Is American democracy still “by the people, for the people?”

According to recent research, it may not be. Martin Gilens at Princeton University confirms that the wishes of the American working and middle class play essentially no role in our nation’s policy making. A BBC story rightly summarized this with the headline: US Is an...

Today we are delighted to announce that 19 U.S. research universities are joining our supporting foundations as Founding Partners of The Conversation US.

These universities are a combination of public and private universities, large and small. They believe in our mission to bring the important research taking place on university campuses out into...

As the crisis over the water in Flint, Michigan, rolls on, we’re learning more and more about the irresponsibility and callousness of officials and politicians in charge.

The mix of austerity politics, environmental racism and...

Turkey has become one of America’s most vital partners in the Middle East in promoting stability and growth in the region and a key ally in the West’s fight against the Islamic State, or ISIS.

This is partly because of its status as the only majority-Muslim member of NATO, but also because at the start of the 21st century, Turkey began...

Spanking, or, as it’s formally known, “corporal punishment,” has been much in the news of late.

Out on the presidential campaign trail there was Senator Ted Cruz’s revelation that

If my daughter Catherine, the five-year-old, says something she knows to be...

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

This line, from 1 Corinthians, still sums up how we tend...

We live in an urbanizing world. Up to two-thirds of the world’s population – some six billion people – may live in cities by 2050.

Cities have emerged as first responders to climate change because they experience the impacts of natural disasters firsthand and because they produce up to 70...

Many observers see race and class as factors in Flint, Michigan’s drinking water crisis. Earlier this week Flint’s mayor, Karen Weaver, said, “It’s a minority community. It’s a poor community. And our voices were not heard.” We asked Robert D....

Along with snow and frigid temperatures, the winter months also bring coughs, colds and the flu. Lower respiratory tract infections, the ones that cause feelings of chest congestion despite the deepest coughs, are one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States...

Firestorms regarding child-protective systems have become sadly commonplace, occurring recently in Massachusetts, Colorado and Florida. Elected officials and the general public often don’t pay much attention to child protection systems until a child dies in a family known to...