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Seventy-five per cent of health care in Canada is provided at home by unpaid family caregivers. Not only is this essential health-care work often unrecognized and under-supported, it is rapidly changing.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many health-care appointments have shifted to telephone and videoconferencing. This change in the mode of health-care delivery has now become more fully integrated into the Canadian health-care system.

While a lot of policy and research has focused on the impact of this transition on doctors and patients, these changes also have important implications for caregivers.

With a growing portion of Canadians opting to age in place at home, family members will increasingly be relied upon to provide care. However, unlike professional health-care workers, family caregivers are generally not compensated for their labour.

With a growing portion of Canadians opting to age in place at home, family members will increasingly be relied upon to provide care.
(Shutterstock)

In fact, the act of caregiving is associated with personal costs. Caregivers often must take time away from paid work to provide care, which in turn affects their financial security. Notably, women make up the major share of caregivers in Canada.

To better understand the needs of caregivers, our research team reviewed existing studies, and conducted interviews and workshops with caregivers and others taking part in virtual health. Our findings shed light on how virtual care has so far interacted with existing inequities to create opportunities and challenges for caregivers.

The impact of virtual care

For example, virtual care has reduced the economic costs of attending appointments by lessening the need for caregivers to take time off work. It has also expanded caregiver networks, allowing those living at a distance to be involved in a loved one’s care, and opened new avenues for caregivers to find supportive communities and services online.

However, caregivers also report encountering challenges with virtual care. Among these are experiences overcoming the “digital divide,” which acknowledges differences in access to technology (such as limited internet access) and/or a lack of operational knowledge of digital devices.

Establishing rapport with health-care professionals during virtual health consultations can be a challenge.
(Shutterstock)

Although technology and internet usage have become increasingly ingrained in the day-to-day lives of Canadians, individuals living with limited incomes, or who live in remote areas, still face barriers to reliable internet.

Our research suggests this limits options for accessing virtual forms of health care. Meanwhile, some patients who have more limited knowledge of digital technology rely on a caregiver to facilitate virtual appointments.

Other challenges with virtual care identified by caregivers include difficulty establishing rapport with a clinician during virtual meetings. This can be especially true for those without a designated family physician, who instead regularly meet with virtual walk-in doctors.

For Indigenous communities, this lack of a consistent point of care undermine efforts to access care that is free from racism, stigma and discrimination — something that is largely achieved through the long-term establishment of trusting relationships with patients and their caregivers in a community setting.

For caregivers of diverse languages, we found that virtual appointments outside of formal health-care spaces where interpretation services are more readily available often mean that they are called upon to translate language and cultural nuances with clinicians, adding to their responsibilities as caregivers.

Barriers and stressors

Many caregivers are seniors themselves, who are taking care of a spouse or an elderly parent.
(Shutterstock)

Navigating new virtual health-care tools can also create new stressors for caregivers. For instance, uncertainty as to where and how to follow up with a clinician, or concerns related to privacy and confidentiality. These concerns, amidst other barriers, can compound feelings of anxiety for caregivers already grappling with the stress of their loved one’s care.

One community support worker we interviewed for our study noted that most caregivers in their program were seniors themselves, who were taking care of a spouse or an elderly parent. “So, they are seniors, too … they may not have the technology skills to access to the virtual care.” This includes hardware. The support worker noted that older caregivers may not have smartphones, tablets, laptops or even internet. This can create a financial barrier as well as a technological one: “For some low-income seniors, it’s very difficult,” they said.

These experiences make clear that, although virtual health care brings new opportunities that can alleviate access barriers for caregivers, there is also a risk of new challenges being introduced.

Health policymakers and clinicians must be attentive to caregivers’ unique needs if we are to have truly equitable models for virtual care. Meaningful engagement with caregivers of diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds is a necessary first step. Läs mer…

Economists working on macroeconomic policy – things like taxes and spending, interest rates and border controls on flows of trade and money – often refer to a set of key relationships governments can influence. In the textbooks, each of those relationships is drawn as a curve in a graph.

First is the IS (“investment–saving”) curve. This says that if everything else stays the same, the Reserve Bank can increase economic output and employment by lowering the interest rate. Or it can cause a recession by raising the interest rate. (For simplicity’s sake, the curves here are depicted as straight lines.)

Second comes the Phillips Curve, which is usually drawn sloping upwards to suggest that if everything else stays the same, inflation will rise during economic booms and fall in recessions. In other words, the Reserve Bank or the government can apparently bring inflation down by causing a recession.

Third comes the trade balance – the current account of the balance of payments (investment income and traded goods and services between New Zealand and the rest of the world).

If everything else stays the same here, as the exchange rate of the dollar falls, the current account strengthens by moving towards or expanding a surplus. If the exchange rate rises, the current account weakens: exports fall and imports increase.

However, it’s a mistake to suppose each of these relationships will stay where it is while the government and Reserve Bank each tinker with their own policy settings. So, what could go wrong?

The effect of austerity

Start with the IS curve – the way output and employment are affected by interest rates, assuming the government makes no big budgetary changes. But what if the government embarks on an austerity program, slashing its spending and cancelling projects, which shrinks the economy?

At any given interest rate, output and employment will be lower, shifting the whole curve “leftwards” towards lower economic activity (see above).

Even if the Reserve Bank lowers the interest rate, that won’t expand the economy because the government’s fiscal policy is killing off its expansionary effect. The recession created by the austerity program rolls on.

