Clumsy Solutions Research Articles

Dual citizenship and wicked problems: a leadership stance in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy

ABSTRACT This paper raises and addresses issues to do with leadership and child psychotherapy, beginning with a report on a systematic review of papers about leadership in the Journal of Child Psychotherapy (JCP). The authors establish that leadership is expressed implicitly rather than as an important issue in its own right with relevance to clinical work, service development and the ongoing viability of psychoanalytic child psychotherapy. When reviewing the limited literature available, the authors classify them into five types of article: tribute to leaders past; clinical leadership; threat to survival and call to action; organisational leadership; and exemplary papers describing professional leadership. The authors query why the leadership literature is sparse and inexplicit and respond by using the theme of ‘dual citizenship’ to explore the issue from a psychoanalytic and organisational perspective. The psychoanalytic perspective explores tensions and barriers that may be profession-specific in relation to leadership. The organisational perspective explores the wider literature on leadership, starting with the concept of ‘wicked problems and clumsy solutions’. The authors introduce and describe a ‘leadership stance’ that is compatible with psychoanalytic practice in context. This requires opening up leadership activity to the same scrutiny and reflective practice as clinical work, which provides ways of containing organisational and career anxieties and perplexing clinical problems. This paper is a call to action in regard to integrating leadership into the training and the profession.

Varieties of development: On the plurality of political economies and how to harness it

AbstractDevelopment models are disputed in the global South and North, as evidenced by recent protests advancing different desirable social ends and means. The diversity of development ideas suggests it is a wicked problem, requiring clumsy solutions. Employing grid group cultural theory, this article elucidates that plurality and indicates ways to harness it. Four irreducible, ideal‐typical notions of development are found: market‐led individual prosperity, state‐led system‐wide welfare, alternatives of community‐led equal welfare with ecological conservation and a mirage. Clumsy development models secure legitimacy and effectiveness by engaging all worldviews, including their distinct pathways to clumsiness or messy institutions.

Clumsy solutions and climate change: A retrospective

AbstractIn 1989, Steve Rayner chided fellow anthropologists for “fiddling while the world warms.” This was the starting point of a decades‐long application to human‐made climate change of the cultural theory that he had developed with Mary Douglas and Michael Thompson. It culminated in a call to develop “clumsy” solutions for addressing the issue. Since then, the concept of clumsy solutions has been applied, praised, and criticised. To clarify its strengths and weaknesses, I first set out cultural theory and explain how the notion of clumsy solutions was derived from it. I then assess the extent to which this notion has increased our understanding of climate change governance. I do so by breaking up the application of this concept into seven predictions, concerning: (1) the major perspectives among stakeholders on how to resolve climate change; (2) the fate of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol; (3) the feasibility of international emissions trading; (4) the possibility of making renewable energy competitive; (5) the need for domestic governmental action to realize this possibility; (6) the effectiveness of a nonbinding global treaty to combat climate change; and (7) the need to explore adaptation, carbon capture, and geoengineering. I show that these predictions have stood the test of time. Finally, I discuss the roles that the concept of clumsy solutions can play in future climate change governance. This article is written in memory of Steve Rayner, one of the first social scientists to focus on climate change.This article is categorized under: Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Sociology/Anthropology of Climate Knowledge Climate, History, Society, Culture > Thought Leaders

Governancing development in the Andes: From wicked problem to clumsy solutions via messy institutions

AbstractRecent protests in Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile, as well as tense elections in Peru, Ecuador, and Chile, suggest strong polarization. At their heart lies a dispute for the development model. The plurality of factions and vindications underscore the plurality of development notions, rendering the situation a wicked problem. Grid group cultural theory makes sense of such complexity, identifying four irreducible cultures and their respective development models—illustrated by neoliberalism, the developmental state, multiple alternatives such as Sumak Kawsay, and a chimera. To address this problem effectively and legitimately, all models must be engaged to produce clumsy solutions. Further, each culture has its own pathway to harness this plurality. These are messy institutions whose shape, as well as that of clumsy development models, will depend on the relative power of each culture and the context in which they are located. It could be beneficial to incorporate these insights into research on and the practice of development governance in the Andean Region.

