Heuristics for practitioners of policy design: Rules-of-thumb for structuring unstructured problems

This article is an attempt to bridge the divide between academics and practitioners. Informed by both design theory and the reality of policy work, its focus is on ‘problems’. From a practitioners’ perspective, policy design is both an intellectual and political process, an inevitable oscillation between ‘puzzling’ and ‘powering’, in which ‘messy’ or unstructured problems are re-structured from problems as webs of ‘undesirable situations’ to problems as specific, time-and-space bound ‘opportunities for improve- ment’. This requires a questioning habitus in practitioners of policy design. Using a socio-cognitive theory of problem processing, this paper shows how policy design is an iterative process of problem sensing, problem categorization, problem decompos- ition and problem definition. For each of these stages, appropriate rules-of-thumb for questioning and answering can be suggested that induce thought habits and styles for responsive and solid policy designs

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Improving User Experience by Browser Extensions: A New Role of Public Service Media?

The paper questions the role of public service media in the digital era. The Internet has in fact disrupted previous patterns of production, distribution and consumption of information. Concerns arose on social media effects on well-being and how mainstream platforms design affects information consumption. The paper is an interdisciplinary contribution structured as follows. Firstly, it critically analyses the risks resulting from social media’s usage, with a special focus on personalization practices. Then, it explores the development of Public Service Broadcasting and questions the role that Public Service Media (PSM) has to sustain media quality, information diversity and, more generally, its traditional values. Thus, arguments in favor of a renovated and proactive role of Public Service Media are provided. In particular, an agonistic approach to social media, an ‘architecture for serendipity’ and the role of attention management are advocated. Finally, drawing from information architecture and nudging theory, the paper introduces the concept of ‘meta-design’ as the ability to re-shape a digital environment by browser extensions in order to change design choices as well as to inform and educate users. The conclusion is that improving user experience by meta-design can actually represent a novel experimental role for PSM and, eventually, a soft regulatory tool for sustaining individuals and the general public interest