Along the way, it increases costs to government from unemployment, paying other benefits, and lower tax revenue. If the government responds with further austerity, we enter a downward self-reinforcing spiral.

Wages and inflation

Second, take the Phillips Curve and ask what happens if inflation isn’t, in fact, sensitive to how the economy is doing.

In this case, driving the economy into recession has no effect on the inflation rate. When the Reserve Bank changes the interest rate, inflation just stays where it is because the Phillips Curve is flat, not upward-sloping. Reducing inflation requires completely different policy interventions.

Back when the Phillips Curve was invented, it was reasonable to think inflation fell during recessions because workers could get higher wage increases in booms than in slumps.

Bringing on a recession would reduce the bargaining power of workers, result in slower wage growth, and thereby tame inflation (given that wages are an important part of the costs of production).

But workers today have lost the bargaining power they used to have when unions were strong and welfare-state thinking prevailed.

In a paper fellow economist Bill Rosenberg and I published this year, we show the bargaining power of labour was killed off in 1991 by the Employment Contracts Act and has not recovered since. Wages no longer drive inflation in contemporary New Zealand.

Interest rates and inflation

Could the Phillips Curve work because producers of goods and services push up prices and profits faster in booms and cut their margins in recessions?

It’s possible: there’s plenty of evidence of big companies using their market power to price-gouge consumers. But it’s not clear this exercise of market power is greater in booms and lesser in slumps.

In fact, the opposite could be true. Small businesses are most likely to be driven out of the market in recessions, leaving big companies with increased market share and less competitive pressure on their margins.

Forces both locally and in international markets have clearly been pushing the Phillips Curve down, producing lower inflation. Local forces include the current government’s abrupt cancellation of major construction activities, dismissal of public servants, the constant negative messaging on the state of the economy, and rising outward migration as a consequence of all these.

International markets, including falling prices for imports such as oil, have also clearly been pushing the Phillips Curve down. While the Reserve Bank will claim credit, it’s not at all clear the bank’s interest rate policy has made that much difference.

Finally, what about the international balance of payments? One thing the Reserve Bank can do by changing the interest rate is change the exchange rate between the New Zealand dollar and other currencies.

If New Zealand’s interest rates increase relative to elsewhere in the world, short-term money flows in to take advantage of the higher rates. This raises the exchange rate, and in turn weakens the external balance by cutting the return on exports and increasing the volume of cheaper imports.

Producers of goods and services that face international competition are squeezed. Meanwhile, what used to be called the “sheltered” or “non-tradeable” industries – including the big banks, insurance companies, electricity suppliers, supermarkets, consultancies – are unscathed.

Deeper recession

The Reserve Bank may not have much effect on inflation, but it can certainly affect the structure of the economy. Using the interest rate as the weapon against inflation squeezes manufacturers, tourism and farmers, but leaves non-tradables largely untouched.

Right now in New Zealand, the IS curve is remorselessly shifting left as the economy plunges into a deeper recession exacerbated by government austerity – an ideologically driven quest for instant fiscal surpluses, low public debt and a shrinking public sector relative to GDP.

Falling interest rates will struggle to make expansionary headway against that austerity.

Meanwhile, corporate profiteering and rising government charges continue to put upward pressure on the Phillips Curve, and the balance of payments is weakening. This means the country as a whole is piling up increasing debts to the rest of the world (largely through the Australian-owned banks).

The question is, does the current government understand where its policies are taking us? Läs mer…

Whether known as the Centre Pompidou or simply Beaubourg, this Parisian landmark is set to close its doors from 2025 to 2030 for extensive renovations. Criticised and even mocked at its opening, the Centre Pompidou has since earned its place as an iconic fixture in the Parisian landscape and a major player on the international museum scene. We take a closer look at the institution’s fragile and unconventional business model as it approaches its 50th anniversary.

Inaugurated in 1977, France’s Centre Pompidou will soon celebrate its 50th birthday. This milestone will coincide with its full closure from 2025 to 2030 for much-needed renovations to upgrade and restructure the building.

During the closure, the museum will continue to expand in other ways. A new site will open in Massy (in Essonne department), designed to house its reserves and serve as an exhibition and cultural space. Additionally, the Centre Pompidou plans to strengthen its international presence through temporary exhibitions abroad.

Bruno S. Frey developed the concept of a “museum superstar”, an iconic cultural institution that attracts significant numbers of visitors and generates considerable revenue from commercialising their spaces and collections. These museums, including the Centre Pompidou, play a crucial role in their local economies.

An unsustainable business model

Unlike other superstar museums such as the Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay, however, the Centre Pompidou lacks a blockbuster home attraction like the Mona Lisa. This absence of universally recognisable works makes its economic model more fragile, despite its dynamic programming and bold architecture.

In 2022, the Centre Pompidou’s total budget revenue was just under 132 million euros ($144 million currently), with 69% coming from public funding – a significantly higher proportion than at the Louvre (44%) or the Musée d’Orsay (45%). The centre’s self-generated revenue, though slightly improved since the post-pandemic period, accounted for just 31% of its total income, down from 34% in 2019. Ticketing revenue, crucial for the Centre’s financial independence, dropped by 18% compared to 2019, despite a 2022 overhaul of the fee structure. On a positive note, patronage income increased by 8%, to 6.1 million euros, and revenue from off-site exhibitions and international locations surged by 43%, partially compensating for losses in other areas, according to the centre’s annual reports.

