Abstract: In classical homological stability, one considers families of spaces X_n and maps X_n -> X_n+1 that induce isomorphisms in homology in a range increasing with n. Recently, there have been many new stability results involving families of spaces without obvious maps between them. I will talk about a new perspective on how to construct such maps in the case of configuration spaces. Factorization homology and E_k-cells will be the key tools. This will survey joint work with Kupers, joint work with Knudsen and Tosteson, as well as work of Randal-Williams and work of Himes.