Medievals and Moderns in Conversation: Co-Designing Creative Futures for Underused Historic Churches in Rural Communities

For many living in rural areas, the loss of traditional community assets and increased social fragmentation are a common feature of everyday life. The empty village church is a poignant symbol of these challenges; yet, these are sites that hold considerable potential for new placemaking solutions that respond to the needs of communities today. This means looking beyond “the traditional village church” to recognise a longer history of church adaptation and resilience within the lives of communities. In this paper we ask: how can co-design, projected through a Wicked problems and Clumsy solutions lens, help imagine new futures for communities and their historic churches today? Clumsy solutions consider a plurality of different perspectives on the nature of problems and their resolution to deliver more effective solutions with broad appeal. In the search for clumsiness, we turn to ‘long history’ and ‘slow technology’ for inspiration, uncovering deeper resonance with historical communities of place and anchoring that continuity within church sites themselves. Our paper demonstrates how Wicked/Clumsy thinking can account for the challenges faced by rural communities today, bootstrap co-design activities in the development of clumsy solutions, and uncover clumsiness in long history and slow technology dimensions—together laying the foundation for new placemaking strategies.

The end of business-as-usual? – A critical review of the air transport industry's climate strategy for 2050 from the perspectives of Degrowth

In discourses around sustainability, increasing eco-efficiency through technological developments are highly popular as they promise the continuation of business-as-usual and appeal to economic actors whose primary motivation is to follow the paths of economic growth. Dominant narratives and visions about the bioeconomy also fit into this line of thinking by giving a central role to technological problem solving and decoupling, the opportunities of sustaining economic growth and advancing the extended use of renewable resources. In 2020, major actors of the air transport industry under the frame of the Air Transport Action Group issued Waypoint 2050 a global, sector wide strategy to tackle climate change and halve CO 2 emissions by the middle of this century. As we will establish in this paper, their sustainability strategies strongly rely on bioeconomic solutions such as sustainable air fuels and renewable energy, while their need to grow remains unquestioned. However, achieving sustainability is a wicked problem that needs clumsy solutions. And clumsy solutions only come about when highly different viewpoints are put on the table. Degrowth perspectives can most certainly enrich dialogues on sustainability transitions such as the current challenges the air transport industry faces. This paper aims to provide a critical review of Waypoint 2050, underlining why it is important for economists and policymakers to shift their understanding from pursuing endless growth toward Degrowth perspectives. We use the main arguments of Degrowth to interpret and analyse the air transport industry's climate strategy and reframe the discussions around sustainable aviation. Our goal is to show that Degrowth approaches can contribute to positively influencing the discourses of air transport by assessing the consequences of the sector and its reform strategy through diverse lenses. The discourse reflected in this paper would also be appropriate when applied to other top carbon producing industries and our assessment of air transport is not a directed criticism but rather an example on why business-as-usual scenarios need to be revisited.

The future of global environmental assessments: Making a case for fundamental change

Since the late 1970s, over 140 global environmental assessments (GEAs) have been completed. But are they any longer fit for purpose? Some believe not. Compelling arguments have been advanced for a new assessment paradigm, one more focussed on problem-solving than problem-identification. If translated into new assessment practices, this envisaged paradigm could prevail for the next several decades, just as the current one has since the late 1970s. In this paper, it is contended that the arguments for GEAs 2.0 are, in fact, insufficiently bold. Solutions-orientated assessments, often associated with a ‘policy turn’ by their advocates, are undoubtedly necessary. But without a ‘politics turn’ they will be profoundly insufficient: policy options would be detached from the diverse socio-economic explanations and ‘deep hermeneutics’ of value that ultimately give them meaning, especially given the very high stakes now attached to managing human impacts on a fast-changing planet. Here we make the case for GEAs 3.0, where two paradigmatic steps forward are taken at once rather than just one. The second step involves the introduction of political reasoning and structured normative debate about existential alternatives, a pre-requisite to strategic decision-making and its operational expression. Possible objections to this second step are addressed and rebutted. Even so, the case for politically-overt GEAs faces formidable difficulties of implementation. However, we consider these challenges less a sign of our undue idealism and more an indication of the urgent need to mitigate, if not overcome them. In a world of ‘wicked problems’ we need ‘wicked assessments’ adequate to them, preparatory to so-called ‘clumsy solutions’. This paper is intended to inspire more far-reaching debate about the future of GEAs and, by implication, about the roles social science and the humanities might usefully play in addressing global environmental change.