Despite this, France’s national audit office has noted that the museum’s diversification strategy lacks a clear structure and falls short of transparency requirements regarding costs. The centre has frequently adopted a pragmatic approach to solicitations, undermining the long-term sustainability of its economic model.

France 24.

Balancing economic growth and environmental responsibility

The Centre Pompidou’s economic strategy faces two key challenges, particularly its ticketing: rising competition from private contemporary art institutions in Paris and the ecological consequences of higher visitor numbers.

New contemporary art institutions such as the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the Pinault Collection have reshaped Paris’ cultural landscape. While these venues could be seen as rivals, they also boost Paris’s overall status as a hub for contemporary art, attracting a diverse and informed international audience. The Centre Pompidou benefits from this dynamic ecosystem, though it must compete with these institutions’ financial resources and collections.

Competing yet complementary

Despite the increasing competition in recent years, the Centre Pompidou continues to thrive as a leading venue for modern and contemporary art, thanks to its rich collection and innovative programming. Recent examples include “Évidence” and the immersive exhibition “Noire”.

Paris’s global prominence in the contemporary art world presents both opportunities and challenges for the Centre Pompidou. On one hand, it faces competition from institutions that have iconic collections and even greater financial resources. On the other, it benefits from this vibrant environment, allowing it to maintain its status as a premier cultural destination and strengthen its foothold in the global art market. To fully capitalise on this ecosystem, however, the centre must continue to innovate and adapt to evolving economic and cultural realities, while staying true to its mission of promoting contemporary art.

Environmental challenges

One of the museum’s most pressing challenges is balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability. According to its “Responding to the Environmental Emergency: Action Plan 2023-2025,” the Centre Pompidou is working to reduce its carbon footprint. This is crucial, as 82% of a museum’s carbon impact comes from visitors, particularly international ones who travel by air – an especially polluting for of transport.

Interestingly, the museum’s somewhat lower appeal to foreign tourists, which the national audit office has criticised, may actually prove beneficial in terms of environmental impact. By attracting more domestic visitors, the centre can minimise the carbon emissions associated with international travel, making it a more sustainable institution in the long term.

A sustainable but less profitable approach?

This focus on a national audience could prove to be a sustainable long-term strategy, at a time when ecological concerns are a growing concern. It also strengthens the museum’s local roots, making it more resilient to fluctuations in international tourism and global crises. Nevertheless, this strategy comes at an economic cost, as local audiences are more likely to benefit from reduced or free rates.

While international exhibitions and expansion can provide additional revenue, they also present ecological challenges. Transporting works of art across the globe adds to the museum’s carbon footprint, even as it strives to bring exhibitions closer to international audiences. Additionally, major real estate projects, such as the renovation of the Centre’s historic building and the construction of a new site in Massy, are key to its modernisation but come with considerable environmental costs.

As it prepares for five years of renovations, the Centre must find a way to balance its financial needs with the growing urgency of environmental responsibility. To secure its future, the museum will need to strengthen its financial viability while continuing to pioneer in the world of contemporary art and adapt to the changing demands of the 21st century. Läs mer…

The horrifying trial of mass rape in Mazan, France, has brought to light a chilling case of chemical submission, where a husband drugged his wife regularly to orchestrate her rapes. As the 51 defendants and their defence attorneys continue to deny the accusations despite overwhelming evidence, it raises important questions about the role of collective imagination in enabling sexual violence – particularly when fantasies of domination take such extreme forms.

In mythology, gods often take advantage of sleeping women. Hypnos, the god of sleep, uses his power, while Zeus seduces an unconscious Leda by transforming himself into a swan. Ariadne is abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, where Dionysus falls for her beauty as she sleeps. For enchantresses like Melusine, sleep is a moment of vulnerability. Interestingly, Hypnos is the brother of Thanatos, the god of death.

In contrast, women in mythology are not allowed to invade men’s sleep. Psyche, for example, sneaks up on her sleeping husband, only to find he is Eros, the god of love. Her curiosity leads to immediate punishment, forcing her to complete a series of dangerous tasks, including a journey to the underworld to steal beauty from Persephone.

Many texts and paintings, inspired by these myths, encourage the viewer to gaze at these sleeping women through the lustful eyes of all-powerful men.

In fairy tales

In Sleeping Beauty, the princess, blessed by fairies with numerous gifts, is cursed to prick her finger on a spindle and fall into a hundred-year slumber.

The earliest version, Perceforest (15th century), and Giambattista Basile’s Italian version (1634), tell of a prince who, finding the sleeping princess attractive, takes advantage of her and fathers children while she remains unconscious. In_ Perceforest_, the prince initially hesitates, held back by “Reason” and “Discretion,” but ultimately succumbs to desire and Venus. The princess only awakens when one of her twins sucks her finger.

In Charles Perrault’s version (1697), the forest parts for the prince, and the princess wakes upon his arrival. They converse, fall in love, and have children, but the prince delays marriage. He returns home, leaving the princess to face her ogre-like mother-in-law, who orders the execution of the princess and her children. The young woman who consents does not do so without peril.

In both the Brothers Grimm version (1812) and Disney’s adaptation, the prince kisses the sleeping princess without her consent and later marries her, presented as the fulfillment of all her dreams.

According to Bruno Bettelheim’s Psychoanalysis of Fairy Tales, sleep symbolizes the time required for the formation of the adolescent soul. From a psychological perspective, being asleep represents the repression of trauma, as interpreted through a Jungian lens in works such as Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run with the Wolves.

