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How do we tell our story? That’s a familiar phrase in brand marketing. Its a decent question, but heres a provocation to challenge this conventional wisdom: Storytelling and marketing are no longer reliable ways to build and grow a brand. To understand whats to come, its useful to look at what gets awardedand what doesntat the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Based on what we saw last week, the patterns indicate that marketing, storytelling, and, in particular, the marketing funnel, in a conventional sense, have become less dependable. This framework has long been defined as: Company builds brand (awareness) Brand attracts customers (interest and consideration) Customers buy product (purchase) [Image: I&CO] In the past decade, three factors have emerged and dominated human psyche, culture, and marketing: short-form video, people as brands, and heightened consumer expectations. These shifted the power dynamic between brands and consumers, rendering the traditional marketing funnel doctrine less relevant. As marketers and brand builders helping companies grow, what we should be asking now is this: How do we build trust? Trust has always been essential for any brand, but it’s becoming a new, essential currency. The premium on trustworthiness has increased as the line between what is real versus generated or what is true versus not becomes indistinguishable. Here are the four steps of Trustnomicsthe new currency for brand growthin an algorithmic, agentic, and synthetic world. Identify your key product moment A key product moment is a distinct feature that makes the product value visible and readily understandable. Weve been obsessed with storytelling and marketing and overlooked the power of key product moments for brands. Look to the French insurance company AXA to see the power of a key product moment with measurable impact. Home insurance policies typically guarantee emergency relocation for fire and flood victims. AXA added de violences conjugales (and domestic violence) to contracts for its customers. It is a promise to help survivors of domestic violence escape by providing emergency housing relocation. Three Words is a profoundly simple key product moment that makes AXAs product value immediately tangible and morally differentiated. Within six months of adding domestic violence coverage to its policies, AXA provided emergency relocation assistance to more than 500 families. Customer trust metrics increased by 27%, and brand consideration among women ages 25 to 45 rose by 34%. The German discount supermarket Penny created another example with its Price Packs initiative. After redesigning packaging to display fixed prices in bright colors and big fonts, and showing its commitment to price stability, Pennys store traffic increased by 22% and market share grew by 3.2% in key regions, despite broader market volatility. In customer surveys, 78% of shoppers cited price transparency as a key factor in choosing Penny over competitors. To earn the currency of trust, dont tell why your brand is better. Show why its different in the product. Treat product as content Theres a brand that was on everyones mind and lips but didnt win any Lion inside the Palais: OpenAI. The company has grown by treating product as content. OpenAI publishes product-related press releases and articles several times a week. There is little effort in creating an emotional connection with consumers through marketing or storytelling. CEO Sam Altman understands that products are the make-or-break for any business. In an information era that is becoming agentic, the best way to earn attention and trust is through the products themselves. The brand that understands product as content best iswait for itApple, the Grand Prix winner of Creative Effectiveness for its decade-long Shot on iPhone initiative. At the ceremony, everyone was hoping for an emotionally driven, brand-led campaign. Quite the contrary, Shot on iPhone is technically a product demo, which creative judges and types often look down on. As appealing as brand marketing has been, a better way to earn trust, build a brand, and drive business now is by treating product as content. When you do this, though, you have to have a point of view and stick to it. Kudos to the Apple team for being highly disciplined and single-minded with their Instagram page and not littering it with product ads. Dont confuse product ads with product as content. [Screenshot: Apple/Instagram] Repeatable system > Scalable campaign Using Apple as a guide is aspirational but unrealistic. Most marketers and brand builders dont have $48.5 billion sitting in our bank accounts to spend on huge campaigns, media buys, or expensive productions. The Japanese streetwear brand Human Made, founded by the ultra-hip Nigo and supported by Pharrell Williams, was established in 2010. Despite its celebrity status, it had modest growth for more than a decade, and its revenue hovered around 1.7 billion yen (roughly $11.6 million). When Rei Matsunuma, a longtime Uniqlo executive, joined in 2021 as Human Mades COO, he created a 52-week product planning calendar and addressed supply chain issues. Then, he started Daily Tsdaily drops of date-stamped white T-shirts, making each days T-shirts unique and exclusive. [Image: Human Made] These were not shiny, scalable campaigns that would see much limelight at marketing industry events like Cannes. Instead, they were repeatable systems that generated consistent demand among brand fans and prospective customers. In less than four years, Human Mades revenue grew sixfold to 10 billion yen (nearly $70 million), with a presence in more than 80 countries and minimal investment in storytelling or marketing. