dans les années 1960, les vibromasseurs étaient des appareils démodés, majoritairement tombés dans l’oubli.</p>
<p>Puis sont arrivées les années 1970. À cette époque, des militantes féministes radicales ont transformé le vibromasseur, qui n’était plus que la relique d’une domesticité révolue, en un outil de libération sexuelle pour les femmes. Dans les <a href="https://dodsonandross.com/">ateliers de Betty Dodson consacrés au bodysex</a>, les vibrations électriques ont alors transformé <a href="http://pegasusbooks.com/books/buzz-9781681775432-hardcover">« les sentiments de culpabilité liés à la masturbation en sentiments de célébration, de sorte que la masturbation est devenue un acte d’amour de soi »</a>. Elle et ses « sœurs » ont adopté les vibromasseurs comme une technologie politique, capable de convertir des femmes au foyer frigides et anorgasmiques en êtres sexuels puissants, pouvant à la fois avoir des orgasmes multiples et détruire le patriarcat…</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Adams a reçu un financement de la bourse Henry M. MacCracken et du Center for the Humanities de l'université de New York.</span></em></p>Initialement vendus comme des versions électriques de la poudre de Perlimpinpin les vibromasseurs n’ont acquis que tardivement leur fonction de jouets sexuels.Kim Adams, Postdoctoral Lecturer in English, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2029212023-05-02T12:13:53Z2023-05-02T12:13:53ZMath teachers hold a bias against girls when the teachers think gender equality has been achieved<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523481/original/file-20230428-22-ygf772.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C92%2C7744%2C5143&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Effects of biases can snowball over time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/shot-of-a-little-girl-doing-maths-on-a-board-in-a-royalty-free-image/1391720645?phrase=girls+math&adppopup=true">PeopleImages via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Math teachers who believe women no longer face discrimination tend to be biased against girls’ ability in math. This is what we found through an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-023-00420-z">experiment we conducted</a> with over 400 elementary and middle school math teachers across the United States. Our findings were published in a peer-reviewed article that appeared in April 2023 in the International Journal of STEM Education.</p>
<p>For our experiment, we asked teachers to evaluate a set of student solutions to math problems. The teachers didn’t know that gender- and race-specific names, such as Tanisha and Connor, had been randomly assigned to the solutions. We did this so that if they evaluated identical student work differently, it would be because of the gender- and race-specific names they saw, not the differences in student work. The idea was to see if the teachers had any unconscious biases.</p>
<p>After the teachers evaluated the student solutions, we asked a series of questions about their beliefs and experiences. We asked if they felt society had achieved gender equality. We asked them whether they felt anxious about doing math. We asked whether they felt students’ ability in math was fixed or could be improved. We also asked teachers to think about their own experience as math students and to report how frequently they experienced feelings of unequal treatment because of their race or gender.</p>
<p>We then investigated if these beliefs and experiences were related to how they evaluated the math ability of students of different genders or racial groups. </p>
<p>Consistent with our <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19890577">prior work</a>, we found that implicit bias against girls arises in ambiguous situations — in this case, when student solutions were not completely correct.</p>
<p>Further, for teachers who believed that U.S. society had achieved gender equality, they tended to rate a student’s ability higher when they saw a male student name than when they saw a female student name for the same student work.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Teachers’ unconscious <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104627">gender biases</a> in math classes have been documented repeatedly.</p>
<p>Our study identifies factors that underlie such biases; namely, that biases are stronger among teachers who believe that gender discrimination is not a problem in the United States. Understanding the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and biases can help teacher educators create effective and targeted interventions to remove such biases from classrooms. </p>
<p>Our findings also shed light on potential reasons that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2016.01.002">males tend to have higher confidence in math</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba7377">stick with math-intensive college majors</a> even when they’re not high performers.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>One big remaining question is how to create targeted interventions to help teachers overcome such biases. Evidence suggests that unconscious biases <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211057565">come into play in situations where stereotypes might emerge</a>. Further, research suggests that these unconscious biases can be suppressed only when people are aware of them and motivated to restrain them.</p>
<p>Since bias may take on different forms in different fields, a one-time, one-size-fits-all anti-bias training <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000160">may not have a lasting effect</a>. We think it’s worthwhile to investigate if it’s more effective to provide implicit bias training programs that are specific to the areas where bias is revealed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Cimpian receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Thacker and Yasemin Copur-Gencturk 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.</span></em></p>Teachers judged the same math work differently based on whether the work was associated with male or female names.Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, Associate Professor of Education, University of Southern CaliforniaIan Thacker, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, The University of Texas at San AntonioJoseph Cimpian, Professor of Economics and Education Policy, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2031222023-04-13T13:09:39Z2023-04-13T13:09:39ZFast Fashion: Why garment workers’ lives are still in danger 10 years after Rana Plaza — Podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519920/original/file-20230407-22-j62yrw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">That cheap statement piece comes at a price: the industry has a 'murderous disregard for human life.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Clockwise: AP/Mahmud Hossain; AP/Ismail Ferdous; Unsplash/Markus Spiske; Unsplash/Clem Onojeghuo)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/ad814240-69ec-47f4-b6b5-05e21ad97582?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>Fast fashion is that ever-changing need to have the latest beautiful thing at a bargain price — that club-ready piece of clothing, that status symbol shoe or that must-have top you just found at the mall. </p>
<p>But that cheap statement piece comes at a price. <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1035161">The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, after the oil and gas sector.</a> It’s also famously unfair to its workers, the majority of whom are women. Although there has been a lot of talk about female empowerment, the reality is that most women who toil on the factory floor remain in poverty for most of their lives. </p>
<p>Ten years ago this month, much attention turned to the global garment industry when a group of garment factories collapsed at Rana Plaza near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The accident, called a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/apr/24/bangladeshi-police-target-garment-workers-union-rana-plaza-five-years-on">“mass industrial homicide”</a> by unions in Bangladesh, killed 1,124 people and injured at least 2,500 more. </p>
<p>Most of the people who went to work that day were young women, almost all were supporting families with their wages and all were at the bottom of the global production chain.</p>
<p><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/fast-fashion-why-garment-workers-lives-are-still-in-danger-10-years-after-rana-plaza">This week on <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a>, we look back at the Rana Plaza disaster to explore how much — or how little — has changed for garment worker conditions since.</p>
<p>The industry has a “<a href="https://www.brown.edu/academics/race-ethnicity/events/fast-fashion-and-racial-capitalism-power-and-vulnerability-global-supply-chains-gender-and">murderous disregard for human life.</a>” That’s how this episode’s guest, Minh-Ha Pham, puts it. She is an associate professor in media studies at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the author of <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/why-we-cant-have-nice-things"><em>Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.</em></a></p>
<p>Also joining us is Dina Siddiqi, a feminist anthropologist and an expert on labour in Bangladeshi garment factories. She is an associate professor at New York University.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520620/original/file-20230412-26-awoga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520620/original/file-20230412-26-awoga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520620/original/file-20230412-26-awoga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520620/original/file-20230412-26-awoga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520620/original/file-20230412-26-awoga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520620/original/file-20230412-26-awoga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520620/original/file-20230412-26-awoga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social media campaigns like ‘I made your clothes’ can help to raise awareness but don’t necessarily address structural issues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Fashion Revolution)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Murderous disregard for life’</h2>
<p>The collapsed buildings at Rana Plaza had shown signs of cracks the day before. While other tenants in the buildings — the banks and shops — sent their workers home, the garment factories’ managers insisted their people come to work to meet the relentless deadlines of clothing manufacturing. </p>
<p>Ten years ago, but also today, Siddiqi says garment workers are left with impossible choices: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They did not feel they had the right to say no because they were threatened with dismissal. They were owed wages already. Those are everyday conditions in the garment industry…their choice was: risk dismissal and possible starvation…or risk their lives.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Approximately five million people in Bangladesh work to produce clothing for hundreds of major international brands, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/11/fashion-brands-paid-less-than-production-cost-to-bangladesh-firms">including Zara, H&M and GAP</a>. It is the second largest global producer of clothing and has the lowest wages. </p>
<p>Garment factories also exist in the Global North. Last week the United States Department of Labor released a report on garment workers in Los Angeles that said <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-04/garment-industry-los-angeles-low-wages-violations-us-department-of-labor-report">some were getting paid as little as $1.58 an hour</a>. </p>
<h2>Corporate solutions fall short</h2>
<p>While many corporations have now signed the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/business/garment-worker-safety-accord.html">Bangladesh Accord</a> in an attempt to make things safer, Minh-Ha Pham says the accord has a narrow definition of worker safety. The focus is on structural integrity of buildings and corporate liability. But Pham says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If you talk to workers, safety means having a workplace free of physical, sexual verbal assault. Safety is getting paid on time. Not having the freedom of association, not having child care, not having maternity leave…create unsafe conditions of labour. [These are things that] initiatives like the Bangladesh accord don’t even begin to imagine.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The focus on corporate-led solutions, such as the accord, allows clothing brands to appear socially responsible in spite of the reality on the ground. Pham says that without oversight and regulation, these types of initiatives “make brands that are signing on to these initiatives…look good. Consumers feel good about these brands. But there’s no follow through.”</p>
