Hi David,
when I'm talking about a problem being convergent I mean it can be solved by
rational, analytic means or standard approaches and techniques. If a problem
is divergent it holds out against them, it tyically needs 'divergent'
thinking, creative original thinking. Convergent thinking tends to take
place within a standard framework, divergent thinking may question and
overturn that paradigm. e.g. (from a quick google)
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/converge.htm or
http://www.cph127.com/cph127/2005/11/convergent_vs_d.html
It stems from Guilford's work in the psychology of creativity
http://soc.enotes.com/gale-psychology-encyclopedia/divergent-thinking and
Regards
Lauchlan Mackinnon
> Are wicked
> problems essentially the concept of convergent vs. divergent
> problems (which
> made its appearance in the psychology of creativity literature in
> the 1950s
> and 1960s) revisited and dressed up in a more elaborate language?
Convergent vs divergent thinking is still a useful concept for
discussing creativity, but it does apply to how designers [and
others] think. I cannot see how the problems themselves are either
convergent or divergent, but maybe you are using the term in a
particular way that I am unfamiliar with?
David (in convergent mode)
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David Durling FDRS • Professor of Design • School of Arts &
Education, Middlesex University,
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