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit, wrote Will Durant in his 1926 book, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (paraphrasing Aristotle). Repeatable systems beat scalable campaigns. Flywheel of Trust By the time a business problem reaches marketing, its too late. When culture moves in real time, no marketing funnel can save a business. We need to turn our funnel mindset into a flywheel. [Image: I&CO] The flywheel of trust framework is based on the product itself, which is now the main driver in attracting customers. Company creates product Product attracts customers Customers trust brand Brand differentiates company In the past decade, this phenomenon has increased. Besides the aforementioned examples, others like Stanleys Quencher or Uniqlos Round Mini Shoulder Bag became sensational hits without relying on emotional storytelling or brand marketing. These brands gained traction not because they asked How do we tell our story? They asked, How do we build trust? If we translate this flywheel into tangible action, the four steps of Trustnomics are: Identify your key product moment Treat product as content Build a repeatable system Kick the flywheel of trust into motion As the world shifts from the information era to the agentic era, the marketing funnel doctrine is giving way to a new flywheel framework focused on earning and building trust. Trustnomics is not just an ingredient of your brand. Its the currency that powers brand growth.
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E-Commerce
Some unusual witnesses helped convict Alex Murdaugh of the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. The first was Bubba, Maggies yellow Labrador retriever. Prosecutors used a recording of Bubba to place Alex at the site of the murders. Given Alexs presence at the crime scene, other witnesses then revealed his movements, tracked his speed and explained what he had in his hands. Those other witnesses were a 2021 Chevy Suburban and Maggie, Paul and Alexs cellphones, which all provided data. Theyre all part of the Internet of Things, also known as IoT. The privacy implications of devices connected to the internet are not often the most important consideration in solving a murder case. But outside of criminal prosecution, they affect peoples privacy in ways that should give everyone pause. The Internet of Things The Internet of Things includes any object or device that automatically sends and receives data via the internet. When you use your phone to message someone or social media to post something, the sharing is deliberate. But the automatic nature of connected devices effectively cuts humans out of the loop. The data from these devices can reveal a lot about the people who interact with themand about other people around the devices. As an assistant professor of law at the University of South Carolina, I have watched as new kinds of connected devices have entered the market. New devices mean new ways to collect data about people. Connected devices collect information from different contexts. Take your refrigerator. As a non-IoT device, your fridge generated no data about your kitchen, your food, or how often you peeked inside. Your relationship with the fridge was effectively private. Only you knew about that midnight snack or whether you ogled a coworkers lunch. Now, smart refrigerators can respond to voice commands, show images of the items in your fridge, track who opens it, suggest recipes, generate grocery lists and even contact your car to let you know the milk has expired. All these functions require continuous streams of data. Device data and your privacy Connected devices generate lots of data in contexts that have typically produced little data to make those situations legible to whoever can access the data. In the past, if you wanted to monitor your heart rate, blood oxygenation, sleep patterns, and stress levels, you might have undergone a battery of tests at a hospital. Specialized equipment in a controlled setting would have measured your body and make these parts of you visible to highly trained, licensed professionals. But now, devices such as the Oura Ring track and analyze all that information continuously, in non-health care contexts. Even if you dont mind sharing data with an Internet of Things company, there are privacy risks to using a device like this. In the health care context, a series of rules enforced by several groups make sure that connected equipment and the data the equipment generates have adequate cybersecurity protections. Away from that context, connected devices that perform similar functions dont have to meet the same cybersecurity standards. The U.S. Cyber Trust Mark program, administered by the Federal Communications Commission, is developing cybersecurity standards for Internet of Things devices. But the program is voluntary. In some states, such as Washington, state laws set standards for protecting health data from connected devices. But these laws dont cover all data from all devices in all contexts. This leaves the devices, and the data they generate, particularly vulnerable to unwanted access by hackers. Your inability to control who sees the data that connected devices gather is another privacy risk. It can give advertisers insights about potential customers. Absent a mandated opt-out, each device provider can decide what it does with customer data. Amazon, for example, recently removed the Do Not Send Voice Recordings option