<h2>Western saviour complex</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352893724_The_fashion_scandal_Social_media_identity_and_the_globalization_of_fashion_in_the_twenty-first_century">Social media campaigns</a> to hold brands accountable to their workers have proliferated in the last decade. </p>
<p>However well intended, Pham says these campaigns — primarily led by those in the Global North — don’t address the structural and systemic nature of exploitation inherent to the global garment industry. </p>
<p>She says the campaigns can actually take the attention away from the structural problems. “They make us feel like if we could just tweak this thing, then everything else will be okay. It actually legitimizes the system because (it says) the system is basically okay, but for A, B, and C things that we can fix.” </p>
<p>And Siddiqi says in the last 10 years, brands have actually paid Bangladeshi garment workers increasingly lower prices to make the exact same product. “So brands are squeezing Bangladesh at the same time that they’re telling Bangladesh factory owners that they must be better to their workers.”</p>
<p>Both Siddiqi and Pham also caution against the idea that this is solely a Bangladeshi problem. They say racist assumptions see the Global South as inherently corrupt and “backwards.” But these notions overshadow the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-04/garment-industry-los-angeles-low-wages-violations-us-department-of-labor-report">exploitation of and resistance by</a> racialized and gendered workers in the West, in places like Los Angeles. </p>
<p>Pham says “it’s easy to think of, you know, oh gosh, those people over there…They don’t care about humanity. They don’t care about safety. [But] this happened in California.” </p>
<p>For example, in 2020, Pham says, garment workers were being “held up as heroes because factories shifted to making masks for a while when we were wearing cloth masks. But (workers) oftentimes (were) coming in without health insurance, without safety protocols, oftentimes without masks risking COVID, (working) in California, for piece rate wages.” </p>
<h2>Now what?</h2>
<p>Both scholars say those who want to help to alleviate pervasive exploitation in the global garment factory industry must make efforts to understand an intentionally opaque supply chain system. This includes learning about brand contracts, international trade and labour laws and immigration and border policies. It also involves the necessary but difficult task of explicitly naming capitalism as a structural problem. </p>
<p>Ultimately, Pham and Siddiqi say western advocates must support collective actions initiated by the workers themselves.</p>
<h2>From The Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fashion-production-is-modern-slavery-5-things-you-can-do-to-help-now-115889">Fashion production is modern slavery: 5 things you can do to help now</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-businesses-and-consumers-can-do-to-tackle-modern-slavery-in-supply-chains-200694">Here's what businesses and consumers can do to tackle modern slavery in supply chains</a>
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</em>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-fashion-industry-keeps-failing-to-fix-labour-exploitation-87356">Why the fashion industry keeps failing to fix labour exploitation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-secret-does-it-again-cultural-appropriation-87987">Victoria's Secret does it again: Cultural appropriation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Read more</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0147547915000101">“Starving for Justice”</a> by Dina Siddiqi</p>
<p><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/153596/fix-fashion-industrys-racism">“How to Fix the Fashion Industry’s Racism”</a> by Minh-Ha Pham</p>
<p><a href="http://www.taslimaakhter.com/garment_workers_life_struggle/">Taslima Akhter: Documentary photographer and activist </a></p>
<p><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/turn-up-the-heat-on-fairness-american-garment-workers-deserve-better/">“Turn Up the Heat on Fairness: American Garment Workers Deserve Better”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://remake.world/stories/news/colonialism-in-fashion-brands-are-todays-colonial-masters/">“Brands are Today’s Colonial Masters”</a></p>
<h2>Listen and Follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. <a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
We look back to the 2013 Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed 1,124 people and discuss how much — or how little — has changed for garment-worker conditions today.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientBoké Saisi, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028862023-03-29T18:18:41Z2023-03-29T18:18:41ZNashville attack renews calls for assault weapons ban – data shows there were fewer mass shooting deaths during an earlier 10-year prohibition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518201/original/file-20230329-14-pucltf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=86%2C358%2C8157%2C5129&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gun control activists rally in Nashville, Tenn.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gun-control-activists-rally-in-nashville-tennessee-on-march-news-photo/1249704709?adppopup=true">Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The shooting deaths of three children and three adults inside a Nashville school has put further pressure on Congress to look at imposing a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-make-prime-time-address-calling-gun-reform-legislation-rcna31665">ban on so-called assault weapons</a>. Such a prohibition would be designed cover the types of guns that the suspect legally purchased and used during the March 27, 2023, attack.</p>
<p>Speaking after the incident, President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/03/28/remarks-by-president-biden-on-investing-in-america/">issued his latest plea</a> to lawmakers to act. “Why in God’s name do we allow these weapons of war on our streets and at our schools?” he asked.</p>
<p>A prohibition has been in place before. As Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/06/02/remarks-by-president-biden-on-gun-violence-in-america/">has previously noted </a>, bipartisan support in Congress helped push through a federal assault weapons ban in 1994 as part of the <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/billfs.txt">Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act</a>. </p>
<p>That ban was limited – it covered only certain categories of semiautomatic weapons such as AR-15s and applied to a ban on sales only after the act was signed into law, allowing people to keep hold of weapons purchased before that date. And it also had in it a so-called “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750656174/the-u-s-once-had-a-ban-on-assault-weapons-why-did-it-expire">sunset provision</a>” that allowed the ban to expire in 2004.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the 10-year life span of that ban – with a clear beginning and end date – gives researchers the opportunity to compare what happened with mass shooting deaths before, during and after the prohibition was in place. Our group of injury epidemiologists and trauma surgeons did just that. In 2019, we published a population-based study <a href="https://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/Fulltext/2019/01000/Changes_in_US_mass_shooting_deaths_associated_with.2.aspx">analyzing the data</a> in a bid to evaluate the effect that the federal ban on assault weapons had on mass shootings, <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R44126.pdf">defined by the FBI</a> as a shooting with four or more fatalities, not including the shooter. Here’s what the data shows:</p>
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<p><strong>Before the 1994 ban:</strong> </p>
<p>From 1981 – the earliest year in our analysis – to the rollout of the assault weapons ban in 1994, the proportion of deaths in mass shootings in which an assault rifle was used was lower than it is today. </p>
<p>Yet in this earlier period, mass shooting deaths were steadily rising. Indeed, high-profile mass shootings involving assault rifles – such as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/18/us/five-children-killed-as-gunman-attacks-a-california-school.html">killing of five children in Stockton, California, in 1989</a> and a <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/101-california-street-shooting-sparked-change-in-gun-laws">1993 San Francisco office attack</a> that left eight victims dead – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/04/biden-assault-weapons-ban/">provided the impetus</a> behind a push for a prohibition on some types of gun.</p>
<p><strong>During the 1994-2004 ban:</strong> </p>
<p>In the years after the assault weapons ban went into effect, the number of deaths from mass shootings fell, and the increase in the annual number of incidents slowed down. Even including 1999’s <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings">Columbine High School massacre</a> – the deadliest mass shooting during the period of the ban – the 1994-2004 period saw lower average annual rates of both mass shootings and deaths resulting from such incidents than before the ban’s inception.</p>
<p><strong>From 2004 onward:</strong></p>
<p>The data shows an almost immediate – and steep – rise in mass shooting deaths in the years after the assault weapons ban expired in 2004.</p>
<p>Breaking the data into absolute numbers, from 2004 to 2017 – the last year of our analysis – the average number of yearly deaths attributed to mass shootings was 25, compared with 5.3 during the 10-year tenure of the ban and 7.2 in the years leading up to the prohibition on assault weapons.</p>
<h2>Saving hundreds of lives</h2>
<p>We calculated that the risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower during the period in which the assault weapons ban was active. The proportion of overall gun homicides resulting from mass shootings was also down, with nine fewer mass-shooting-related fatalities per 10,000 shooting deaths.</p>
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<p>Taking population trends into account, a model we created based on this data suggests that had the federal assault weapons ban been in place throughout the whole period of our study – that is, from 1981 through 2017 – it may have prevented 314 of the 448 mass shooting deaths that occurred during the years in which there was no ban.</p>
<p>And this almost certainly underestimates the total number of lives that could be saved. For our study, we chose only to include mass shooting incidents that were reported and agreed upon by all three of our selected data sources: the <a href="https://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/">Los Angeles Times</a>, <a href="https://library.stanford.edu/projects/mass-shootings-america">Stanford University</a> and <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/">Mother Jones magazine</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, for uniformity, we also chose to use the strict federal definition of an assault weapon – which may not include the entire spectrum of what many people may now consider to be assault weapons. </p>
<h2>Cause or correlation?</h2>
<p>It is also important to note that our analysis cannot definitively say that the assault weapons ban of 1994 caused a decrease in mass shootings, nor that its expiration in 2004 resulted in the growth of deadly incidents in the years since.</p>
<p>Many additional factors may contribute to the shifting frequency of these shootings, such as changes in domestic violence rates, political extremism, psychiatric illness, firearm availability and a surge in sales, and the recent rise in hate groups. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, according to our study, President Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/06/02/remarks-by-president-biden-on-gun-violence-in-america/">claim that the rate of mass shootings</a> during the period of the assault weapons ban “went down” only for it to rise again after the law was allowed to expire in 2004 holds true.</p>