Assessing the Operationalization of Cultural Theory through Surveys Investigating the Social Aspects of Climate Change Policy Making

AbstractCultural theory (CT) provides a framework for understanding how social dimensions shape cultural bias and social relations of individuals, including values, view of the natural world, policy preferences, and risk perceptions. The five resulting cultural solidarities are each associated with a “myth of nature”—a concept of nature that aligns with the worldview of each solidarity. When applied to the problem of climate protection policy making, the relationships and beliefs outlined by CT can shed light on how members of the different cultural solidarities perceive their relationship to climate change and associated risk. This can be used to deduce what climate change management policies may be preferred or opposed by each group. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of how CT has been used in surveys of the social aspects of climate change policy making, to assess the construct validity of these studies, and to identify ways for climate change protection policies to leverage the views of each of the cultural solidarities to develop clumsy solutions: policies that incorporate strengths from each of the cultural solidarities’ perspectives. Surveys that include measures of at least fatalism, hierarchism, individualism, and egalitarianism and their associated myths of nature as well as measures of climate change risk perceptions and policy preferences have the highest translation and predictive validity. These studies will be useful in helping environmental managers find clumsy solutions and develop resilient policy according to C.S. Holling’s adaptive cycle.

Latin America at a Crossroads: A Cultural Theory to Address the Wicked Problem of Regional Integration with Clumsy Solutions


 
 
 
 Latin America is at a crossroads. Its efforts to integrate are undergoing significant changes. In this light, integration has been regarded as a wicked problem. Contra convention, such approach suggests that wicked problems, being social problems, may have an indefinite number of solutions. This article builds on that argument and, in order to make it workable, proposes gridgroup cultural theory as a framework to reduce its complexity while taking its inherent pluralityseriously. In brief, this theory focuses on how individual decision-making is influenced by the collective (group) or by institutions (grid). The combination of these two dimensions provides four rationalities, ways of life, or worldviews: hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, and fatalism. Latin American integration initiatives can be found within this limited diversity scheme to address this wicked problem and hint at appropriate solutions, clumsy ones. They require the inclusion of all rationalities in constructive dialogue seeking not to leave them worse off.
 
 
 

The “Wicked Problem” of Neutral Description: Toward a Documentation Approach to Metadata Standards

ABSTRACTIncreasingly, metadata standards have been recognized as constructed rather than neutral. In this article, we argue for the importance of a documentation approach to metadata standards creation as a codification of this growing recognition. By making design decisions explicit, the documentation approach dispels presumptions of neutrality and, drawing on the “wicked problems” theoretical framework, acknowledges the constructed nature of standards as “clumsy solutions.”

Clumsy City by Design—A Theory for Jane Jacobs’ Imperfect Cities?

How do different concepts of justice correspond with the principles of diversity in cities introduced by Jane Jacobs? This contribution connects Jane Jacobs’ ideas on the diverse city with Mary Douglas’ Cultural Theory and its concept of clumsy solutions. According to Douglas’ Cultural Theory, every social situation can be described in terms of the four ideal-typical “rationalities”: individualism, egalitarianism, hierarchism, and fatalism. These four rationalities are again linked to different concepts of justice: libertarian, utilitarian, or social justice. Douglas’ Cultural Theory assumes that in every social situation all four of those rationalities emerge in some way and concludes that if a situation is not poly-rational, it is less robust. This opts for imperfect and “clumsy solutions”. It is argued that clumsy solutions, the four rationalities and related concepts fit Jane Jacobs’ claim for more diversity in urban design. This essentially calls for imperfect cities by design, ‘built’ by Jacobs’ generators for diversity. Although this outcome might not be revolutionary in the current debates about urban design, the concept of clumsy solutions provide a foundation for Jane Jacobs’ atheoretical claim for a diverse city. This contributes to new reflections on the urban planning paradigms of Jane Jacobs.

Reflections on Leadership and Ethics in Complex Times

ABSTRACTHow do leaders make and justify decisions during exceedingly complex times? This question is examined through a focus on the roadblocks that leaders themselves throw in the way of their effectiveness; an ethical orientation that seems increasingly lacking; and the growing need for collaboration, clumsy solutions, and organizations dedicated to civil discourse.