from the privacy settings of its popular smart speaker, Alexa. Some connected-device providers participate in data markets, selling your data to the highest bidder. Sometimes those purchasers include government agencies. So, instead of needing a warrant to track your whereabouts or learn about activity in your home, they can purchase or access Internet of Things records. A connected device can also compromise the data privacy of someone who just happens to be nearby. Connected cars Cars have joined the ranks of the Internet of Things. The 2021 Chevy Suburban that helped convict Alex Murdaugh simply tracked information about the vehicle. This included the vehicles speed, the turning radius of the steering wheel, and time stamps. Most modern vehicles also incorporate data from external sources. GPS data and infotainment systems that connect to cellphones also track the vehicles movements. All of this data can also be used to track the whereabouts and behavior of drivers and other people in the vehicles. And as vehicles become increasingly automated, they need to make driving decisions in increasingly complex situations. To make safe driving decisions, they need data about the world around them. They need to know the size, speed, and behavior of all the nearby vehicles on the roadway, moment to moment. They ned to instantly identify the best way to avoid a pedestrian, cyclist or other object entering the roadway. If you and I are driving in separate cars on the same roadway, it means my car is collecting information about you. And if my vehicle is connected, then data about you is being shared with other cars and car companies. In other words, if a Tesla had been present at the scene of the Murdaugh murders, its outward facing cameras could have captured footage. Bubbas testimony might not have been necessary. Spillover data collection Internet of Things devices generate data from similar situations in a highly structured way. Therefore, what data collectors learn about me from my connected device may also give them insights about someone else in a similar situation. Take smart meters that share information with the water utility every 15 minutes. Imagine a subdivision with a narrow range of house and yard sizes. Water usage should be relatively comparable for each household. Data from even just a couple of houses can give a good sense of what water use should be for everyone in the neighborhood. Without actually collecting data from each house, data from connected devices reveals potentially private information about similarly situated people. Data from IoT devices can also fuel insights into people who never use or make contact with these devices. Aggregated data from Oura Rings, for instance, could contribute to decisions a health insurer makes about you. Connected devices are also changing. In addition to collecting data about the person using the device, a growing number of sensors collect information about the environment around that person. Some of my research has examined what privacy means for people observed by vehicle sensor systems such as radar, lidar, and sonar. These technologies capture potentially very revealing information about people and their property. Even the most comprehensive privacy laws in the United States offer people little recourse for the impact to their privacy. Civilian drones are capable of gathering data about other people. But people observed by drones would have a tough time learning that data about them exists and an even harder time controlling how that information might be used. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence systems are expanding the ways Internet of Things data can affect the privacy of other people by automating the process of training IoT systems. AI chipmaker Nvidia has created a digital environment, or model, where people can upload their connected device data. This environment can help train IoT devices to predict the outcomes of the devices interactions with other people, according to Nvidia. Models like this make it easy for AI devices that you dont own to collect data or reach conclusions about you. In other words, IoT data processed by AI can make inferences about you, rendering you legible to the AI system even before you interact with an IoT device. Looking forward Internet of Things devices and the data they generate are here to stay. As the world becomes increasingly automated, I believe its important to be more aware of the way connected devices may be affecting peoples privacy. The story of how vehicle data combined with cell data in the Murdaugh trial is a case in point. At the start of the trial, prosecutors came ready to show phone call logs and texts, steps recorded, apps asking for information, GPS locations, changes when the phone went from vertical portrait mode to horizontal landscape mode and back, andkey to the prosecutions casewhen the camera was activated. But that was probably not enough to merit a conviction. During the trial, GM called and said something like oh wait, we found something, according to the prosecution. That vehicle data, combined with the cellphone data, told a story that Alex Murdaugh could not deny. There are at least two lessons from this story. First, not even GM fully realized all the data it had collected in its vehicles. Its important to be aware of just how much information IoT devices are collecting. Second, combining data from different IoT devices revealed incontestable details of Alex Murdaughs activities. Away from criminal court, combining data from multiple IoT devices can have a profound effect on peoples privacy. If peoples data privacy matters, how do we address this reality? One way of potentially protecting peoples privacy is to make sure people and communities observed by connected devices have a direct say in what data the devices collect and how the data is used. This article is part of a series on data privacy that explores who collects your data, what and how they collect, who sells and buys your data, what they all do with it, and what you can do about it. David Sella-Villa is an assistant professor of law at the University of South Carolina. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