<p>As the U.S. looks toward a solution to the country’s epidemic of mass shootings, it is difficult to say conclusively that reinstating the assault weapons ban would have a profound impact, especially given the growth in sales in the 18 years in which Americans have been allowed to purchase and stockpile such weapons. But given that many of the high-profile mass shooters in recent years purchased their weapons <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/25/uvalde-shooter-bought-gun-legally/">less than one year</a> <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/15/florida-shooting-suspect-bought-gun-legally-authorities-say/340606002/">before committing their acts</a>, the evidence suggests that it might.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-assault-weapons-ban-of-1994-bring-down-mass-shootings-heres-what-the-data-tells-us-184430">article originally published</a> on June 8, 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. Klein 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.</span></em></p>Analysis of the 10 years in which the US banned sales of assault weapons shows that it correlates with a drop in mass shooting deaths – a trend that reversed as soon as the ban expired.Michael J. Klein, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2020242023-03-17T12:29:20Z2023-03-17T12:29:20ZThe state takeover of Houston public schools is about more than school improvement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515917/original/file-20230316-28-4ctm5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5674%2C3771&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The state takeover is based largely on one school.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/multiracial-group-of-students-sitting-at-desk-in-royalty-free-image/1345022868?phrase=high%20school%20&adppopup=true">Maskot / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the state of Texas <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2023/03/15/houston-isd-takeover-texas-public-education/11480698002/">took over Houston’s public school district</a> on March 15, 2023, it made the district one of more than 100 school districts in the nation that have experienced similar <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/takeover-9780190678975?cc=us&lang=en&">state takeovers</a> during the past 30 years.</p>
<p>The list includes New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, Oakland and Newark. Houston is the largest school district in Texas and the <a href="https://www.houstonisd.org/about">eighth largest</a> in the U.S.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2023/03/15/houston-isd-takeover-texas-public-education/11480698002/">the state of Texas claims</a> the planned takeover is about school improvement, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/takeover-9780190678975?cc=us&lang=en&">my research on state takeovers</a> of school districts suggests that the Houston takeover, like others, is influenced by racism and political power.</p>
<h2>States fail to deliver</h2>
<p>State governments have used takeovers since the late 1980s to intervene in school districts they have identified as in need of improvement. While state administrations promise that takeovers will improve school systems, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/takeover-9780190678975?cc=us&lang=en&">30 years of evidence</a> shows that state takeovers do not meet the states’ promised expectations. For instance, a recent report called Michigan’s 15-year management of the Detroit schools a <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/detroit/2019/11/14/report-detroit-schools-emergency-management/">“costly mistake”</a> because the takeover was not able to address the school system’s major challenges, which included adequately funding the school district.</p>
<p>But while the takeovers don’t deliver promised results, as <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/takeover-9780190678975?cc=us&lang=en&">I show in my book</a>, they do have significant negative political and economic consequences for communities, which overwhelmingly are communities of color. These negative consequences often include the removal of locally elected school boards. They also involve decreases in teachers and staff and the loss of local control of schools.</p>
<p>Despite the highly problematic history of state takeovers, states have justified the takeovers on the grounds that the entire school district is in need of improvement. However, this is not the case for the Houston takeover because by the state’s own standards, the Houston school system is not failing.</p>
<h2>Low threshold for state intervention</h2>
<p>Following a 2015 law, <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/84R/billtext/pdf/HB01842F.pdf">HB 1842</a>, the state of Texas was granted authority to take over a school district if a single school in that district fails to meet state education standards for five or more years. The bill was passed by the Republican controlled state legislature with Democratic support. However, Democratic state lawmakers representing Houston argue that the law was a mistake and <a href="https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2018/05/03/283249/state-lawmaker-calls-for-legislature-to-intervene-revise-school-takeover-law/">urged for it to be revised</a>.</p>
<p>Although the state has given the Houston Independent School District a <a href="https://txschools.gov/?view=district&id=101912&tab=overview&lng=en">B rating</a>, it plans to take over the Houston schools because <a href="https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/education/2023/03/15/446250/texas-education-agency-takeover-houston-independent-school-district/">one school</a>, Wheatley High School, <a href="https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/education/2023/03/15/446229/considering-race-class-and-power-in-texas-education-agencys-takeover-of-houston-independent-school-district/">has not made sufficient progress</a> <a href="https://txschools.gov/?view=school&id=101912018&tab=performance%7Caccountability&lng=en">since 2017</a>. According to state law, the state can take over a school district or close a school if it fails to meet standards for five years.</p>
<p>The Houston Independent School District has <a href="https://www.houstonisd.org/achievements">280 schools</a>. The district serves over <a href="https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=48525&dataid=244567&FileName=2018-19_FactsFigures_.pdf">200,000 students</a>. It employs roughly <a href="https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=48525&dataid=244567&FileName=2018-19_FactsFigures_.pdf">12,000 teachers</a>. Wheatley High School serves roughly <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/texas/districts/houston-isd/wheatley-high-school-19252">800 students</a> and has roughly 50 teachers. </p>
<p>So why would a state take over a school district that has earned a B rating from the state? And why base the takeover on the performance of one school that represents fewer than 1% of the district’s student and teaching population?</p>
<p>In order to understand the logic of the planned state takeover of the Houston schools, it pays to understand the important role that schools have played in the social, political and economic development of communities of color. Historically, communities of color have relied on school level politics as an entry point to broader political participation. School-level politics may involve issues like ending school segregation, demanding more resources for schools, increasing the numbers of teachers and administrators of color, and participating in school board elections.</p>
<p>The process of gaining political power at the local level – and eventually state level – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7t8s2">often begins at the schools</a>, particularly the school board. For instance, before Blacks and <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/d8d4de9a1c8d4e615fe547902d29a3d2/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y">Latinos</a> elect members of their communities to the city councils, the mayor’s office and the state legislatures, they often <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242612106_Race_Gender_and_Descriptive_Representation_An_Exploratory_View_of_Multicultural_Elected_Leadership_in_the_United_States">elect members to the school board first</a>.</p>
<h2>Political representation at stake</h2>
<p>In Texas, communities of color are politically underrepresented. Although Blacks, Latinos and Asians represent nearly 60% of the population in Texas, their political power at the state level is not proportional to their population. Whites make up <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/11/2023-texas-legislature-representation/">54%</a> of the state legislature. The Republican Party controls the governorship, state House of Representatives and state Senate, but only <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/11/2023-texas-legislature-representation/">12%</a> of all Republican state legislators are of color. Communities of color in Texas have filed lawsuits arguing that they have been prevented from gaining political representation at the state level by Republicans through <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/article/Supreme-Court-hears-arguments-in-Texas-racial-12860526.php">racial gerrymandering</a> and voter identification laws that <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/texas-naacp-v-steen-consolidated-veasey-v-abbott">disenfranchise Black and Latino voters</a>.</p>
<p>However, despite years of systematic exclusion of people of color, the political landscape is changing in Texas. Texas is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/08/fascinating-swings-voting-by-state-type-county/">increasingly urbanizing</a> as a result of population growth in the state’s cities. Since urban voters are <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2019-05-14/demographic-shifts-in-cities-and-states-bring-political-changes-too">more likely</a> to vote Democratic, the growth in the urban population may potentially alter political dynamics in the state. Also, while African Americans have solidly identified with the Democratic Party in Texas, Latinos have not. But that, too, is changing. <a href="https://latinodecisions.com/blog/texas-sized-opportunities-part-3b/">Polls</a> show that Latino support for Republican presidential candidates in Texas went from a high of 49% during George W. Bush’s reelection in 2004 to 35% for John McCain in 2008, 29% for Mitt Romney in 2012 and a low of 18% for Donald Trump in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/12/02/donald-trump-did-not-win-34-of-latino-vote-in-texas-he-won-much-less/">2016</a>, before bouncing back to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/exit-polls-texas.html">41% for Trump</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>Houston, as the largest urban center in Texas, is <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-area-Democrats-upset-by-Bonnen-recording-14536869.php">at the forefront of this challenge</a> to the Republican grip on state power. The Houston schools, in particular, are representative of the state’s demographic and political future. The nine-member Houston school board is reflective of the community it serves. It has three Latinos, four African Americans and two white school board members. This, in my view, is what has put the Houston public school system and school board at the forefront of a battle that is really about race and political power.</p>
<p>The Houston public school system is not failing. Rather, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, Education Commissioner Mike Morath and the Republican state legislature are manufacturing an education crisis to prevent people of color in Houston from exercising their citizenship rights and seizing political power.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-made-up-crisis-behind-the-state-takeover-of-houstons-public-schools-128346">article previously published Jan. 10, 2020</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Domingo Morel 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.</span></em></p>Political power and a history of racism lurk behind the recent state takeover of the Houston public school system.Domingo Morel, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Service, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1990462023-02-17T13:25:25Z2023-02-17T13:25:25ZThe war in Ukraine hasn’t left Europe freezing in the dark, but it has caused energy crises in unexpected places<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510639/original/file-20230216-18-pzle03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5224%2C3101&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh, over daily power cuts, July 27, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photo-taken-on-july-27-2022-shows-that-ganosamhati-news-photo/1242141617">Sony Ramany/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Through a year of war in Ukraine, the U.S. and most European nations have worked to help counter Russia, in supporting Ukraine both with armaments and in world energy markets. Russia was Europe’s main energy supplier when it invaded Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin threatened to leave Europeans to freeze “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/putin-blames-germany-west-nord-stream-1-shutdown-2022-09-07/">like a wolf’s tail</a>” – a reference to a famous Russian fairy tale – if they imposed sanctions on his country. </p>
