NextD Journal I ReReThinking Design Conversation 28
Rethinking Wicked Problems: Part 1 of 2
which often is the case in engineering. Simon’s technical rationality extended simple engineering conceptions to larger design problems in defense systems, R & D efforts, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) projects and operations research. But it started to falter when applied to city planning, the design of corporate strategies, and even consumer goods. Not only does Simon’s rationality assume consensus on what is to be accomplished, it also takes for granted that the outcome of the design process can be implemented by decree, similar to how the components of a mechanical system are installed. Technical rationality emerged as the mode of operation in the industrial era, is typical of how engineering problems are solved, and is still practiced in tight organizations – in the military, for example, or in bureaucracies where users can be trained, correct use can be enforced, and dissenting voices are unheard of. Technical rationality is at home in coherent social hierarchies. But it fails when applied to problems that involve people as informed agents, in heterarchical forms of organizations like markets. In cities, for example, design typically improves the lives of some at the expense of others. Interest groups may be looking for particular outcomes and try to define the problem to their advantage. In the marketplace, consumers make informed choices that cannot be understood in mechanical terms. Under these conditions, technical-rational problem solving breaks down and design must proceed differently. Horst Rittel (Rittel and Webber, 1984) made the shift from top-down technical problem solving to a conception of design that accommodates the participation of stakeholders. Working with planners of large social systems, he soon recognized that Simon-like problem solving could not provide guidance where intelligent humans – individuals, organizations, and communities – with interests in a design are involved. He called problems of a technical nature “tame” problems in contrast with what he identified as “wicked” problems, and he anticipated several of the issues that The Semantic Turn is now addressing. For example, he observed that in the social realm, problems are never solved (and thereafter forgotten). They more likely involve conflicts that may be resolved by consensus – only to resurface later on as other kinds of conflicts, calling for further resolutions, and so on. In the social domain, stakeholders typically invest in the outcomes of design processes – in their own future. Coming to a consensus on what the wicked problem is is the problem. His [Rittel’s] design conception moves argumentation into its center, making language and discourse the ultimate arbiter of what is desirable, achievable and will be done.” Krippendorf, Klaus (2006), The Semantic Turn, A New Foundation for Design, pp. 26-27, CRC Press.
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