The succession of layoffs at AAA game studios might seem to have no bottom, but jobs data shows that theres still plenty of opportunity outside of Ubisoft. The demand for game designers has increased over the past year in industries outside traditional gaming. According to a Fast Company analysis of 176,000 job listings gathered from Google Careers between fall/winter 2023 and fall/winter 2025, the percentage of postings for game designers rose significantly in several non-gaming sectors in the past year. This came at a time when listings for game designers within the gaming industry itself experienced only a modest, 4% increase. The technology sector, which accounted for 41% of all game designer listings in 2024, increased its share by 20%; tech represented 61% of all game design postings in 2025. The most dramatic shift occurred in the education industry, where the share of game design job postings soared from 9.12% to 28.81% of all listings. The media and publishing arena also showed increased demand, with its share climbing from 4.18% to 9.30%, a 122% surge. Then there are sectors that seem even further afield from gaming, which are also increasingly hiring game designers as well: electronics (rising 2.38% to 7.23%) and hospitality and tourism (from 3% to just under 6%). !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); Game designers help companies level up Game designers are unique in the design world for their ability to create whimsy, engagement, and some type of narrative progression. Its a formula that perhaps no company understands better than Duolingo, the gamified language learning app with 116 million monthly active users, 9.5 million paying subscribers, and $748 million in revenue in 2024. Unsurprisingly, when it comes to hiring, the company actively seeks out game designers, specifically. While were not actually building games, we see that there are some good synergies, says Liz Talley-King, the companys vice president of talent acquisition. The design elements, the product design elements, the stickiness factor, the joyful and fun productsits one of the reasons why we continue to tap into [that] talent. Digital learning platform Stride also seeks out the expertise of this cohort to enhance its educational offerings. Who better to hire than a game designer, who lives and breathes immersive worlds and can craft engaging content for all ages? asks Nikoya McCoy, the companys chief learning officer. She says that game designers are particularly adept at keeping students engaged, since they understand how to design experiences that capture attention for long periods of time. They play a huge part in the brainstorming and design process,” McCoy adds, “and their creativity and problem-solving abilities are invaluable.” Stride notices higher engagement and satisfaction rates when game designers help create the content. Using games for change Game designers will tell you that they don’t just create games, they design experiences. And sometimes those experiences can influence behavior, leading to real world impact. Larissa May, founder of #HalfTheStory, a nonprofit focused on fostering digital wellness among youth, says that, ironically, the same game design principles that often keep users hooked can also play a pivotal role in helping young people develop healthy, boundary-establishing relationships with technology. “We needed games that would act as a Trojan horse to get kids to act differently in the digital world,” May says. One example is Crash Out, a role-playing game that uses a Jenga tower to represent digital well-being. Wade Kimbrough, head of game design at #HalfTheStory, explains that when the tower falls, their character crashes out, leading to a conversationwhat if this were real life? Could you rebuild trust and relationships as easily? What consequences would a comment or post have in the real world? That reconciliation of the game and reality creates a eureka moment that can lead to behavior change. More broadly, he adds, by making a game analogous to a real-world system, you can see how players think about that system and how they approach problems. The future will be gamified The rising demand for game designers across industries may simply be a strategic response to the evolving needs across the business landscape. So many young people spend so much time gaming that they may be starting to expect the same level of interactivity and engagement in everything, from education to finance and entertainment. Interestingly, academia and retail showed movement in the opposite direction. Job listings for game designers in these fields declined year over year. With more people entering college who grew up using Duolingo, however, and new products like gamified candy now all the rage, perhaps next year well see more universities and e-commerce sites press start on hiring game designers. This article is part of Fast Companys continuing coverage of where the design jobs are, including this years comprehensive analysis of 170,000 job listings.