<p>But thanks to a combination of preparation and luck, Europe has avoided blackouts and power cutoffs. Instead, less wealthy nations like Pakistan and India have contended with electricity outages on the back of unaffordably high global natural gas prices. As a global energy policy analyst, I see this as the latest evidence that less wealthy nations often suffer the most from globalized oil and gas crises. </p>
<p>I believe more volatility is possible. Russia has said that it will cut its crude oil production starting on March 1, 2023, <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/021323-russia-to-send-most-2023-oil-exports-to-friendly-countries-after-output-cut-announcement">by 500,000 barrels per day</a> in response to Western energy sanctions. This amount is about 5% of its current crude oil production, or 0.5% of world oil supply. Many analysts expected the move, but it <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-10/russia-plans-to-cut-march-oil-output-by-500-000-b-d-novak-says">raises concerns</a> about whether more reductions could come in the future. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Europe has avoided an energy crisis in the winter of 2022-2023, but the coming year could be more challenging.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How Europe has kept the lights on</h2>
<p>As Russia’s intent toward Ukraine became clear in late 2021 and early 2022, many governments and energy experts feared one result would be <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-us-find-enough-natural-gas-sources-to-neutralize-russias-energy-leverage-over-europe-175824">an energy crisis in Europe</a>. But one factor that Putin couldn’t control was the weather. Mild temperatures in Europe in recent months, along with proactive conservation policies, have reduced natural gas consumption in key European markets such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europe-should-thank-mild-autumn-averting-gas-crisis-this-winter-kemp-2022-12-16/">by 25%</a>. </p>
<p>With less need for electricity and natural gas, European governments were able to delay drawing on natural gas inventories that they built up over the summer and autumn of 2022. At this point, a continental energy crisis is much less likely than many forecasts predicted. </p>
<p>European natural gas stockpiles are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-13/european-natural-gas-is-stuck-in-storage-after-prices-plunged-from-peak">around 67% full</a>, and they will probably still be 50% full at the end of this winter. This will help the continent position itself for next winter as well. </p>
<p>The situation is similar for coal. European utilities stockpiled coal and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f662a412-9ebc-473a-baca-22de5ff622e2">reactivated 26 coal-fired power plants</a> in 2022, anticipating a possible winter energy crisis. But so far, the continent’s coal use has risen only 7%, and the reactivated coal plants are averaging <a href="https://ember-climate.org/insights/research/european-electricity-review-2023/">just 18% of their operating capacity</a> </p>
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<h2>The U.S. role</h2>
<p>Record-high U.S. energy exports in the summer and fall of 2022 also buoyed European energy security. The U.S. exported close to 10 million cubic meters per month of liquefied natural gas in 2022, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-lng-exports-both-lifeline-drain-europe-2023-maguire-2022-12-20/">up 137% from 2021</a>, providing roughly half of all of Europe’s imported LNG. </p>
<p>Although domestic U.S. natural gas production <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-natgas-output-hit-record-high-2023-demand-fall-2023-01-10/">surged to record levels</a>, some producers had the opportunity to export into high-priced global markets. As a result, surpluses of summer natural gas didn’t emerge inside the U.S. market, as might otherwise have happened. Combined with unusually hot summer temperatures, which drove up energy demand for cooling, the export surge socked U.S. consumers with the highest natural gas prices they had experienced <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/17/energy/natural-gas-inflation-heat-wave/index.html">since 2008</a>. </p>
<p>Prices also soared at U.S. gas pumps, reaching or exceeding US$5 per gallon in the early summer of 2022 – the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/06/09/5-milestone-gas-prices-hit-an-all-time-national-high/?sh=5ce0940654bd">highest average ever recorded</a> by the American Automobile Association. The U.S. exported <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/061022-feature-us-drivers-in-for-expensive-summer-as-refiners-grapple-with-high-demand">close to 1 million barrels per day</a> of gasoline, mainly to Mexico and Central America, plus some to France, and consolidated its position as a <a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/imports-and-exports.php">net oil exporter</a> – that is, it exports more oil than it imports.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510664/original/file-20230216-14-ey1fpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tugboat leads a massive tanker through marshes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510664/original/file-20230216-14-ey1fpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510664/original/file-20230216-14-ey1fpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510664/original/file-20230216-14-ey1fpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510664/original/file-20230216-14-ey1fpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510664/original/file-20230216-14-ey1fpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510664/original/file-20230216-14-ey1fpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510664/original/file-20230216-14-ey1fpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A tugboat helps guide the LNG Endeavor, a French liquefied natural gas tanker, through Calcasieu Lake near Hackberry, La., March 31, 2022. U.S. LNG exports to Europe reached record levels in 2022 as the continent prepared to sever energy ties with Russia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/FloatingLNGClimateImpacts/40c4911770d54b64924b7fff060ebd22/photo">AP Photo/Martha Irvine</a></span>
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<p>Much like Europeans, U.S. consumers had to pay high prices to outbid other global consumers for oil and natural gas amid global supply disruptions and competition for available cargoes. High gasoline prices were <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-gas-tax-holiday-biden-says-it-will-provide-a-little-bit-of-relief-but-experts-say-even-that-may-be-a-stretch-185676">a political headache for the Biden administration</a> through the spring and summer of 2022.</p>
<p>However, these high prices belied the fact that U.S. domestic gasoline use <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/01/21/gasoline-demand-has-peaked-in-america-drivers-will-benefit-in-long-run/">has stopped growing</a>. Forecasts suggest that it will decline further in 2023 and beyond as the fuel economy of U.S. cars continues to improve and the number of electric vehicles on the road expands. </p>
<p>While energy prices were a burden, especially to lower-income households, European and American consumers have been able to ride out price surges driven by the war in Ukraine and have so far avoided actual outages and the worst recessionary fears. And their governments are offering <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-most-cost-effective-energy-efficiency-investments-you-can-make-and-how-the-new-inflation-reduction-act-could-help-188506">big economic incentives</a> to switch to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-03/who-s-better-at-climate-tech-incentives-us-or-europe?sref=Hjm5biAW">clean energy technologies</a> intended to reduce their nations’ need for fossil fuels.</p>
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<h2>Developing nations priced out</h2>
<p>The same can’t be said for consumers in developing nations like Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, who have experienced the energy cutoffs that were feared but didn’t occur in Europe. Notably, Europe’s intensive energy stockpiling in the summer of 2022 caused a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-24/pakistan-faces-deeper-power-crisis-as-lng-becomes-too-expensive?sref=Hjm5biAW">huge jump in global prices</a> for liquefied natural gas. In response, many utilities in less developed nations <a href="https://www.naturalgasintel.com/south-asia-buyers-again-sidelined-by-high-lng-spot-prices/">cut their natural gas purchases</a>, creating price-related electricity outages in some regions.</p>
<p>Faced with continuing high global energy prices, countries in the <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/global-south-countries">global south</a> – Africa, Asia and Latin America – have had to <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/europes-energy-crunch-eill-trigger-years-of-shortages-and-blackouts-101667874654951.html">reevaluate their dependence on foreign imports</a>. <a href="https://www.iea.org/news/global-coal-demand-is-set-to-return-to-its-all-time-high-in-2022">Increased use of coal</a> has made headlines, but renewable energy is starting to offer greater advantages, both because it is <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/renewables-cheapest-energy-source/">more affordable</a> and because governments can frame it as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-climate-and-environment-government-politics-60b7c65cca2c38c26a960d14732bb8bb">more secure and a source of domestic jobs</a>. </p>
<p>India, for example, is <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/cierp/files/2022/09/CPL_PB2206_v5.pdf">doubling down on renewable energy</a>, unveiling plans to produce hydrogen fuel for heavy industry using renewable energy and moving away from imported LNG. Several African countries, such as Ethiopia, are <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/05/10/the-promise-of-african-clean-hydrogen-exports-potentials-and-pitfalls/">fast-tracking development of hydropower</a>.</p>
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<h2>Energy prices and climate justice</h2>
<p>The energy challenge that the Russia-Ukraine crisis has bred in developing countries has intensified global discussions about climate justice. One less examined impact of giant clean tech stimulus plans enacted in wealthy nations, such as the United States’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-most-cost-effective-energy-efficiency-investments-you-can-make-and-how-the-new-inflation-reduction-act-could-help-188506">Inflation Reduction Act</a>, is that they keep much of the available funding for climate finance at home. As a result, some developing country leaders worry that a clean energy technology knowledge gap <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/05/10/the-promise-of-african-clean-hydrogen-exports-potentials-and-pitfalls/">will widen, not shrink</a>, as the energy transition gains momentum. </p>
<p>Worsening the problem, members of the G-7 forum of wealthy nations have <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1016">tightened their monetary policies</a> to control war-driven inflation. This drives up the cost of debt and makes it harder for developing countries to borrow money to invest in clean energy. </p>
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<p>The U.S. is supporting a new approach called <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/energysource/just-energy-transition-partnerships-will-cop27-deliver-for-emerging-economies/">Just Energy Transition Partnerships</a>, in which wealthy nations provide funding to help developing countries shift away from coal-fired power plants, retrain workers and recruit private-sector investors to help finance decarbonization projects. But these solutions are negotiated bilaterally between individual countries, and the pace is slow. </p>
<p>When nations gather in the United Arab Emirates in late 2023 for the next round of global climate talks, wealthy nations – including Middle East oil producers – will face demands for new ways of financing energy security improvements in less wealthy countries. The world’s rich nations pledged in 2009 to direct $100 billion yearly to less wealthy nations by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change and decarbonize their economies, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/wealthy-countries-still-havent-met-their-100-billion-pledge-to-help-poor-countries-face-climate-change-and-the-risks-are-rising-173229">are far behind on fulfilling this promise</a>.</p>
