Primer Home / Wicked problems / Wicked Problems: Overview

Wicked Problems: Overview

Topic: Wicked problems
by Rui, Sibjan, Yahya, Doszhan, 2022 Cohort

What are Wicked Problems?#

Wicked problems are complex, intractable, open-ended, and unpredictable. It is impossible or tremendously challenging to solve a wicked problem due to its complexity, crossed problems, and multi-stakeholders involved, rather than having progress and improvement. Collaborative and interdisciplinary contributions are encouraged to tackle wicked problems.

Case Study: Food Security#

Food insecurities are a global and wicked problem. The United Nations estimated that over 828 million people faced food insecurities in 2021. By 2050, the global population is estimated to reach approximately 10 billion people, and we need to produce over 60 percent of what we are currently producing. Therefore, we have a global challenge ahead to produce more food with limited resources such as land and water.

However, producing food means investing and expanding in agriculture, the second most significant greenhouse gas source contributing to climate change. For example, for every 100 grams of beef, as much as 60 kg of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere and is harmful to the environment. As a result, the more food we produce, the more collateral environmental damage we create, such as land degradation, loss of biodiversity, and water pollution. In contrast, if we focus on saving the environment, there is likely a threat to food security. Thus, it shows the wicked problem nature of complexity as the solution to one problem leads to another challenge. One way of solving this complexity is to frame the problem and seek alternative solutions and allow all relevant stakeholders to be involved in this issue. In this case, we can frame complexity as ‘Achieving Food Security by Ensuring Climate Resilience’.

Proposed Solutions#

Introducing New Cattle Breeds: Within agriculture, ruminant animals such as grazing cattle like cows and goats are the biggest emitters of harmful methane gas during food digestion. Research is required to develop better cattle breeds that can produce less methane.

Climate Resistant Crops: Due to climate change effects, there are unusual patterns like a long drought, excessive rain, rising temperatures etc. New seeds should be deployed that are resistant to these climate shocks.

Digital Innovation: Innovative technologies such as precision agriculture, drones, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence are helping agriculture to do farming precisely, ensuring higher productivity with limited use of land, water, and fertilizer.

Government Ensuring Access to Food: Redistributing the already available food so that people can afford a nutritious diet would solve the problem. On the other hand, losing autonomy over food may concern people and be considered a threat to a capitalist economy.

Saving Food Waste: Almost one-third of agricultural production is wasted. If only 25% of this could be saved, we could feed 500 million more population. Hence, saving food waste is one step toward ensuring food security.

How do we tackle the Wicked Problems?#

Although there is no best solution to wicked problems, there are better solutions. To navigate the solutions, there are four approaches to consider in dealing with wicked problems.

Transdisciplinary Approach - by incorporating multiple academic disciplines and non-academic knowledge.

Authoritative Approach - one person or group holding total autonomy over the problem by inspiring others to follow the rules that leaders made to solve the wicked problem.

Competitive Approach - sponsoring actors to compete so that there is an incentive to research and find a creative solution to combat wicked problems.

Collaborative Approach - incorporating as many stakeholders as possible in finding the solution and conducting it.

Conclusion#

To sum up, wicked problems cannot be solved by conventional methods of problem-solving. Instead, they need special tools and lenses to solve the problem; thus, accurately framing the problem as wicked or tame is vital to get an overview of the situation to resilient effectively. Resilience has three forms: persistence, transformation, and adaptation. To assess which type of resilience is the best option for all actors and other interconnected problems, having a holistic view through a transdisciplinary approach and using imagination to incorporate many perspectives is vital.

Further Readings:#

• Alford J, Head BW (2017) ‘Wicked and less wicked problems: a typology and a contingency framework’, Policy and Society, 36:397-413, doi:10.1080/14494035.2017.1361634
• Rittel HWJ, Webber MM (1973) ‘Dilemmas in a general theory of planning’, Policy Sciences 4(2):155-169, accessed 31 August 2022. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4531523
• FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (2022) The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2022. Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable, Rome, FAO. doi: 10.4060/cc0639en
• United Nations (2012) Feeding the world sustainably, United Nations, accessed 15 September 2022. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/feeding-world-sustainably

Explore this topic further#

• Wicked Problems{.link-ext target=”_blank”} (Wikipedia)
• Brown, Valerie A., John A. Harris, Jacqueline Y Russell 2010, Tackling wicked problems through the transdisciplinary imagination, Earthscan (Chapters 1 and 2) PDF{.link-new-win target=”_blank”}
• Alford, J., & Head, B. W. (2017). Wicked and less wicked problems: a typology and a contingency framework.{.link-new-win target=”_blank”}

