wicked-problems.html

Wicked Problems

Notes from Norton (2005) starting on pg 131

link to problem typology

"benign" and "wicked" problems

many problems can be solved by analysis and policy - "benign"

some are intractable to usual methods with goals and objectives - "wicked"

Wicked problems have only better or worse outcomes, not real solutions.

 

Horst Rittle and Melvin Webber developed a dichotomy in 1973

 

Rittle and Webber made a list of characteristics

  1. no definite formulation
  2. no stopping rule
  3. solutions are not right or wrong, but good or bad
  4. no immeidate and no ultimate test of a solution
  5. every solution is a one shot operation
  6. unlimited number of solutions
  7. essentially unique problems
  8. each wicked problem is a symptom of another problem
  9. problems can be represented multiple ways
  10. planner has no right to be wrong

 

 

 

Norton's more general lumping of the characteristics

problem of formulation

pluralism is present, makes wicked problems wicked

conflicting values in play

noncomputability of solutions

"many interesting problems, including all wicked problems, have no optimization solutions"

can't use an algorithm,

"sophisticated models can embody multiple criteria, they cannot tell us how to weight or prioritize multiple criteria"

problems are nonrepeatable

unique situations

have to use heuristics to help look for paths

problems are open-ended and have multiple time scales

no stopping rule

each action results in changing the problem and the solution must adapt

a "temporary stable point in an ongoing negotiation"

use space-time relationships to describe physical and social scales of processes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference:

Norton, B. G. (2005). Sustainability: A philosophy of adaptive ecosystem management. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. notes

refers to - Horst Rittle and Melvin Webber 1973