<p>U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on developed nations to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/un-secretary-general-says-polluters-must-pay-calls-extra-tax-fossil-fu-rcna48648">tax fossil fuel companies</a>, which reported record profits in 2022, and use the money to fund climate adaptation in low-income countries. New solutions are needed, because without some kind of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02846-3">major progress</a>, wealthy nations will continue outbidding developing nations for the energy resources that the world’s <a href="https://www.un.org/ohrlls/news/frontline-climate-crisis-worlds-most-vulnerable-nations-suffer-disproportionately">most vulnerable people</a> desperately need.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Myers Jaffe receives funding from U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. </span></em></p>Russia tried to weaponize energy to keep European nations from opposing its war in Ukraine, but the real pain from Putin’s actions and Western sanctions has been felt far from Europe.Amy Myers Jaffe, Director, Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab, and Research Professor, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994582023-02-08T03:58:27Z2023-02-08T03:58:27ZState of the Union: What experts have said about Biden’s proposed reforms on policing, guns and taxes – 8 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508788/original/file-20230208-17-sinz9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C458%2C5542%2C3134&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/StateoftheUnion/0793dd475cc34b48ac6cd1b296624993/photo?Query=biden&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=96897&currentItemNo=2">Jacquelyn Martin, Pool/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The speech lasted 70-odd minutes and was interrupted at least 70 times, mostly by standing ovations from supporters, but also from occasional interjections from less sympathetic lawmakers.</em></p>
<p><em>There was also policy to dissect in President <a href="https://apnews.com/article/state-of-the-union-biden-2023-b9bebd876a42a9510f068a04a3f2a348">Joe Biden’s State of the Union address</a>. Some of it was new, much of it wasn’t – which meant that The Conversation was able to pull from its archives articles that shed light on and provide context and analysis to some of Biden’s proposals. Here are what scholars had to say on three policy themes that emerged.</em> </p>
<h2>1. Reforming the police</h2>
<p>Biden may well have been planning to push for police reform in the State of the Union address before the recent release of footage showing police officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols. But that incident – the latest in a series of high-profile deaths of Black men at the hands of police – has again shined a light on the failure to address systemic problems in the nation’s policing.</p>
<p>In front of an audience that included Nichols’ mother and stepfather, the president called on Congress to “finish the job on police reform,” while referencing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act – a bill that failed to pass into law amid gridlock in Congress.</p>
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<img alt="Two Black people stand with heads bowed as other people around them turn to face them and applaud." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508802/original/file-20230208-24-pi0z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508802/original/file-20230208-24-pi0z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508802/original/file-20230208-24-pi0z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508802/original/file-20230208-24-pi0z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508802/original/file-20230208-24-pi0z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508802/original/file-20230208-24-pi0z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508802/original/file-20230208-24-pi0z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols are applauded by other attendees at the State of the Union.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/StateoftheUnion/a50366a28afe4a7a81c35bc884ac3629/photo?Query=tyre%20mother&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=86&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/Patrick Semansky</a></span>
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<p>The bill would have addressed some of the problems of U.S. policing. It includes a ban on racial profiling by all law enforcement agencies and an end to the “qualified immunity” that protects officers in civil lawsuits. It would also expand the powers of the Justice Department to hold departments to account over civil rights violations.</p>
<p>But, as <a href="https://law.rutgers.edu/directory/view/ak1444">Alexis Karteron</a>, associate professor of law at Rutgers University – Newark, notes, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tyre-nichols-death-prompts-calls-for-federal-legislation-to-promote-police-reform-but-congress-cant-do-much-about-fixing-local-police-159881">it isn’t a sufficient fix</a>. The problem is the federal government has only limited power when it comes to effecting change among the nearly 18,000 police departments in the U.S. </p>
<p>“For those looking to the federal government to solve what’s wrong with policing in America, federal legislation can’t ensure that every police department will make meaningful changes. That’s because the [George Floyd Justice in Policing Act] reflects the hard reality that the federal government has almost no control over state and local police departments,” Karteron writes. She adds that even if it is passed, the likelihood is some of those agencies would sue, “arguing that the federal government is attempting to coerce them into adopting policy reforms they do not need or want.”</p>
<p>Which is why some policing experts, such as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=rJXj1KEAAAAJ">Thaddeus L. Johnson</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=w9JwJd8AAAAJ">Natasha N. Johnson</a> at Georgia State University, have suggested that <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-police-reform-talks-have-failed-but-local-efforts-stand-a-better-chance-of-success-168630">reform is best undertaken at a local level</a>. That would leave the federal government to play “a clear role in regard to financing reform and addressing nonpolicing issues that contribute to crime, such as underlying poverty and the lack of green spaces.”</p>
<p>Federal money could also help police departments recruit and train police officers. Biden in 2022, announced plans to add 100,000 officers nationwide as part of his policing plan. <a href="https://theconversation.com/memphis-police-numbers-dropped-by-nearly-a-quarter-in-recent-years-were-staffing-shortages-a-factor-in-the-killing-of-tyre-nichols-199078">Research from criminologists</a> <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/criminology_and_criminal_justice/our_people/directory/adams_ian.php">Ian T. Adams</a> of the University of South Carolina, <a href="https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-public-affairs-and-community-service/criminology-and-criminal-justice/about-us/justin-nix.php">Justin Nix</a> of the University of Nebraska Omaha, and University of Utah’s <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ypvpo1gAAAAJ&hl=en">Scott M. Mourtgos</a> suggests that adding officers would help reverse a trend that has seen many leave the profession since the protests that followed George Floyd’s death. In Memphis, where Tyre Nichols was killed, police staffing has dropped by nearly a quarter in recent years.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tyre-nichols-death-prompts-calls-for-federal-legislation-to-promote-police-reform-but-congress-cant-do-much-about-fixing-local-police-159881">Tyre Nichols' death prompts calls for federal legislation to promote police reform – but Congress can’t do much about fixing local police</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-police-reform-talks-have-failed-but-local-efforts-stand-a-better-chance-of-success-168630">Federal police reform talks have failed – but local efforts stand a better chance of success</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/memphis-police-numbers-dropped-by-nearly-a-quarter-in-recent-years-were-staffing-shortages-a-factor-in-the-killing-of-tyre-nichols-199078">Memphis police numbers dropped by nearly a quarter in recent years – were staffing shortages a factor in the killing of Tyre Nichols?</a>
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<h2>2. Tightening gun controls</h2>
<p>The State of the Union comes just 38 days into the new year, but already there have been 60 mass shootings in the U.S., according to the nonprofit <a href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/">Gun Violence Archive</a>. Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the gunman at the Jan. 21, 2023 deadly attack at Monterey Park, California, was among the attendees in Congress to hear Biden speak.</p>
<p>Biden detailed what his administration was able to do to promote gun control, notably through provisions contained in the Safer Communities Act. Hailed by Biden as “the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades,” the act was limited in scope, but experts believe its modest reforms will save lives.</p>
<p>Among other provisions, it gives support to states to pass so-called “red flag laws” that allow authorities to seize the firearms of individuals deemed to be a threat. Political scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=3y3BVcEAAAAJ">John A. Tures</a> of LaGrange College has <a href="https://theconversation.com/red-flag-laws-saved-7-300-americans-from-gun-deaths-in-2020-alone-and-could-have-saved-11-400-more-185009">examined the effectiveness of red flag laws</a>.</p>
<p>He found that states that passed such legislation saw significantly lower firearm death rates than states without them. </p>
<p>“In 2020, if there were no red flag laws, I estimate that 52,530 Americans would have died in gun deaths. The number actually recorded was 45,222, indicating red flag laws saved 7,308 American lives that year,” Tures writes.</p>
<p>Lives – mainly female ones – will also be saved by the closing of the “boyfriend loophole,” which had allowed some people with a record of domestic violence to keep and buy firearms. The Safer Communities Act extended the wording in a federal ban to “those who have or have had a continuing relationship of a romantic or intimate nature.” <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=QHzNAqcAAAAJ">April Zeoli</a> at Michigan State University writes that <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-closing-the-boyfriend-loophole-in-gun-legislation-save-lives-heres-what-the-research-says-185481">closing the boyfriend loophole will save lives</a>. But she notes in a separate article that recent court rulings may <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-judge-in-texas-is-using-a-recent-supreme-court-ruling-to-allow-domestic-abusers-to-keep-their-guns-195273">allow domestic abusers to keep their guns</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Biden called for a ban on assault weapons “once and for all.” Such a ban once existed but was allowed to lapse. But do bans on assault rifles work? Yes, writes <a href="https://med.nyu.edu/faculty/michael-j-klein-1">Michael J. Klein</a> of New York University, who was part of a team that analyzed the impact of the federal ban on assault rifles in place for a decade from 1994. </p>
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<p>“We calculated that the risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower during the period in which the assault weapons ban was active,” he writes.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/red-flag-laws-saved-7-300-americans-from-gun-deaths-in-2020-alone-and-could-have-saved-11-400-more-185009">Red flag laws saved 7,300 Americans from gun deaths in 2020 alone – and could have saved 11,400 more</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-closing-the-boyfriend-loophole-in-gun-legislation-save-lives-heres-what-the-research-says-185481">Will closing the 'boyfriend loophole' in gun legislation save lives? Here's what the research says</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-judge-in-texas-is-using-a-recent-supreme-court-ruling-to-allow-domestic-abusers-to-keep-their-guns-195273">A judge in Texas is using a recent Supreme Court ruling to allow domestic abusers to keep their guns</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-assault-weapons-ban-of-1994-bring-down-mass-shootings-heres-what-the-data-tells-us-184430">Did the assault weapons ban of 1994 bring down mass shootings? Here's what the data tells us</a>
