Between the Rhetoric of Employability and the Reality of Youth (Under)Employment: NEET Policy Rhetoric in the UK and Scotland

In the UK and Scotland, considerable resources have been devoted to tackling the persistent issue of young people who are, or are at risk of becoming, not in education, employment or training (NEET), a pathologized status that incurs significant penalties for young people and the economy. Using critical discourse analysis, this paper analyses and evaluates policy rhetoric to explore how the NEET ‘problem’, agenda and population are constituted by the UK and Scottish governments. In doing so, numerous unifying and problematic NEET policy tropes are identified, challenging the popular notion of significant policy divergence between the punitive reputation of Westminster and the image of Scottish governance as more socially democratic. Moreover, this paper differs from traditional policy analysis by also evaluating policy from the perspective of young people, drawing on empirical data from a qualitative study of the school-to-work transitions of NEET and marginally employed young people in Scotland.

Broadening the problem agenda of biological individuality: individual differences, uniqueness and temporality

Biological individuality is a notoriously thorny topic for biologists and philosophers of biology. In this paper we argue that biological individuality presents multiple, interconnected questions for biologists and philosophers that together form a problem agenda. Using a case study of an interdisciplinary research group in ecology, behavioral and evolutionary biology, we claim that a debate on biological individuality that seeks to account for diverse practices in the biological sciences should be broadened to include and give prominence to questions about uniqueness and temporality. We show that broadening the problem agenda of biological individuality draws attention to underrecognized philosophical issues and discussions and thereby organizes and enriches the existing debate.

Proses Kebijakan di Daerah: Formulasi Peraturan Daerah Provinsi Riau tentang Pengelolaan Daerah Aliran Sungai

Penurunan kondisi Daerah Aliran Sungai (DAS) di Indonesia ditandai dengan peningkatan tanah longsor, erosi dan sedimentasi, banjir, dan kekeringan. Setiap DAS memiliki permasalahannya sendiri sehingga dalam pengelolaan DAS di perlukan aturan yang khusus mengatur permasalah di DAS tersebut. Pengelolaan DAS Provinsi Riau diperlukan peraturan atau payung hukum yang khusus mengatur tentang DAS Provinsi Riau yang sesuai dengan klarifikasi dari DAS tersebut. Dalam hal ini muncul Ranperda inisiatif komisi DPRD Provinsi Riau Komisi B dalam Pengelolaan DAS di Provinsi Riau. Artikel ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan metode analisis deskriptif, pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan wawancara, obsrvasi dan dokumentasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan dalam perumusan kebijakan Peraturan Daerah Provinsi Riau tentang Pengelolaan DAS terdapat beberapa proses dan tahapan yaitu Perumusan masalah (defining problem), Agenda kebijakan, Pemilihan alternatif kebijakan untuk memecahkan masalah, dan terakhir Tahap penetapan kebijakan. Dari proses perumusan yang dilakukan, draft awal Ranperda dengan draft setelah Rapat Paripurna yang telah dilakukan tidak mengalami perubahan yang signifikan, perubahan hanya berkisar pada penambahan konsep dalam pengelolaan DAS yang diwujudkan dalam Ranperda.

Individuation, Individuality, and Experimental Practice in Developmental Biology

Philosophical analyses of individuals in biology have focused on theories of individuality that derive from evolutionary theory, understood as a fundamental framework that governs all of biology. Less attention has been given to how individuals are determined in experimental practice. The author uses the problem agenda of growth in developmental biology to argue that individuation practices are guided by structured problems, which leads to variable and divergent conceptualizations of what qualifies as an individual. The result is a pluralist perspective on biological individuality in which different kinds of individuals are counted, compared, detected, or tracked in practice. The problem-relative nature of individuation dissolves the so-called problem of biological individuality and captures more accurately how biologists engage in successful practices that contribute to the manipulation, prediction, and explanation of biological individuals.