But do all readers and viewers grasp the metaphorical aspects of these interpretations ? More importantly, do they recognize that forcing someone into sleep can have traumatic consequences ?

In literature

The invasion of women’s intimate spaces has long been a recurring theme in male fantasies in 17th- and 18th-century literature. In the works of Crébillon, Prévost, and Marivaux, male protagonists often fantasize about entering women’s private chambers to exploit their vulnerability while they sleep. These voyeurs are captivated by the perceived wholeness of a sleeping woman, indifferent to her own autonomy. They rationalize their actions by assuming the women were awaiting their arrival – similar to the defendants in the Mazan case, who claimed they believed it was merely part of a libertine game.

At the same time, the English novel Clarissa Harlowe by Richardson (1748), translated into French by Abbé Prévost in 1751, depicts the consequences of a drug-facilitated rape. Pursued by seducers, the beautiful Clarissa resists. Unable to tolerate her defiance, Lovelace drugs and rapes her. She ultimately dies, and her seducers come to realize the strength of female virtue. Eighteenth-century women readers praised this work for celebrating the resilience of admirable women.

By the 19th century, vampire literature, such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), portrayed vampires invading women’s bedrooms, draining their vitality with deadly bites.

In the 20th century, the theme of eroticism persists, but questions of consent become more prominent. In D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928), Mellors approaches the heroine while she is half-asleep. In Yasunari Kawabata’s The House of the Sleeping Beauties (1961), an elderly man visits a house where he can lie beside unconscious young women. Though he does not touch them, their vulnerability generates a disturbing erotic tension. In Yves Simon’s Léonore, Toujours (2000), a woman is raped in her sleep by a man she trusted, leaving him in denial and her consumed by guilt.

The fantasy of a woman being dead or asleep has captivated male authors and artists such as Bonnard and Picasso. Today, the reality of drug-facilitated sexual assault affects women in nightclubs, mothers in their own homes, and women in spaces ranging from Hollywood parties to French parliament halls.

Johann Heinrich Füssli, Le Cauchemar, 1781.
Wikimedia

Re-examining our culture

While these images remain embedded in our culture, it is time to reevaluate them, deconstructing the “male gaze” and using counterexamples to make people think about consent.

In the age of #MeToo, many women are demonstrating that the era of silent victims is over, thanks to the courage of individuals like Gisèle Pelicot. It is crucial that this trial be held in open court to confront the defendants’ denial and challenge statements like that of the mayor of Mazan, who controversially claimed, ‘no one died’

Similarly, MP Sandrine Josso has made her complaint public and called for the creation of a commission on chemical submission, asserting that shame must change sides. In 2021, anti-sexual violence advocate Noémie Renard also urged an end to this in her work Ending Rape Culture. What can we do, culturally, to support these courageous actions ?

Revisting our classics

One way forward is to revisit our classic works through a new lens, as Jennifer Tamas suggests in her book Au NON des Femmes (2023), which adopts the perspective of female heroines. Teaching mythology and fairy tales is an important educational tool, but they must be contextualised and discussed through a contemporary lens. As Murielle Szac explains in L’Odyssée des déesses (2023), stories can highlight female resilience, reinterpreting characters like Hera and Medea as symbols of resistance rather than submission.

Reading fairy tales with children offers an important opportunity to teach consent. Educators should explain the historical context while also addressing the modern implications. Scenes in which women are unconscious or drugged should no longer be interpreted as seduction. For instance, in Dangerous Liaisons (1782), Valmont sneaks into Cécile Volanges’ room while she sleeps and violates her. This is not seduction, it is rape.

Some women have also called for an end to celebrating kisses without consent. In 2017, an English mother criticized Sleeping Beauty for its non-consensual kiss, sparking debate. In 2021, Disney’s portrayal of Snow White’s kiss in the glass coffin ignited controversy in the United States.

This doesn’t mean these works should be censored, but rather that they should be reexamined with a critical lens, as Lou Lubie does in the graphic novel Et à la fin ils meurent : La sale vérité des contes de fées (2021). Discussions about such behavior should also be encouraged, as seen in the efforts of Amnesty International and the media outlet Simone.

Embracing the “feminist gaze”

Reading more texts by women authors introduces readers to the female gaze, or what researcher Azélie Fayolle calls the “feminist gaze.” As she explains :

“We still want to read our old books and see our old films, but we no longer want to do so through the eyes of the generations that came before us ; we are of our time.”

Women authors like M.C. d’Aulnoy, known for her volumes in The Cabinet des fées), and M.J. Lhéritier, have made their mark by writing fairy tales. Comparing their versions with those of male writers highlights the agency of their heroines. In La Belle et la Bête, for example, Belle is a strong heroine created by Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. To the Beast, who holds her captive and demands her submission, and to the handsome man who tries to seduce her, this intelligent young woman – a passionate reader – says no, taking her time to make her own decisions.

The devastating effects of rape on its victims have been described by numerous authors, including Marguerite de Navarre (L’Heptaméron, 1559), George Sand, Marguerite Duras, Annie Ernaux, and Virginie Despentes in Baise-moi (1994). These writers portray the victim’s initial shock, followed by trauma and a long “lethargic sleep.”

