Re: Wicked Problems

Dear Chuck,

Chuck Burnette wrote:

--snip--

On Mar 26, 2014, at 10:04 AM, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

>>The "wicked aspect of a "wicked problem" involve the ways in which human beings identify, select, interpret, attempt to solve, or act upon problems.<<

Therefore, human beings determine the wickedness of a problem?  Unclear.

Perhaps you meant: A wicked problem is determined by humans to be wicked when they can not identify, select, interpret, act on, or solve them with the knowledge and means at their disposal and within the constraints they place upon their task.    --

--snip--

While I am out of this thread, you've asked an interesting and important question. It has two answers, [1] one short, [2] the other long.

[1] The short answer short answer, and what I meant, was that human behaviour in social groups makes wicked problems wicked. That is to say, I used the word "determine" to indicate that human behaviour causes wicked problem to be wicked. I was not talking about how we determine a problem to be wicked in sense that we perceive wicked problems as wicked, but rather that we make problems wicked by the ways in which we identify, select, interpret, act on, or solve the problems we deal with.

The long answer involves the interesting but far more complex question about how our perception of any given problem generates its wickedness in our awareness. This is a thin and implausibly poor way of expressing a very difficult range of issues involve the reflexivity of human experience and the linked behaviours that arise out of reflexivity. I can't address this adequately without taking several weeks to compose a post. As I explained to Terry, this deserves a properly written set of notes, and I can't write them now.

Using my simple example, what I meant was that three people who refuse to agree on what dinner they will eat create a wicked problem through their behaviour. Even when they recognise that the problem is wicked and even when they can easily identify a solution by selecting, interpreting, acting on, and solving them with the knowledge and means at their disposal and within simple constraints, the problem may remain wicked if each nevertheless decides for some reason that he or she must have the kind of cuisine that he or she first chose.

I hope this clarifies what I meant. Your question is terrific, but I have gone back into lurk mode, so all I can provide is the short answer of what I originally meant.

Yours,

Ken

Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia | University email [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Private email [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Mobile +61 404 830 462 | Academia Page http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman

Guest Professor | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Adjunct Professor | School of Creative Arts | James Cook University | Townsville, Australia



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