FRAMEWORK 23
is inadequate for decent forecasting; our intelligence is insufficient to our tasks; plurality of objectives held by pluralities of politics makes it impossible to pursue unitary aims; and so on ... One reason the publics have been attacking the social professions, we believe, is that the cognitive and occupational styles of the professions — mimicking the cognitive style of science and the occupational style of engineering — have just not worked on a wide array of social Desirability problems.’1 Viability
One notable emphasis Rittel and Webber make is that social problems are Balance 2 never solved, but resolved at best. They continue to state ‘the information Feasibility Upstream needed to understand the problem depends upon one’s idea for solving Solution it ... in order to describeAbductive a wicked-problem in sufficient detail, one has Problem thinking? to develop an exhaustive inventory of all conceivable solutions ahead of time3,’ which brings a new perspective to the perception of upstream: To 1 – Upstream Model 2 – Resolution solve societal problems such Model as climate change or excessive consumption of meat and dairy in particular are not linear but endless update between analysis and solution. Rittel and Webber continue to contrast “benign problem” and “wicked problem,” which is well in line with “analytical thinking” and “abductive thinking” presented by Martin. What is also notable here is that Rittel and Webber stress that there is no try and error in solving wicked problem as they have indefinite impact, which naturally leads to systems thinking.
Evaluation Formulation Time frame for solving Test and try
Social professions, planners • Societal problems • Poverty problem • Deficient mental treatment Solution
• Chess player’s attempt to checkmate in five moves • Solving Equation in mathematics • Analysing structure of unknown compound in chemistry
Systems Thinking
Property
Engineer, scientist Behavioural Science
Examples
Wicked problem
Problem
Occupation
Benign problem
“Benign”, tame, clear whether or not the problems have been solved, docility
“Wicked”, malignant, vicious, tricky, aggressive
Correct or false
Good or bad
Yes
No
Definite
Indefinite world
Yes, learn by trial-and-error
No, one shot operation, every attempt counts significantly
Singe definition
Yes
Single solution
Yes
Consequence
Immediate, ultimate
Indefinite
No
Yes
Uniqueness
No Model 3 - The Bridge and the World No
A partial summary of Dilemmas in a general theory planning
Solution Behavioural Systems Shared Vision 1 HWJScience Rittel and MM Webber, ‘Dilemmas in a general theory planning’, ThinkingPolicy Science, 4, 155-169, Elsevier Problem Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1973, p. 160 (republished as a part of N Cross, Development in Design Methodology, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, 1984) 2
Ibid., p. 160.
3
Ibid., p. 161.
Model 4 - Lenses (descriptive)
Final - Inception