As we continue to awaken our collective consciousness, it is vital to remember that literature offers a path for reflection, helping women emerge from centuries of silence and slumber. Läs mer…

“Our ambition and aspiration should be baseline, and we should aspire and have the ambition and plan to do more … I want Americans and families to not just get by but to be able to get ahead.” United States Vice President Kamala Harris, outlining her plan to build an “opportunity economy” in a recent speech.

As a sociologist who studies how people think and talk about getting ahead in life, I’ve been struck by the tsunami of anti-ambition rhetoric in recent years that seems at odds with Harris’s messaging.

A prominent 2022 feature in The New York Times Magazine’s Future of Work issue, for example, proclaimed a new “Age of Anti-Ambition.”

While many joined the “ambition is out” chorus, a softer refrain suggested that ambition had merely become quiet as Fortune magazine reported people were “no longer chasing achievement for achievements’ sake.”

Given all the anti-ambition rhetoric, it’s reasonable to ask: is Harris’s message about ambition resonating with voters with less than a month until the presidential election? Does anyone still believe ambition is important for getting ahead?

Shifts in sentiment

Let’s look at some data. The General Social Survey (GSS) — the gold standard for tracking American attitudes and beliefs since the 1970s — asks a set of questions about the importance that people give to different ways of getting ahead in life.

The list includes “ambition,” “hard work,” “a good education,” “coming from a wealthy family,” “knowing the right people,” etc. For each, respondents select from these response options: “essential,” “very important,” “fairly important,” “not very important” and “not at all important.”

In 1987, the first time the GSS presented these questions, 43 per cent of American workers said that ambition was “essential” to getting ahead; 44 per cent said it was “very important;” 11 per cent said it was “fairly important;” and only two per cent said “not very/not at all important.”

Most respondents to the GSS say ambition is important or very important to success, both years ago and more recently.
(Mimi Thian/Unsplash)

I didn’t believe that Americans had ditched ambition since then, but I needed data to test my hunch, so I solicited the research firm YouGov in 2023 and 2024 for two national surveys of 7,500 American workers. I call my study the MESSI (Measuring Employment Sentiments and Social Inequality).

My 2024 survey finds that most American workers still believe in the importance of ambition, but sentiments have shifted.

The share who now say ambition is “essential” dropped nine percentage points from 1987 to 34 per cent. While the share who said ambition was “very important” dipped by two points (now 42 per cent), the percentage who felt ambition was “fairly important” or “unimportant” increased by 11 points.

This softening is noteworthy. But, then again, if we are truly in an anti-ambition era, would three-quarters of American workers still see ambition as very important or essential?

Results of two surveys on ambition and professional success.
(General Social Survey, 1987; Measuring Employment Sentiments and Social Inequality Study (MESSI), 2024, Scott Schieman, Principal Investigator)

Message falling flat?

In her stump speeches, Harris often mentions the “dignity of work” and the power of “hard work.” But after years of anti-work rhetoric mixed with new anti-ambition language like “quiet quitting,” a message celebrating the importance of hard work to get ahead might fall flat.

Read more:
If companies want to stop quiet quitting they need to take burnout seriously

Let’s return to the 1987 GSS. Back then, 91 per cent of working Americans said hard work was “very important” or “essential” to getting ahead.

That dipped slightly to 89 per cent in 2021 and then dropped to 77 per cent by 2024.

Results of surveys on hard work and professional success.
(General Social Survey, 1987 and 2021; 2024 data are from the Measuring Employment Sentiments and Social Inequality Study (MESSI); Scott Schieman, Principal Investigator)

On one hand, an 11-point plunge might be seen as a concern. On the other hand, we could interpret the fact that almost eight in 10 American workers say that they still value hard work as a sign of its resilience — especially given the cultural onslaught against work’s reputation and the persistent narrative about employees being miserable in their jobs since 2021.

Read more:
New research debunks the ’unhappy worker’ narrative, but finds most still believe it

Willing to work harder

According to a viral video on TikTok, quiet quitting is when you “quit the idea of going above and beyond.”

Given quiet quitting’s popularity among anti-ambition/anti-work narratives, I wondered how Americans would respond to a GSS question that asks the extent of agreement or disagreement with the following: “I am willing to work harder than I have to in order to help the firm or organization I work for succeed.”

If quiet quitting has truly reached astronomical levels, wouldn’t it make sense that most Americans would strongly disagree with that statement?

Two GSS data points in 2006 and 2016, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, show that eight in 10 American workers said they were willing to work harder than necessary. In my 2023 and 2024 MESSI surveys, I found that dropped to six in 10. Now, a greater share neither endorses nor rejects giving a little extra. Ambivalence is a bit more of a standard response.

Results of surveys on whether people are willing to work harder to help their organizations achieve success.
(General Social Survey, 2006 and 2016; Measuring Employment Sentiments and Social Inequality Study (MESSI), 2023 and 2024, Scott Schieman, Principal Investigator)

‘Hard work is good work’

What’s the takeaway? Sweeping sociological claims that we’re living in an age of anti-ambition and that most people are quiet quitting simply aren’t justified.

Yes, sentiments about the importance of ambition and hard work — and going above and beyond — have shifted. And even though that shift is quieter than media discourse would have you believe, economic pessimism remains entrenched despite objective evidence to the contrary.

Harris may therefore have her work cut out for her in selling an “opportunity economy” message as election day draws closer. But as she has said: “Hard work is good work.” Läs mer…

Weight loss is a complicated process. There are so many factors involved including your diet, how much sleep you get each night and the kind of exercise you do. Our recent study shows that your specific genetic profile may also have a dominant effect on how well you lose weight through exercise. This might explain why two people who do an identical workout will see very different results.