Return to Wicked problems in the Primer

Disclaimer#

This content has been contributed by a student as part of a learning activity.
If there are inaccuracies, or opportunities for significant improvement on this topic, feedback is welcome on how to improve the resource.
You can improve articles on this topic as a student in "Unravelling Complexity", or by including the amendments in an email to: Chris.Browne@anu.edu.au

What are Wicked Problems?#

Wicked problems are complex, intractable, open-ended, and unpredictable. It is impossible or tremendously challenging to solve a wicked problem due to its complexity, crossed problems, and multi-stakeholders involved, rather than having progress and improvement. Collaborative and interdisciplinary contributions are encouraged to tackle wicked problems.

Case Study: Food Security#

Food insecurities are a global and wicked problem. The United Nations estimated that over 828 million people faced food insecurities in 2021. By 2050, the global population is estimated to reach approximately 10 billion people, and we need to produce over 60 percent of what we are currently producing. Therefore, we have a global challenge ahead to produce more food with limited resources such as land and water.

However, producing food means investing and expanding in agriculture, the second most significant greenhouse gas source contributing to climate change. For example, for every 100 grams of beef, as much as 60 kg of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere and is harmful to the environment. As a result, the more food we produce, the more collateral environmental damage we create, such as land degradation, loss of biodiversity, and water pollution. In contrast, if we focus on saving the environment, there is likely a threat to food security. Thus, it shows the wicked problem nature of complexity as the solution to one problem leads to another challenge. One way of solving this complexity is to frame the problem and seek alternative solutions and allow all relevant stakeholders to be involved in this issue. In this case, we can frame complexity as ‘Achieving Food Security by Ensuring Climate Resilience’.

Proposed Solutions#

Introducing New Cattle Breeds: Within agriculture, ruminant animals such as grazing cattle like cows and goats are the biggest emitters of harmful methane gas during food digestion. Research is required to develop better cattle breeds that can produce less methane.

Climate Resistant Crops: Due to climate change effects, there are unusual patterns like a long drought, excessive rain, rising temperatures etc. New seeds should be deployed that are resistant to these climate shocks.

Digital Innovation: Innovative technologies such as precision agriculture, drones, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence are helping agriculture to do farming precisely, ensuring higher productivity with limited use of land, water, and fertilizer.

Government Ensuring Access to Food: Redistributing the already available food so that people can afford a nutritious diet would solve the problem. On the other hand, losing autonomy over food may concern people and be considered a threat to a capitalist economy.

Saving Food Waste: Almost one-third of agricultural production is wasted. If only 25% of this could be saved, we could feed 500 million more population. Hence, saving food waste is one step toward ensuring food security.

How do we tackle the Wicked Problems?#

Although there is no best solution to wicked problems, there are better solutions. To navigate the solutions, there are four approaches to consider in dealing with wicked problems.

Transdisciplinary Approach - by incorporating multiple academic disciplines and non-academic knowledge.

Authoritative Approach - one person or group holding total autonomy over the problem by inspiring others to follow the rules that leaders made to solve the wicked problem.

Competitive Approach - sponsoring actors to compete so that there is an incentive to research and find a creative solution to combat wicked problems.

Collaborative Approach - incorporating as many stakeholders as possible in finding the solution and conducting it.

Conclusion#

To sum up, wicked problems cannot be solved by conventional methods of problem-solving. Instead, they need special tools and lenses to solve the problem; thus, accurately framing the problem as wicked or tame is vital to get an overview of the situation to resilient effectively. Resilience has three forms: persistence, transformation, and adaptation. To assess which type of resilience is the best option for all actors and other interconnected problems, having a holistic view through a transdisciplinary approach and using imagination to incorporate many perspectives is vital.

Further Readings:#

• Alford J, Head BW (2017) ‘Wicked and less wicked problems: a typology and a contingency framework’, Policy and Society, 36:397-413, doi:10.1080/14494035.2017.1361634
• Rittel HWJ, Webber MM (1973) ‘Dilemmas in a general theory of planning’, Policy Sciences 4(2):155-169, accessed 31 August 2022. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4531523
• FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (2022) The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2022. Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable, Rome, FAO. doi: 10.4060/cc0639en
• United Nations (2012) Feeding the world sustainably, United Nations, accessed 15 September 2022. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/feeding-world-sustainably