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<h2>3. Taxing the rich?</h2>
<p>Biden came to the State of the Union armed with economic data showing robust job growth and evidence that once-soaring inflation is beginning to fall.</p>
<p>With the United States’ increasing national debt as a backdrop, Biden outlined a plan to boost government revenues through a minimum tax for billionaires and a quadrupling of the tax on corporate stock buybacks.</p>
<p>Even if Republicans in Congress were to approve the measures, it is unlikely to set a course for a new era of progressive taxation. As <a href="https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/profile/1047593">Gabriel Zucman</a> and <a href="https://eml.berkeley.edu/%7Esaez/">Emmanuel Saez</a>, economists at the University of California, Berkeley, explain, similar plans eyed by Democrats in recent years <a href="https://theconversation.com/tax-the-rich-democrats-plans-to-make-the-wealthy-pay-a-little-more-will-barely-dent-americas-long-slide-from-progressive-taxation-168057">hardly amount to squeezing the uber-rich</a>; in fact, they do little to reverse the decadeslong trend toward regressive taxation, in which lower earners pay a larger percentage of their earnings in tax than wealthier ones.</p>
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<p>The two economists conclude that although it would “increase taxes on millionaires significantly,” the 2021 proposal put forward by Democrats would “largely leave billionaires off the hook, despite the explosion of their wealth during the pandemic.”</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/tax-the-rich-democrats-plans-to-make-the-wealthy-pay-a-little-more-will-barely-dent-americas-long-slide-from-progressive-taxation-168057">'Tax the rich'? Democrats' plans to make the wealthy pay a little more will barely dent America's long slide from progressive taxation</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199458/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
President Biden outlined his achievements in key policy areas and sketched out his plans for the rest of his term in office.Matt Williams, Senior International EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1990472023-02-07T19:34:30Z2023-02-07T19:34:30ZDebate: ChatGPT reminds us why good questions matter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508626/original/file-20230207-21-k6uwib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Over 100 million people used ChatGPT in January alone, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/">one estimate</a>, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. By producing resumes, essays, jokes and even poetry in response to prompts, the software brings into focus not just language models’ arresting power, but the importance of framing our questions correctly.</p>
<p>To that end, a few years ago I initiated the <a href="https://the100questions.org/">100 Questions Initiative</a>, which seeks to catalyse a cultural shift in the way we leverage data and develop scientific insights. The project aims not only to generate new questions, but also reimagine the process of asking them.</p>
<h2>A hard-wired hunger for answers</h2>
<p>As a species and a society, we tend to look for answers. Answers appear to provide a sense of clarity and certainty, and can help guide our actions and policy decisions. Yet any answer represents a provisional end-stage of a process that begins with questions – and often can generate more questions. Einstein drew attention to the critical importance of how questions are framed, which can often determine (or at least play a significant role in determining) the answers we ultimately reach. Frame a question differently and one might reach a different answer. Yet as a society we undervalue the act of questioning – who formulates questions, how they do so, the impact they have on what we investigate, and on the decisions we make. Nor do we pay sufficient attention to whether the answers are in fact addressing the questions initially posed.</p>
<p>Questions play a key role in many aspects of our lives. The right questions are critical, for instance, to the scientific process, driving inquiry and exploration across a wide range of topics and issues and shaping public policy. Consider a government-authorised list of recommended vaccines for school kids. This list represents an endpoint (an answer) in a long process. Yet what questions did scientists and policymakers begin with to arrive at this list? What were the public health goals they set themselves, how did they determine efficacy and what cutoff points did they select in the balance between benefit and risk? Such questions have a crucial role to play in the ultimate selection of vaccines placed on the list, as well as in public health.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A screen displaying a ChatGPT logo stands at the front of a room packed with teachers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers are seen behind a laptop during a workshop on ChatGPT bot in the Swiss canton of Geneva.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://news.afp.com/#/c/main/search/photos?id=newsml.afp.com.20230206T020004Z.doc-338h767&type=photo">Fabrice Coffrini</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Science reporting tends to focus on outcomes and insights. These represent end-stage or top-level information. As the above example illustrates, more attention to the questions and the way they are framed would help contextualise end-stage information, allowing policymakers and citizens alike to make better, more responsible decisions.</p>
<p>Questions also give value to data. Much of the reporting and commentary today focuses on the amount of data generated and the need to open them for scientific and public consumption – i.e., the supply of raw data. But questions are what transform raw data into information: the questions we ask frame the problems we seek to solve, allowing us to leverage data for the public good.</p>
<h2>Why AI makes a science of questioning ever more pressing</h2>
<p>The rise of <a href="https://docs.cohere.ai/docs/introduction-to-large-language-models">large language models</a> (LLMs) and the field of <a href="https://docs.cohere.ai/docs/prompt-engineering">prompt engineering</a> has exposed us to the importance of framing questions correctly, to get an LLM to provide answers (the correctness and truthfulness of these answers remain an issue, though). But before prompt engineering becomes relevant, it’s important to point out that when AI engineers develop a machine learning model that learns from data, what it learns – meaning the model itself – is dependent on the question one seeks to answer of the data.</p>
<p>It is also important to keep in mind that the answers provided by AI systems might reflect <a href="https://www.questionmachines.net/">biases or lacunae in the underlying data</a>. <a href="https://www.questionmachines.net/">This problem has been highlighted</a>, for instance, in the context of automated Q&A systems such as Alexa and Siri, which provide answers to a large number of households for a variety of daily tasks and questions. Discovering and developing ways to formulate questions so that they overcome some of the inherent biases of data should therefore be an important part of the practice and theory of prompt engineering – and, more generally, of an emerging science of questions in the age of data.</p>
<p>The role of questions may be heightened in a digital environment, but their importance actually extends far deeper. There is a long tradition, dating at least back to Socrates and many schools of Eastern thought, of using questions to further pedagogy and various forms of human and social learning. Others have written of the need for <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Pedagogy_of_Questioning/TlfkngEACAAJ?hl=en">“a pedagogy of questioning”</a>. And more recently, scientists and scholars have been exploring the use of the <a href="https://www.dell.com/en-us/blog/how-data-analytics-and-the-socratic-method-can-help-take-your-business-to-the-next-level/">Socratic Method in data analytics</a> and <a href="https://www.kdnuggets.com/2019/06/data-literacy-socratic-method.html">promoting data literacy</a>.</p>
<h2>Questions to combat information overload</h2>
<p>Ultimately, by helping us understand what really matters, questions are drivers of societal change and improvement. They help establish priorities, and they allow us to imagine alternatives. As such, questions are political. And, as Perry Zurn explained in <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/curiosity-and-power"><em>The Politics of Curiosity</em></a> our political commitments often inform the questions we think are worth asking.</p>
<p>As society becomes overloaded with data and data-derived findings, we have increasingly strayed away from questions. This post represents an initial justification for what we might think of as a new science of questions.</p>
<p>To define and create such a science, we need to begin, in fact, by asking ourselves a series of questions. How can we make science reporting more focused on the questions being asked in science? What are good questions (and bad questions)? How can we complement data science with a new science of questions? How can we enable learners to become questioners? How do we ensure questioning is inclusive and free of bias? How do we fulfill the potential of machine learning and AI with good questions?</p>
<p>Confronting and answering such questions requires a new interdisciplinary effort that would bring together scientists, data scientists, science writers, social change actors, artists, and educational experts. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/collections/research-directions">Glimpses of such efforts</a> are already underway. But we need much more interaction across information and disciplinary silos, and we need to foster conversations that shift our society’s focus away from answers and toward context and purpose – toward, in effect, asking the right questions.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The article was co-written with <a href="http://anilananthaswamy.com/">Anil Ananthaswamy</a>, a science writer and former writer for the New Scientist magazine.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefaan G. Verhulst 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.</span></em></p>Answers are all the rage in the information age. However, to become wise we will need to learn to formulate better questions.Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (GovLab), New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1977582023-01-29T14:22:07Z2023-01-29T14:22:07ZA study of close to half a million soccer fans shows how group identity shapes behaviour<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505963/original/file-20230123-11-me17cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4056%2C2695&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Argentina fans celebrating their team's World Cup victory walk past a mural of Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires. While shared nationality is a factor, most fans typically think about players in terms of their club team.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mario De Fina)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Dec. 18, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/18/lionel-messi-argentina-france-world-cup-final/">Argentina defeated France</a> after penalties in what some have called the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/football/argentina-france-best-world-cup-final-spt-intl/index.html">greatest World Cup final ever</a>. For one month the attention of soccer fans from Brazil to Morocco was devoted to their national teams as the Seleção Canarinho, Atlas Lions and 30 other teams battled through the tournament in Qatar.</p>
<p>Now fans’ focus is returning to Real Madrid, Chelsea, AC Milan and other clubs, as the major domestic leagues resume matches. Argentina’s hero, Lionel Messi and France’s superstar Kylian Mbappé, rivals on the pitch in Qatar just a few weeks ago, are now back in their familiar roles as teammates at Paris Saint-Germain. </p>
<p>Soccer players compete for a professional club but also hail from different, sometimes rival, countries. This duality provides a natural laboratory to study a question that has preoccupied social scientists for decades: How do our group memberships affect our behaviour? We <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26187-x">recently published research</a> from a study on the impact of group identity on behaviour among over 400,000 soccer fans from 35 countries.</p>