We identified 14 genes that appeared to significantly contribute to how much weight a person lost through running. This suggests that some of us have a natural talent when it comes to burning fat and losing weight through exercise.

To conduct our study, we recruited 38 men and women born in the UK aged between 20 and 40. None of the participants regularly exercised at the start of the study. The group was randomly divided, with one half following a strict eight-week endurance programme that consisted of three weekly runs of 20-30 minutes.

The other group acted as a control. They were instructed to refrain from exercise and continue their daily routines as normal over this study period, including diet and lifestyle habits.

All participants conducted a running test to see how far they could run in 12 minutes, and were weighed before and after the study period. This was to gauge their initial fitness level and see how much they changed over the duration of the study. Body mass index (BMI) was also calculated.

Additionally, a saliva sample was collected from each person with a DNA test kit at the end of the study to assess their unique genetic profile.

It’s important to note that everyone who participated in the study had a similar body weight, BMI and aerobic fitness level at the start of the study. This is beneficial for multiple reasons. It meant everyone was at the same starting point, and some confounding variables were already controlled for such as fitness level. This ultimately improves accuracy in interpreting the results.

Exercise genes

Everyone in the exercise group managed to lose weight – around 2kg on average. The control group, on the other hand, put on a little bit of weight.

While a 2kg weight loss may not sound like a lot, it’s significant considering the exercise regime only lasted eight weeks and participants made no changes to their diet.

More significant, however, was the large variation in results among those that exercised – with an up to 10kg difference in weight loss between some of the participants. In fact, everyone within the exercise group improved at different rates.

Since we controlled for factors such as the intensity, duration and frequency of the exercises and used participants who’d had a similar body weight and fitness level at the start of the study, this suggests that some people naturally benefited more than others from endurance training.

When we looked at the genetic profiles of our participants, we found that differences in each person’s response to the exercise was strongly associated with their specific genetics.

We showed there was a strong linear correlation between the amount of weight participants lost and 14 genes that have previously been shown to be associated with body weight, metabolism or psychological conditions that affect BMI. The greater number of these genes a participant had, the more weight they lost. Our results also revealed that around 63% of the variance in weight lost among participants were explained by the genes identified.

For example, research has shown the PPARGC1A gene plays a role in metabolism and the use of fats for energy while exercising. Our study found that all participants who lost more than 1.5kg from exercise had this gene. Those who lost less than this did not have this gene.

Genes are only one part of the equation, however.
EvMedvedeva/ Shutterstock

Our findings align with what previous studies have shown. But while previous papers have only looked at the link between individual genes and weight loss, ours is the first to show that 14 different genes appear to work in combination to affect whether a person loses weight from endurance exercise.

Piece of the puzzle

Our study also suggests that while some people possess genes that make it easier for them to get fit and lose weight, people with these favourable genetics can only flourish if they actually exercise. In fact, our control group also had a number of these listed genes, but without exercise these genes could not activate, and so the participants did not lose any weight.

While our study provides compelling findings, it’s not without limitations. Since we only looked at endurance-based exercise, it will be important for future studies to investigate whether there are similar links between weight loss, genetics and combinations of different types of training (such as a mixture of endurance and strength sessions into a training plan).

It’s also worth mentioning that exercise is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to weight loss. So even if you have all 14 of these genes, you won’t lose any weight or get fit if you don’t exercise and maintain a healthy diet and sleep pattern.

On the flip side, someone that only has a few of these favourable genes can still benefit if they exercise and are mindful of other aspects of their lifestyle. Läs mer…

Moldova is emerging as a major strategic battleground in a fierce competition between Russia and the west. A Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign has intensified over the last few months, in the run-up to Moldova’s presidential elections.

One of the key reasons for this is that a referendum on EU membership has been scheduled for the same day, October 20.

The challenges for this small country, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, are complex. Russia continues to foment instability through its persistent disinformation initiatives, instigation of anti-government protests, and acts of sabotage and vandalism.

Add to this credible allegations of vote buying, and efforts to call into question the legitimacy of a pro-European election and referendum result, and the situation in Moldova appears highly combustible.

Moldova gained its independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. A brief civil war between the government and separatists in the eastern Transnistria region, supported by remnants of the Soviet army stationed there, ended with the de-facto division of the country.

Read more:
Moldova: Russia continues its mischief-making in breakaway Transnistria

Attempts to settle this conflict have made little progress over the past three decades. And living with an unresolved conflict within its borders has held Moldova back in its development, and contributed to economic problems.

Voting on EU membership

Moldova’s incumbent, staunchly pro-western president, Maia Sandu, has tied the EU referendum to her re-election campaign. The referendum could be the country’s best chance to finally break free from its Soviet past.

If recent polls are accurate, a clear majority of the electorate is likely to vote “yes” on whether they support joining the EU, which would be the first step in a lengthy process.

Moldova’s president speaks to the European parliament in 2022.

For many Moldovans, EU membership is associated with better economic development in one of Europe’s poorest countries. The October 10 visit of Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, suggested that the EU could help.

Von der Leyen did not merely offer political support for Sandu, she also brought with her a financial support package worth €1.8 billion (£1.5 billion) over the next three years to boost economic growth.

But this vision that the EU can help Moldova’s economy is fiercely contested by Russia and its proxies in Moldova. They exploit the anxiety among a significant number of Moldovans that a vote to join the EU is one that will force the country towards higher inflation, more immigration, politicised anti-corruption measures, mandatory English-language proficiency, and the sale of Moldovan land to foreigners.

