Dear Richard,
This is indeed a nice discussion and gave me a lot to think about. Now back
to my corner for some more reflection.
Thank you,
Ali
On Sat, Feb 29, 2020 at 07:46 Richard Herriott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Ali:
>
> Thanks for your answer. I won´t disagree with the growth in the volume of
> complex problems. Without trivializing them I remain confident that the
> vast bulk of all the *things to be done* (from minor tasks to existential
> crises) are tame and banal. How many times a day do we tie our laces?
> contra How many times a day do we develop a health service design programme
> for drug addicts?
>
> Maybe the transitional range between banal/routine and wicked/baffling is
> a bit bigger and there are some more wicked problems these days.
>
> If we are talking about wicked problems, Rittel and Weber wanted to
> articulate their nature and discuss a propensity at that time to use Hard
> Systems Methods restrictively. David Sless was alerting us to the need to
> keep a beady eye out for *things to be done* that required a more
> open-approach (the scoping). And my little bit is to say that there is
> lacking a meta-awareness of when this is to be done because non-designers
> often mistake tricky (under-determined) *things to be done* for routine
> things; instead of suggesting they get a designer they define the answer as
> to what they think the problem is e.g give us new signs.
>
> From out of this discussion we get a sense of the "problem" continuum,
> with at one end tame banal tasks and at the other complex, under-determined
> messes. We all probably have slightly different notions of where tamenesss
> stops and wickedness starts.
>
> The pity is we all know this but the policy makers broadly don´t. The
> political scientists, engineers and lawyers float into government and
> designers don´t. Don´t we need a design for governance MA programme? (If
> it exists, I am unaware of it).
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ali Ilhan
> Sent: Saturday, February 29, 2020 3:43 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Scoping Problem Boundaries
>
> Dear Richard,
>
> Thanks for your email. Unfortunately I do not have the time to unpack
> everything in your thoughtful reply. So again, a few quick pointers.
> Boundary conditions are rapidly changing (unfolding global environmental
> catastrophe, increased connectivity, diminishing resources etc.), so at a
> systemic level, the rules of the game which enables us to treat certain
> issues as “routine” are either no longer there or will not be there in a
> foreseeable future. And most importantly, these larger systems are very
> fragile (they were always very fragile, but stressors were smaller -world
> population was almost as half when Rittel started on wicked problems- and
> we were blissfully less aware).
>
> Another issue: many years ago (almost 15) most of the work (I would say
> close to 90%) that I did as a professional designer in an large, innovative
> corporation was “tame” and “routine”. Some would even say it was not design
> work (And most designers I know work in similar conditions). But in that
> complex socio-technical corporate setting even the most routine of issues
> became very unpredictable, pretty fast. And the problem was not definition
> or a lack there of. So again, back to my point , I don’t think such a harsh
> dichotomy (maybe a continuum instead?) is useful within a complex
> socio-technical setting. A more mundane example, air travel. I thought it
> was one of the most routine things , but after the recent changes in
> security concerns, increasing baggage fees, different carry-on policies and
> having a kid it became a personal nightmare :)
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ali
>
> >
> >
>
>
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