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E-Commerce
Wood is, by far, the most common material used in the U.S. for single-family-home construction. But wood construction isnt engineered for long-term durability, and it often underperforms, particularly in the face of increasingly common extreme weather events. In response to these challenges, I believe mass-produced concrete homes can offer affordable, resilient housing in the U.S. By leveraging the latest innovations of the precast concrete industry, this type of homebuilding can meet the needs of a changing world. Woods rise to power Over 90% of the new homes built in the U.S. rely on wood framing. Wood has deep historical roots as a building material in the U.S., dating back to the earliest European settlers who constructed shelters using the abundant native timber. One of the most recognizable typologies was the log cabin, built from large tree trunks notched at the corners for structural stability. In the 1830s, wood construction underwent a significant shift with the introduction of balloon framing. This system used standardized, sawed lumber and mass-produced nails, allowing much smaller wood components to replace the earlier heavy timber frames. It could be assembled by unskilled labor using simple tools, making it both accessible and economical. In the early 20th century, balloon framing evolved into platform framing, which became the dominant method. By using shorter lumber lengths, platform framing allowed each floor to be built as a separate working platform, simplifying construction and improving its efficiency. The proliferation and evolution of wood construction helped shape the architectural and cultural identity of the nation. For centuries, wood-framed houses have defined the American idea of homeso much so that even today, when Americans imagine a house, they typically envision one built of wood. Today, light-frame wood construction dominates the U.S. residential market. Wood is relatively affordable and readily available, offering a cost-effective solution for homebuilding. Contractors are familiar with wood construction techniques. In addition, building codes and regulations have long been tailored to wood-frame systems, further reinforcing their prevalence in the housing industry. Despite its advantages, wood light-frame construction presents several important limitations. Wood is vulnerable to fire. And in hurricane- and tornado-prone regions, wood-framed homes can be damaged or destroyed. Wood is also highly susceptible to water-related issues, such as swelling, warping, and structural deterioration caused by leaks or flooding. Vulnerability to termites, mold, rot, and mildew further compromise the longevity and safety of wood-framed structures, especially in humid or poorly ventilated environments. A modular, precast system of concrete rings can be connected in different ways to build a range of models of energy-efficient homes. [Image: Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA] The case for concrete Meanwhile, concrete has revolutionized architecture and engineering over the past century. In my academic work, Ive studied, written, and taught about the materials many advantages. The material offers unmatched strength and durability, while also allowing design flexibility and versatility. Its low-cost and low-maintenance, and it has high thermal mass properties, which refers to the materials ability to absorb and store heat during the day, and slowly release it during the cooler nights. This can lower heating and cooling costs. Properly designed concrete enclosures offer exceptional performance against a wide range of hazards. Concrete can withstand fire, flooding, mold, insect infestation, earthquakes, hail, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Its commonly used for home construction in many parts of the world, such as Europe, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, as well as India and other parts of Southeast Asia. However, despite their multiple benefits, concrete single-family homes are rare in the U.S. Thats because most concrete structures are built using a process called cast-in-place. In this technique, the concrete is formed and poured directly at the construction site. The method relies on built-in-place molds. After the concrete is cast and cured over several days, the formwork is removed. This process is labor-intensive and time-consuming, and it often produces considerable waste. This is particularly an issue in the U.S., where labor is more expensive than in other parts of the world. The material and labor cost can be as high as 35% to 60% of the total construction cost. Portland cement, the binding agent in concrete, requires significant energy to produce, resulting in considerable carbon dioxide emissions. However, this environmental cost is often offset by concretes durability and long service life. Concretes design flexibility and structural integrity make it particularly effective for large-scale structures. So in the U.S., youll see it used for large commercial buildings, skyscrapers and most highways, bridges, dams, and other critical infrastructure projects. But when it comes to single-family homes, cast-in-place concrete poses challenges to contractors. There are the