Messy institutions for wicked problems: How to generate clumsy solutions?

The idea that ‘wicked’ environmental and social problems can be resolved with ‘clumsy’ solutions has been increasingly supported by empirical evidence. Clumsy solutions emerge from a new type of dialogue-based problem-solving strategy, derived from what Funtowicz and Ravetz call ‘post-normal science’. How, then, can such dialogues best be organised? We offer an answer by combining the framework from which the notion of clumsy solutions was derived – namely Mary Douglas’ cultural theory – with the many decision-making procedures for addressing wicked problems proposed in policy and organisational studies. Employing the former theory, we explore 17 widely applied decision-making processes. The analysis identifies six methods most likely and seven methods least likely to successfully initiate post-normal dialogue. Moreover, the analysis suggests four processes that ‘almost’ fulfil the criteria for generating clumsy solutions. The paper then explores and suggests ways of extending and augmenting these ‘almost’ cases to enable post-normal dialogues and clumsy solutions.

Managing urban soil sealing in Munich and Leipzig (Germany)—From a wicked problem to clumsy solutions

Cities can be characterized by extensive sealing limiting the supply of ecosystem services. In Europe, soil sealing is still increasing despite decreasing population. This paper shows that the management of urban soil sealing must—due to its complex driving forces, impacts, constraints of its management and different actors—be considered as a wicked problem. By using the method of response–efficiency–assessment (REA), the strategies “legal-planning”, “informal-planning”, “economic-fiscal”, “co-operative” and “informational” are assessed in their degree of efficiency as being ecologically sustainable, economically functional, institutionally accepted, supporting environmental competence and living quality. Responses were assessed by indicators using a content analysis and survey of urban actors and residents in Leipzig and Munich (Germany). Main results of the study show that no single strategy can provide an efficient solution for reducing soil sealing but rather a mix of clumsy solutions are necessary promoting: (1) stricter regulations and an increase in ecological–financial incentives, (2) stronger commitment by urban actors toward sealing reduction supported by informal-planning responses and scientific know-how, (3) information addressed to urban residents supporting self-reflection on impacts of private land consumption and (4) improved horizontal and regional co-operations taking into account cities’ responsibility for urban and global sustainability. This study provides a valuable approach on how to puzzle together clumsy solutions on the example of soil sealing management as a challenge in an urbanized world. This method can also be used for other current wicked problems like climate change.

Territorial Cohesion through Spatial Policies: An Analysis with Cultural Theory and Clumsy Solutions

The European Territorial Cohesion Policy has been the subject of numerous debates in recent years. Most contributions focus on understanding the term itself and figuring out what is behind it, or arguing for or against a stronger formal competence of the European Union in this field. This article will leave out these aspects and pay attention to (undefined and legally non-binding) conceptual elements of territorial cohesion, focusing on the challenge of linking it within spatial policies and organising the relations. Therefore, the theoretical approach of Cultural Theory and its concept of clumsy solution are applied to overcome the dilemma of typical dichotomies by adding a third and a fourth (but not a fifth) perspective. In doing so, normative contradictions between different rational approaches can be revealed, explained and approached with the concept of ‘clumsy solutions’. This contribution aims at discussing how this theoretical approach helps us explain and frame a coalition between the Territorial Cohesion Policy and spatial policies. This approach contributes to finding the best way of linking and organising policies, although the solution might be clumsy according to the different rationalities involved.

Messy Institutions for Wicked Problems: How to Generate Clumsy Solutions

In the past three decades, organizational studies have generated an impressive body of literature about how best to deal with complex and uncertain – or ‘wicked’ – policy problems. Each of these approaches aims to activate and mobilize the plurality of opinion and knowledge that wicked problems give rise to. However, contending methods go about this in different ways. Relying on Mary Douglas’ cultural theory, this paper outlines a method of evaluating and predicting the likelihood that any given approach will successfully tackle wicked policy challenges. On the basis of the theory’s notions of ‘clumsy solutions’ and ‘the hermit’, we devise two criteria for assessing the impact of any method on wicked problems. First, we argue that any given method is more likely to be successful the more it is able to activate the full range of partial solutions on offer. Second, we contend that approaches will be even more successful if they enable stakeholders to stand back from their own cognitive and social contexts. Of the twenty methods analyzed using these criteria, six approaches mobilized the full range of partial solutions available, and are therefore likely to solve wicked problems most effectively. In addition to these predictions, we argue that our cultural theory analysis offers a diagnosis of the reasons for why any given approach may fail to solve wicked problems. More importantly, our analysis also helps in developing therapies for improving these methods.