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Persistent domestic issues such as the economy have been skilfully targeted in a vast Kremlin-backed influencing campaign.

For a long time, Moldova has suffered from a lack of social, political, institutional and territorial cohesion. The country has significant social divisions between different ethnic and linguistic groups, as well as urban-rural and rich-poor divides.

Politically, the party system remains highly fractured and increasingly polarised, and lacking common ground over what Moldovan national identity stands for.

Moldova’s challenges

Moldova’s territorial disputes also remain challenging. This is most obvious in the pro-Russian Transnistria region and in Gagauzia, but also in ethnically and culturally distinct regions such as Balti and Taraclia.

These regions will require careful management to prevent a major political and economic crisis in the aftermath of October 20 and beyond. Some of the reforms in the country as part of the integration process, such as EU regulations on competition, subsidies and market access, will have a short-term cost for Moldova. Moldovans who oppose the country’s westward orientation are likely to exploit this in anti-EU narratives.

So far, Russian destabilisation operations don’t seem to have eroded most Moldovans’ European aspirations. But the mix of blunt disinformation and skilfully capitalising on the cost of living crisis, which has hit Moldova hard as a result of the war against Ukraine, has given Russia and its allies tools to entrench, and in some cases deepen, divisions here.

iliya Mitskovets / Alamy

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Much of the pro-European campaigning has been framed as anti-Russian. But one of the cleverer moves by the pro-Russian movement is to suggest that Moldovans can be both a friend to Moscow and Brussels, and don’t have to choose.

If a Sandu government is building a pro-European alliance, she will want to grow support from the Russian-speaking part of the population. This will be essential to both counter Russian destabilisation efforts and to build a broader coalition.

As countries that have joined the EU – from the Baltic to the Balkans – have demonstrated over the past two decades, the EU accession process can help reshape political and economic institutions, and can ultimately help create a more optimistic vision of the future.

Crucially, this is not something that Russia’s narrative of fear can credibly offer to the majority of Moldovans. Läs mer…

Like most of the UK, universities were surprised by the timing of July’s general election. They had no time to influence the incoming Labour government’s policy commitments.

Labour’s manifesto acknowledged the financial problems suffered by England’s universities, which are caused by a real-terms decline in the maximum fee they are allowed to charge UK undergraduates. But it did not explain how they would be resolved.

However, universities have used the summer to sharpen their case. This is detailed in a new report, which is timed to influence the new government’s first budget at the end of October. It calls for a rise in tuition fees, increased research funding and grants for students from poorer backgrounds.

Many of the report’s authors have served as senior ministers and public officials. They have direct experience of the difficult choices made in government.

But the report has been put together by Universities UK, which represents all types of universities. So it seeks more funding for all university activities, and does not help the government make choices between potential investments. The government could, for example, increase student numbers and research funding throughout higher education or concentrate on particular subjects and places.

This is quite different to the new government’s approach. It wants to provide confidence in university finances. Then set priorities for investment and identify how to address them.

The higher education regulator, the Office for Students, has a new chair – senior public servant Sir David Behan – and a new remit. The regulator will switch resources previously devoted to culture wars issues, such as campus debate, towards closer engagement with universities on their financial health.

In parallel, the government is establishing a new agency called Skills England to set priorities throughout tertiary education. This embraces learning in universities, further education colleges and private training providers, both in the classroom and the workplace. These priorities will be part of a broader industrial strategy, which will be finalised early next year.

In its green paper on the industrial strategy, the government highlights the importance of place. By supporting the clustering of industries in specific locations, it wants not only to stimulate economic growth but also to create education and job opportunities in those places. Different regions have strengths in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, digital industries and clean energy, and different types of cultural industries.

This strategy will require alignment of the diverse influences shaping tertiary education. That includes the choices made by students about what and where to study, employers about the use of a growth and skills levy, and local mayors who already fund adult learning and have been promised more powers. The strategy will also include visas for graduate and other migrant workers, which will become increasingly tied to the government’s priorities.

Suggestions and requests

Some aspects of Universities UK’s report are consistent with this approach. It advocates closer collaboration between universities, colleges and employers in local areas, and joined up funding and regulation to encourage this.

It sets an ambition for 70% of all young people to take part in tertiary education. This contrasts with the last Labour government’s target for 50% in higher education alone.

The report also shows how universities and government could share evidence to set joint objectives. That could enable a more common understanding of the costs and benefits of international students, and the impact of universities in their local areas.

Crucially, the Universities UK report asks the government for more money. The most substantial changes involve raising UK undergraduate fees alongside inflation, reintroducing government maintenance grants for the poorest students, and increasing funding for research.

This injection of funds would be accompanied by a transformation scheme to improve efficiency. But the report does not identify whether that should lead universities and subjects in some places to grow, while others reconfigure and consolidate.

Universities have successfully argued for higher fees on three occasions during the 21st century to date. In 2004, 2010 and 2016, Labour, the coalition and then Conservative governments agreed to raise the maximum fee for UK undergraduates to £3,000, £9,000 and £9,250 respectively.

These changes were backed by income-contingent student loans and supplemented by increasing research funding. On each occasion, governments were persuaded about the benefits of a financially sustainable, globally competitive and expanding university sector. These changes allowed all universities to increase their income and grow.