higher initial construction costs, along with a lack of subcontractor expertise. For these reasons, most builders and cntractors stick with what they know: the wood frame. A new model for home construction Precast concrete, however, offers a promising alternative. Unlike cast-in-place concrete, precast systems allow for off-site manufacturing under controlled conditions. This improves the quality of the structure, while also reducing waste and labor. The CRETE House, a prototype I worked on in 2017 alongside a team at Washington University in St. Louis, showed the advantages of a precast home construction. To build the precast concrete home, we used ultra-high-performance concrete, one of the latest advances in the concrete industry. Compared with conventional concrete, its about six times stronger, virtually impermeable, and more resistant to freeze-thaw cycles. Ultra-high-performance concrete can last several hundred years. The strength of the CRETE House was tested by shooting a piece of wood at 120 mph to simulate flying debris from an F5 tornado. It was unable to breach the wall, which was only 2 inches thick. Building on the success of the CRETE House, I designed the Compact House as a solution for affordable, resilient housing. The house consists of a modular, precast concrete system of rings that can be connected to form the entire structurefloors, walls, and roofscreating airtight, energy-efficient homes. A series of different rings can be chosen from a catalog to deliver different models that can range in size from 270 to 990 square feet. The precast rings can be transported on flatbed trailers and assembled into a unit in a single day, drastically reducing on-site labor, time, and cost. Since theyre built using durable concrete forms, the house can be easily mass-produced. When precast concrete homes are mass-produced, the cost can be competitive with traditional wood-framed homes. Furthermore, the homes are designed to last far beyond 100 years (much longer than typical wood structures) while significantly lowering utility bills, maintenance expenses, and insurance premiums. The project is also envisioned as an open-source design. This means that the molds, which are expensive, are available for any precast producer to use and modify. The Compact House is made using ultra-high-performance concrete. [Image: Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA] Leveraging a network thats already in place Two key limitations of precast concrete construction are the size and weight of the components and the distance to the project site. Precast elements must comply with standard transportation regulations, which impose restrictions on both size and weight in order to pass under bridges and prevent road damage. As a result, components are typically limited to dimensions that can be safely and legally transported by truck. Each of the Compact Houses pieces are small enough to be transported in standard trailers. Additionally, transportation costs become a major factor beyond a certain range. In general, the practical delivery radius from a precast plant to a construction site is 500 miles. Anything beyond that becomes economically unfeasible. However, the infrastructure to build precast concrete homes is already largely in place. Since precast concrete is often used for office buildings, schools, parking complexes, and large apartments buildings, theres already an extensive national network of manufacturing plants capable of producing and delivering components within that 500-mile radius. There are other approaches to build homes with concrete: Homes can use concrete masonry units, which are similar to cinder blocks. This is a common technique around the world. Insulated concrete forms involve rigid foam blocks that are stacked like Lego bricks and are then filled with poured concrete, creating a structure with built-in insulation. And theres even 3D-printed concrete, a rapidly evolving technology that is in its early stages of development. However, none of these use precast concrete modules (the rings in my prototypes), and therefore require substantially longer on-site time and labor. To me, precast concrete homes offer a compelling vision for the future of affordable housing. They signal a generational shift away from short-term construction and toward long-term valueredefining what it means to build for resilience, efficiency, and equity in housing. This article is part of a series centered on envisioning ways to deal with the housing crisis. Pablo Moyano Fernández is an assistant professor of architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