<p>We found that national identity leads to more in-group support from fans but team identity has no effect. And that soccer fans offer less support for players who have left the club they support.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of football fans one of whom is waving a Canadian flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canada fans cheer the Canadian soccer team during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Shared national identity can lead to players receiving more support from fans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Us vs. Them</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html">Social Identity Theory</a> holds that group membership provides us with a sense of belonging and raises self-esteem. We tend to categorize people in terms of group memberships, dividing the world into “Us” and “Them.” We often favour individuals belonging to our same social group and discriminate against those in the out-group.</p>
<p>Studying this behaviour is difficult. Experiments offer a way to isolate effects, but laboratory studies are usually highly artificial and experiments set in the real world typically require participants to make decisions based on very little information. These factors limit how far findings can be generalized.</p>
<p>To overcome these challenges, we partnered with a popular soccer app, <a href="https://forzafootball.com">Forza Football</a> to design an experiment studying the role of social identities in decision-making. The experiment was conducted during Forza’s annual poll to determine the world’s best soccer player.</p>
<p>We randomly altered the information users saw on the ballot in the 2018 poll to include either the players’ nationality, their professional club or just their name and photo. Forza users saw one of these three ballots and clicked on the player they thought was best.</p>
<p>The 10 players in the poll played for 10 different clubs and hailed from 10 different countries. After <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/05/26/wild-champions-league-final-sees-bicycle-goal-mo-salah-injured/">a record breaking 2018 season</a>, it was no surprise Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah won the poll.</p>
<h2>Shared nationality a factor</h2>
<p>We also knew users’ favourite clubs as well as their nationality. This allowed us to test how individuals vote when a player was presented as either belonging to their social group or being from an out-group.</p>
<p>For example, when we showed a Belgian Manchester United supporter that <a href="https://www.mancity.com/players/kevin-de-bruyne">Kevin de Bruyne</a> is Belgian, we create a shared identity. But if we show the same person that de Bruyne plays for rival club Manchester City, we create an unshared identity.</p>
<p>We found strong evidence of in-group favouritism based on national identity. Presenting players’ nationalities in addition to their names and photos increased in-group voting by 3.6 per cent compared to when nationality was absent. </p>
<p>On the other hand, providing information about a player’s professional club didn’t change voting behaviour. In other words, a person was more likely to vote for a player who is of the same nationality. While a fan sharing a club with a player had no effect on voting. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two soccer players wearing black and red outfits running on a pitch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Belgian soccer player Kevin De Bruyne (left) celebrates with his Manchester City teammate Norwegian Erling Haaland after scoring a goal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jon Super)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, a Portuguese user who saw that Cristiano Ronaldo is Portuguese, for example, was significantly more likely to vote for him than a Portuguese user who saw a ballot with just names and photos.</p>
<p>The disparate effect of shared club and national identity is likely due in part to the prominence of each identity. Soccer fans typically think about players in terms of their club team, not their national team. As a result, our subtle prime was more effective in raising the salience of the national identity than club affiliation.</p>
<p>We also measured how strongly fans identify with their favourite team and their nationality. It turns out, unsurprisingly, the effect of nationality on voting is greatest among individuals for whom that identity is more important.</p>
<h2>Voting for and voting against</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a red soccer outfit kick a football." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah scores his sixth goal during a Champions League match against Rangers F.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Scott Heppell)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People not only voted for their in-group, they voted against candidates in their out-group. Professional soccer players sometimes change teams in transfers. </p>
<p>This creates a great test of the idea that individuals actively vote against someone they view as an out-group candidate. </p>
<p>For example, in 2017 Mohamed Salah <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2713686-mohamed-salah-liverpool-agree-to-long-term-contract-after-roma-transfer">moved to his current club</a>, Liverpool, from the Italian team AS Roma. This means for Roma supporters, Salah was in the in-group but is now in the out-group.</p>
<p>When presented with a ballot highlighting the fact a former in-group member is now in the out-group (on a different team), users were significantly less likely to vote for the player.</p>
<p>For these fans, providing team information caused a 6.1 per cent decrease in voting for an out-group player. </p>
<h2>Sports matters beyond the field of play</h2>
<p>Recent research by a team of political scientists has indicated star players like Salah <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2019/06/06/mo-salahs-goals-help-to-tackle-islamophobia-in-liverpool?linkId=100000006633012&utm_campaign=Link_Description&utm_content=Social_native_videos&utm_medium=Economist_Films&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Social_Issues">can reduce prejudice</a>. They found Islamophobia declined in the Liverpool area because of Salah’s presence.</p>
<p>But what happens when Salah stops scoring or changes team? Our results suggest sports fans might be quite fickle and that strongly identifying with the in-group is directly related to a backlash effect toward out-groups.</p>
<p>Sports reflect, reveal and shape major social, economic and political values and changes. Sometimes sports is used to bridge or widen ethnic, racial, religious and partisan divides.</p>
<p>For example, researchers have studied racial bias by looking at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/02/25/what-the-nba-can-teach-us-about-eliminating-racial-bias/">foul calls in the NBA</a>, how <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/research/nation-building-through-football-africa-cup">sports success can help unite</a> divided societies and how <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/interfaith-soccer-muslim-christian-tensions-positive-contact">playing sports together</a> can foster co-operation. Our study follows this trend and provides insights from the sports world on how group identity affects behaviour.</p>
<p>The effect of perceiving a shared or unshared group identity is likely small in any particular interaction. But the results of our large-scale study suggest relatively small changes in the prominence of group identities can alter behaviour. This has implications for how ballots are designed, how advertisers target, how social justice campaigns are rolled out and myriad other decision-making scenarios.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>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.</span></em></p>Studying how shared identities like nationality and club affiliation impact fan support for soccer players can tell us how our group memberships affect our behaviour.Daniel Rubenson, Professor of Political Science, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityChris Dawes, Associate Professor of Politics, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1930602022-11-16T13:27:38Z2022-11-16T13:27:38ZMath teachers in virtual classes tend to view girls and Black students as less capable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494491/original/file-20221109-16841-a4qjc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C125%2C6970%2C4387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black boys are more likely than white students to be identified as potentially in need of special education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/growing-his-mind-royalty-free-image/1159785349?phrase=remote%20learning%20kids&adppopup=true">Hiraman via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>In virtual classrooms, math teachers deem Black students as less capable than white students. They also view girls as less capable than boys. That’s what we found after we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104627">conducted an experiment</a> with 1,000 teachers in schools throughout the United States. </p>
<p>For our experiment, we had teachers evaluate student answers to various math problems. Those answers were accompanied by images of different students online. We asked them to tell us how correct the students’ answers were. We also asked them to tell us how capable they thought the student was and how likely they would be to refer the student to be tested for a special education program to get extra help, or a gifted program, which would enable them to do more advanced work. We randomly changed the images of students presenting their solutions in Zoom classes to show Black and white girls and boys. However, the solutions stayed the same. </p>
<p>We found that teachers more often thought the student needed to be tested for special education when they saw a screenshot of a Black student explaining their answer rather than a white student. The teachers more often thought the student was gifted if the screenshot showed a boy rather than a girl. </p>
<p>Furthermore, our study showed that when teachers work in schools that serve higher concentrations of Black students, they often assumed that Black students had less math ability than white students. They also considered them more in need of instructional support. But in schools with virtually no Black students, teachers were more likely to say that white boys should be tested for a gifted and talented program than white girls. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Our experiment suggests teachers are identifying Black students as potentially having disabilities more often than white students who produced the same answers to math problems. Further, girls are not being given equal chances to be placed in gifted programs even when they give answers identical to those given by boys.</p>
<p>As virtual instruction is expected to become <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-1.html">more commonplace</a> than before the pandemic, our study warns that virtual classrooms may perpetuate the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19890577">same biases</a> that exist in traditional school settings. </p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X16644606">Researchers</a> are still trying to understand whether the overrepresentation of minority students in special education is the result of systematic racial bias.</p>
<p>As we found in this study and in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19890577">our prior work</a>, teachers assumed boys had a higher ability than girls when both gave answers that were not fully correct. Such blind trust in boys’ math ability can boost their confidence and may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba7377">embolden them to pursue math-intensive fields at a higher rate</a> than girls, who are not seen by teachers as having as high a math ability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yasemin Copur-Gencturk receives funding from the Joan Herman and Richard Rasiej Mathematics Initiative. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Cimpian receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Thacker 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.</span></em></p>Researchers found that students are being judged by their race and gender, not how well they do math.Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, Associate Professor of Education, University of Southern CaliforniaIan Thacker, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, The University of Texas at San AntonioJoseph Cimpian, Professor of Economics and Education Policy, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1878632022-09-26T20:32:50Z2022-09-26T20:32:50ZDebate: How to stop our cities from being turned into AI jungles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486555/original/file-20220926-12-8kztvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C383%2C3464%2C2359&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the city of London, security cameras can even be found in cemeteries. In 2021 the mayor's office launched an effort to establish guidelines for research around emerging technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/City_of_London_Cemetery_Columbarium_security_camera_2_lighter.jpg">Acabashi/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As artificial intelligence grows more ubiquitous, its potential and the challenges it presents are coming increasingly into focus. How we balance the risks and opportunities is shaping up as one of the defining questions of our era. In much the same way that cities have emerged as hubs of innovation in culture, politics, and commerce, so they are defining the frontiers of AI governance.</p>