However, there is now sharper recognition that increasing the supply of graduates and research can yield unequal opportunities and growth.

Analysis of student migration patterns shows the inequalities arising from unfocused growth, including an increasing concentration of highly skilled jobs in particular areas, such as London.

Labour’s manifesto stated that “the country remains too centralised, with the economic potential of too many regions and communities ignored”. So the government may prefer not to invest more in higher education unless it is focused on specific activities and places.

Since July, universities have enjoyed a more engaged and supportive government. The minister responsible for research has announced that the war on universities is over. And his counterpart in education is welcoming international students to the UK. Any increase to fees and funding will, though, incur political and financial costs. That will require ministers to set priorities and make choices. Läs mer…

Hurricane Milton slammed into the west coast of Florida on October 9, becoming the second powerful hurricane to hit the state in just two weeks.

While most people turned to meteorologists for explanations, a vocal minority remained sceptical, proposing that the hurricanes were engineered, that Florida’s weather was being manipulated, or even that it was targeted at Republican voters.

These ideas aren’t new. As psychologists, we research the roots of conspiracy theories, and have found they often emerge in the wake of natural disasters. Investigating these theories is especially crucial as extreme weather events are projected to become more severe and frequent.

Conspiracy theories explain important events by attributing them to the secret actions of a small, powerful group. Yet, if we take a step back from this psychological definition, something striking becomes apparent.

If conspiracy theories explain events as the actions of a small group, then conspiracy theories should only apply to events where such a group’s influence is plausible.

For example, faking the moon landing would have required Nasa to create an elaborate set, costumes, actors, and maintain secrecy. While unlikely, it is conceivable because humans can design sets, make costumes, and act. However, climate-based conspiracy theories don’t fit this mould as easily.

Unlike movie sets or staged events, humans don’t control the climate in the same direct way. While we can seed individual clouds to encourage rain, for instance, a whole hurricane is simply far too big and too powerful for human technology to have any impact. This makes climate conspiracy theories seem less plausible, as the climate is beyond the direct manipulation that other conspiracy theories depend on.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Donald Trump made a series of false claims including that the government was ‘going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas’.
Erik S Lesser / EPA

Why people turn to weather conspiracies

People have a fundamental need to feel safe and secure in their environment. If climate change is real, it poses an existential threat, leading some to reject it in favour of conspiracy theories that preserve their sense of safety.

Additionally, individuals desire a sense of control and agency over their environment. When faced with the uncontrollable nature of climate change, people often embrace conspiracy theories to regain that sense of control. Notably, recent psychological research has shifted focus from macro-level conspiracy beliefs, like climate change, to micro-level beliefs concerning local natural disasters.

The first psychological study of this kind looked at a major tornado outbreak in the US midwest in 2019. Researchers found that people more affected by the outbreak were more likely to believe the tornadoes were controlled by the government. Importantly, this belief was explained by the fact that those affected by the tornadoes felt like they had no control over their own life.

Tornado aftermath in Dayton, Ohio, May 2019. Tornadoes killed 42 in the US that year.
CiEll / shutterstock

Building on these initial findings, another study asked participants to imagine living in a fictional country called Nebuloria. Half were told that natural disasters might occur soon, prompting them to take precautions for their safety, while the others were told that such disasters were rare and that there was no need to worry.

Participants were then asked about various conspiracy beliefs, such as whether the contrails left by planes Nebuloria were “evidence of weather manipulation”. Results showed those in the high-risk scenario were more likely to endorse conspiracy beliefs.

Notably, what explained this increase in conspiracy beliefs was the fact that high-risk participants felt a sense of existential threat. This suggests that when people feel vulnerable due to environmental risks, they turn to conspiracies to regain control, even if the threats are beyond their reach.

A self-perpetuating cycle

It might seem intuitive that if you don’t believe in something, you won’t act as though it were true. Thus, if you don’t believe that climate change is true you are not going to act as if it is. Indeed, a large and growing amount of psychological research bares this out.

The more that people ascribe to climate-related conspiracy beliefs the less likely they are to believe in the scientific consensus of human-made climate change, the less likely they are to have any pro-environmental concern, and the less likely they are to trust in the scientists that produce the evidence.

These beliefs do not remain abstract. The more that people believe in climate conspiracy theories, the less likely they are to take action to mitigate climate change. Research has shown that merely exposing people to climate change conspiracies is sufficient to decrease their desire to sign a petition to support pro-environmental policies.

This has serious implications. First, if people don’t believe in climate change, they won’t take action, accelerating its progression. Second, the more that climate change accelerates, the more frequent natural disasters become. As we’ve seen, an increase in natural disasters leads to a rise in conspiracy beliefs, creating a harmful and self-perpetuating cycle.

Research shows that natural disasters can fuel conspiratorial thinking about unrelated events, which harms democratic engagement, public health and social cohesion. In short, climate-based conspiracy theories can have wide-ranging negative effects beyond climate-related matters.

What can be done?

There are reasons to be hopeful that certain interventions that foster analytical thinking or a critical mindset can reduce conspiracy beliefs. For example, exposing people to scientific reasoning that challenged the assumptions behind COVID-19 conspiracies significantly reduced their belief in those conspiracy theories. Also, a better use of resources and skills to cope with natural disasters can reduce conspiracy theories.

If we don’t act on climate change, the rise in natural disasters will likely lead to more conspiracy theories. The stakes are high, but with thoughtful interventions, we can break this harmful cycle.

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