Abstract
Traditional scientific policy approaches and tools are increasingly seen as inadequate, or even counter-productive, for many purposes. In response to these shortcomings, a new wave of approaches has emerged based on the idea that societal systems are irreducibly complex. The new categories that are thereby introduced – like “complex” or “wicked” – suffer, however, by a lack of shared understanding. We here aim to reduce this confusion by developing a meta-ontological map of types of systems that have the potential to “overwhelm us”: characteristic types of problems, attributions of function, manners of design and governance, and generating and maintaining processes and phenomena. This permits us, in a new way, to outline an inner anatomy of the motley collection of system types that we tend to call “complex”. Wicked problems here emerge as the product of an ontologically distinct and describable type of system that blends dynamical and organizational complexity. The framework is intended to provide systematic meta-theoretical support for approaching complexity and wickedness in policy and design. We also points to a potential causal connection between innovation and wickedness as a basis for further theoretical improvement.
Highlights
Out of discontent with the performance and adequacy of traditional approaches, which may be described as embodying a topdown rather than a bottom-up approach to understanding and acting, and that are largely based on prediction, planning and control (e.g. Castree et al, 2014; Haasnoot et al, 2013; Leach, Scoones, & Stirling, 2010; Loorbach, 2010), an alternative view of socio-ecotechnological systems is taking shape
These qualities are seen as irreducible root causes of problems – not least ones related to sustainability – and of our persistent inability to predict, prevent and deal with them
They are seen as key to the development of a new generation of approaches to understanding and tackling these problems. These approaches are based on partially overlapping sets of ideas, which is promising for a future integration and synthesis, and deep new insights into the workings of societal systems
Summary
Out of discontent with the performance and adequacy of traditional approaches, which may be described as embodying a topdown rather than a bottom-up approach to understanding and acting, and that are largely based on prediction, planning and control (e.g. Castree et al, 2014; Haasnoot et al, 2013; Leach, Scoones, & Stirling, 2010; Loorbach, 2010), an alternative view of socio-ecotechnological systems is taking shape. Castree et al, 2014; Haasnoot et al, 2013; Leach, Scoones, & Stirling, 2010; Loorbach, 2010), an alternative view of socio-ecotechnological systems is taking shape This view emphasizes qualities related to ideas about complexity, such as multidimensionality, path-dependency and unpredictability (e.g. Bai et al, 2015; Beddoe et al, 2009; Berkhout, 2002; Byrne and Callaghan, 2013; Folke, Carpenter, Walker, Scheffer, & Chapin, 2010; Gunderson & Holling, 2002; Rip & Kemp, 1998). These approaches are based on partially overlapping sets of ideas, which is promising for a future integration and synthesis, and deep new insights into the workings of societal systems Such a development is, hindered by a lack of shared understanding of foundational concepts, arguably most importantly complexity and wickedness. We argue that innovation – in a broad sense, and understood as a distributed process of competitive diversification and adaptation – may describe the generation of the qualities associated with of wickedness
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