<p>Some examples of how cities have been taking the lead include the <a href="https://citiesfordigitalrights.org/">Cities Coalition for Digital Rights</a>, the <a href="https://recherche.umontreal.ca/english/strategic-initiatives/montreal-declaration-for-a-responsible-ai/">Montreal Declaration for Responsible AI</a>, and the <a href="https://opendialogueonai.com/">Open Dialogue on AI Ethics</a>. Others can be found in San Francisco’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco.html">ban of facial-recognition technology</a>, and New York City’s push for <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-city-artificial-intelligence-hiring-restriction/">regulating the sale of automated hiring systems</a> and creation of an <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ampo/index.page">algorithms management and policy officer</a>. Urban institutes, universities and other educational centres have also been forging ahead with a range of <a href="https://fari.brussels/">AI ethics initiatives</a>.</p>
<p>These efforts point to an emerging paradigm that has been referred to as <a href="https://ailocalism.org/">AI Localism</a>. It’s a part of a larger phenomenon often called <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/the-new-localism/">New Localism</a>, which involves cities taking the lead in regulation and policymaking to develop context-specific approaches to a variety of problems and challenges. We have also seen an increased uptake of city-centric approaches <a href="https://china.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788973274/9781788973274.xml">within international law frameworks</a>. </p>
<p>In so doing, municipal authorities are filling gaps left by insufficient state, national or global governance frameworks related to AI and other complex issues. Recent years, for example, have seen the emergence of <a href="https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/611/">“broadband localism”</a>, in which local governments address the digital divide; and <a href="https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/upload_documents/Rubinstein%20Privacy%20Localism.pdf">“privacy localism”</a>, both in response to challenges posed by the increased use of data for law enforcement or recruitment.</p>
<p>AI localism encompasses a wide variety of issues, stakeholders, and contexts. In addition to bans on AI-powered facial recognition, local governments and institutions are looking at procurement rules pertaining to AI use by public entities, public registries of local governments’ AI systems, and public education programs on AI. But even as initiatives and case studies multiply, we still lack a systematic method to assess their effectiveness – or even the very need for them. This limits policymakers’ ability to develop appropriate regulation and more generally stunts the growth of the field.</p>
<h2>Building an AI Localism framework</h2>
<p>Below are ten principles to help systematise our approach to AI Localism. Considered together, they add up to an incipient framework for implementing and assessing initiatives around the world:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Principles provide a North Star for governance:</strong> Establishing and articulating a clear set of guiding principles is an essential starting point. For example, the <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/publications/emerging-technology-charter-london">Emerging Technology Charter for London</a>, launched by the mayoral office in 2021 to outline “practical and ethical guidelines” for research around emerging technology and smart-city technology pilots, is one example. Similar projects exist in Nantes, France, which rolled out a <a href="https://metropole.nantes.fr/files/pdf/numerique-innovation/Charte-donnee.pdf">data charter</a> to underscore the local government’s commitment to data sovereignty, protection, transparency, and innovation. Such efforts help interested parties chart a course that effectively balances the potential and challenges posed by AI while affirming a commitment to openness and transparency on data use for the public.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Public engagement provides a social license:</strong> Establishing trust is essential to fostering responsible use of technology as well as broader acceptance and uptake by the public. Forms of public engagement – crowdsourcing, awareness campaigns, mini-assemblies, and more – can help to build trust, and should be part of a deliberative process undertaken by policymakers. For example, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing held their <a href="http://celavoice.org/">first virtual public hearing</a> with citizens and worker advocacy groups on the growing use of AI in hiring and human resources, and the potential for technological bias in procurement.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>AI literacy enables meaningful engagement:</strong> The goal of AI literacy is to encourage familiarity with the technology itself as well as with associated ethical, political, economic and cultural issues. For example, the <a href="https://montrealethics.ai/">Montreal AI Ethics Institute</a>, a non-profit focused on advancing AI literacy, provides free, timely, and digestible information about AI and AI-related happenings from across the world.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Security cameras on a pole in New York City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In New York City, the city has established an Algorithms Management and Policy Officer to govern the use of how data captured by security cameras and other devices is managed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/NYPD_Surveillance_Tech_2.jpg">Cyprian Latewood/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Tap into local expertise:</strong> Policymakers should tap into cities’ AI expertise by establishing or supporting research centres. Two examples are the <a href="https://claire-ai.org/">Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe</a> (CLAIRE), a pan-European project that takes a European focus to AI uses in cities and <a href="https://howbusyistoon.com/">“How Busy Is Toon”</a>, a website developed by Newcastle City Council and Newcastle University to provide real-time transit information about the city centre.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Innovate in how transparency is provided:</strong> To build trust and foster engagement, AI Localism should encompass time-tested transparency principles and practices. For example, Amsterdam and Helsinki <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/28/amsterdam-and-helsinki-launch-algorithm-registries-to-bring-transparency-to-public-deployments-of-ai/">disclose AI use</a> and explain <a href="https://www.antibes-juanlespins.com/administration/acces-aux-documents-administratifs">how algorithms are employed</a> for specific purposes. In addition, AI Localism can innovate in how transparency is provided, instilling awareness and systems to identify and overcome <a href="https://aiblindspot.media.mit.edu/">“AI blind spots”</a> and other forms of unconscious bias.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Establish means for accountability and oversight:</strong> One of the signal features of AI Localism is a recognition of the need for accountability and oversight to ensure that principles of responsive governance are being adhered to. Examples include New York City’s <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/554-19/mayor-de-blasio-signs-executive-order-establish-algorithms-management-policy-officer">Algorithms Management and Policy Officer</a>, Singapore’s <a href="https://oecd.ai/en/dashboards/policy-initiatives/2019-data-policyInitiatives-24364">Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of AI and Data</a>, and Seattle’s <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/tech/initiatives/privacy/surveillance-technologies/surveillance-advisory-working-group">Surveillance Advisory Working Group</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Signal boundaries through binding laws and policies:</strong> Principles are only as good as they are implemented or enforced. Ratifying legislation, such as New York City’s <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/09/new-york-city-biometrics-law/">Biometrics Privacy Law</a>, which requires clear notices that biometric data is being collected by businesses, limits how businesses can use such data. It also prohibits selling and profiting from the data. Such regulation sends a clear message to consumers that their data rights and protections are upheld and holds corporations accountable to respecting privacy privileges.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Use procurement to shape responsible AI markets:</strong> As municipal and other governments have done in other areas of public life, cities should use procurement policies to encourage responsible AI initiatives. For instance, the Berkeley, California Council passed an <a href="https://berkeley.municipal.codes/BMC/2.99.010">ordinance</a> requiring that public departments justify the use of new surveillance technologies and that the benefits of these tools outweigh the harms prior to procurement.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Establish data collaboratives to tackle asymmetries:</strong> Data collaboratives are an emerging form of intersectoral partnership, in which private data is reused and deployed toward the public good. In addition to yielding new insights and innovations, such partnerships can also be powerful tools for breaking down the data asymmetries that both underlie and drive so many wider socio-economic inequalities. Encouraging data collaboratives, by identifying possible partnerships and matching supply and demand, is thus an important component of AI Localism. Initial efforts include the <a href="https://amdex.eu/">Amsterdam Data Exchange</a>, which allows for data to be securely shared to address local issues.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Make good governance strategic:</strong> Too many AI strategies don’t include governance and too many governance approaches are not strategic. It is thus imperative that cities have a clear vision on how they see data and AI being used to improve local wellbeing. Charting an <a href="https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/digital/sites/default/files/mesura_de_govern_intel_ligencia_artificial_eng.pdf">AI strategy</a>, as was undertaken by the Barcelona City Council in 2021, can create avenues to embed smart AI use across agencies and open up AI awareness to residents to make responsible data use and considerations a common thread rather than a siloed exercise within local government.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>AI Localism is an emergent area, and both its practice and research remain in flux. The technology itself continues to change rapidly, offering something of a moving target for governance and regulation. Its state of flux highlights the need for the type of framework outlined above. Rather than playing catch-up, responding reactively to successive waves of technological innovation, policymakers can respond more consistently, and responsibly, from a principled bedrock that takes into account, the often competing needs of various stakeholders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187863/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefaan G. Verhulst 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.</span></em></p>As states and nations struggle to regulate growing AI use, municipal authorities are often leading the way. An emerging paradigm known as AI Localism can help us better define the way forward.Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (GovLab), New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.