Following decades of population loss, Detroit may finally be turning a corner. According to the U.S. Census Bureaus most recent estimates, the city saw an increase in population for both 2023 and 2024. An additional 11,000 people moved into the city in the years 2023 and 2024, a small gain in a city with a population of 645,705but one which marked a symbolic shift. The census data shows just over 1% growth in the past year alone and 0.7% the year before compared with a nearly 25% loss between 2000 and 2010. As an urban sociologist studying issues related to race and ethnicity, I am interested in how Detroits population is changing, and where different groups live in both the city and its suburbs. Analyzing population trends in the metro Detroit area using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, I wanted to understand how racial, ethnic and socioeconomic trends are unfolding, and what those changes can tell us about the evolution and vitality of Detroit. Black Detroiters relocate, city diversifies From 2010 to 2023, Detroits racial and ethnic makeup continued to gradually diversify even as the city was declining in population. While Black residents are still the majority, their proportion of the total number fell from around 84% to 79%. Other groups, in contrast, increased their share of the citys population. Between 2010 and 2023, the percentage of Hispanic residents grew from 6.6% to 8.3%, the percentage of white residents grew from 8.2% to 10.7%, and the percentage of Asian residents grew from 1.3% to 1.7%. These shifts reflect a steady and ongoing diversification of Detroits population, indicative of new migration trends and shifting neighborhood dynamics. A map of Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, with shading to indicate which areas are considered to be the inner and outer suburbs. Suburbs in flux In addition to Detroits recent population growth, a broader story is unfolding in the citys suburbs. The population of the suburban area as a whole increased 0.73% from 2023 to 2024, but growth was not evenly spread. Collectively, the outer-ring suburbs gained almost 20,000 people, increasing by 1%. Communities such as the city of Troy and Macomb Township accounted for a significant share of that growth. Inner-ring suburbs, such as Southfield, Warren and others, grew less vigorously gaining just 4,000 people, or 0.31%. These differences highlight the necessity of complicating the conventional city-versus-suburb narrative to acknowledge the many economic and racial divisions across the metropolitan region. The socioeconomic statuses of residents of the inner- and outer-ring suburbs diverged between 2000 and 2020. My analysis of census data shows that although both subregions witnessed increases in median household incomes, the rates of change were significantly higher in the outer-ring suburbs, with a 37.7% increase versus a 16.8% increase in the inner rings. The data shows a similar trend in higher education attainment. Outer ring suburbs gained 7.1% more residents with college degrees or higher during this period, while the inner suburbs lost 7.5%. Homeownership patterns in the two suburban regions also diverged over those two decades, increasing 18% in the outer rings and decreasing 10% in the inner rings. The data on poverty and immigration also reveal contrasting results. According to my calculations of census data, inner-ring suburbs experienced a 77% increase in poverty, while the outer ring experienced a lesser, though considerable, 50.8% bump in poverty during the 2000-2020 period. Meanwhile, during the same time period, the foreign-born populations in the outer suburbs expanded by 24.9%, with increases of at least 10,000 in places such as Sterling Heights, Novi and Canton. In contrast, the inner suburbs saw more modest gainsaround 5,000 in cities such as Dearborn Heights and Warrenwhile their overall foreign-born share declined by nearly 20%. Together, the above trends highlight the necessity of not viewing the suburban area as a monolith. These patterns reflect national trends, in which many older, inner-ring suburbs are experiencing socioeconomic stagnation or decline while newer, outer-ring suburbs continue to attract more people who have higher incomes. Mixed neighborhoods grow Residential segregation also differentiates inner and outer suburban rings. Segregation levels remain high in the inner suburbs, especially between white and Black residents. While outer suburbs tend to be more integrated today, the rate of change there has been more modest over the past two decades. Social scientists measure segregation using a tool called the dissimilarity index. The index represents the proportion of one group that would need to move to establish an equal distribution of the population based on their relative numbers. It ranges from 0 to 100. A score of 0 means equal distribution across neighborhoods, while a score of 100 means the two groups live in completely separate areas. From 2000 to 2020, white-Black segregation across the region decreased from 84.4% to 68.3% on the index, while white-Hispanic segregation decreased from 47.6% to 39.9%. Together, these numbers indicate a broader trend toward more integrated living patterns. In the inner-ring suburbs, segregation fell across the board. White-Black segregation went down by 15.6%; white-Asian and white-Hispanic segregation dropped even more, by 43.2% and 30.7%, respectively. These trends suggest that while the outer suburbs currently have lower levels of segregation, the inner suburbs are integrating more rapidly, reflecting shifting patterns of neighborhood change and increasing racial and ethnic diversity. Detroit has come a long way since exiting bankruptcy in 2014. Its recent population growth and increasing diversity show important signs of renewal. Grigoris Argeros is a professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
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