Douglasian cultural dialogues and the Financial Reporting Council complexity project

There has been near-universal reliance upon Hofstede's cultural dimensions as the theory base for culturally related accounting research. Given the criticisms that have been raised in respect of Hofstede this paper proposes Mary Douglas's cultural theory as a more appropriate theory base for future research. Central to Douglasian cultural theory is the notion of cultural dialogues which proposes that within any community four solidarities will be present and in constant competition. The paper identifies cultural dialogues through an analysis of comments letters submitted to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in response to their ‘complexity of corporate reporting’ discussion paper. To understand how a particular solution has been arrived at when an accounting or auditing issue is reviewed, the debates that precede the outcome need unscrambling by reference to cultural dialogues and the analysis of the comments letters reveals the voices of the different solidarities as they seek to persuade others of the validity of their way of life. The paper proposes a clumsy solutions approach is appropriate for resolving debates on accounting and auditing issues. This approach recognises that, because the solutions offered up by each culture have limitations, all four voices need to be heard in any debate.

ICT Project Risk as Pollution Belief - A Comparative Essay in Cultural Theory

This essay briefly shines light on the current, normative, and positivist philosophies of how risk is debated in the field of project and program management. Then an alternative view is offered - Social Theories of Risk. This essay then analyses the National Programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT), in its time the largest civilian ICT project in the world. The analysis focuses on the political struggles surrounding the project and asks the questions; What order was disturbed? Who disturbed the order? Who was blamed? and How was order re-established? The essay then contrasts notions from Social Theories of Risk with the idea of Governmentality to manage ICT project risk. The essay shows that Social Theories of Risk and Governmentality, both concepts not yet embraced in the ICT community, offer valuable insight into the study and the practice of ICT projects as clumsy solutions to wicked problems.

Wicked problems and clumsy solutions: Planning as expectation management

In 1973, Horst W Rittel and Malvin A Webber introduced the term ‘wicked problem’ in planning theory. They describe spatial planning as dealing with inherent uncertainty, complexity and inevitable normativity. This contribution picks up the concept of wicked problems, reflects on it from a planning-theoretical perspective, and proposes the use of Cultural Theory’s concept of clumsy solutions as a response to wicked planning problems. In discussing public participation processes in spatial planning, it is then shown what clumsy solutions mean for spatial planning. The four rationalities of Cultural Theory are then used to explain why public participation in planning can become wicked, and how these rationalities provide a response that copes with this wickedness.

The rebuilding imperative in fisheries: Clumsy solutions for a wicked problem?

There is mounting evidence that global fisheries are in crisis and about 25–30% of fish stocks are over exploited, depleted or recovering. Fish landings are increasingly coming from fully-exploited and over-exploited fisheries, and from intensive aquaculture that often relies indirectly on reduction fisheries. This poses severe challenges for marine ecosystems as well as food security and the livelihoods of resource-dependent coastal communities. Growing awareness of these social, economic and ecological consequences of overfishing is reflected in an expanding literature which shows that reducing fishing effort to allow fish stocks to recover has been the main focus of management efforts, but successful examples of stock recovery are few. An alternative, less explored social-ecological approach focuses on rebuilding entire ‘fish chains’ from oceans to plate. This paper supports this alternative approach. A review and synthesis of stock rebuilding initiatives worldwide suggests effective governance is central to rebuilding, and fisheries governance is a wicked problem. Wicked problems are complex, persistent or reoccurring and hard to fix because they are linked to broader social, economic and policy issues. This review and analysis implies that, due to socioeconomic and sociopolitical concerns, fisheries governance challenges are particularly wicked when dealing with collapsed fisheries and rebuilding efforts. The paper concludes that rebuilding might benefit from experimenting with clumsy solutions. Clumsy solutions are exploratory, include inputs from a broad range of stakeholders along the fish chain, and require information sharing, knowledge synthesis, and trust building. Moreover, clumsy solutions that address power relations, collective action dilemmas, and the fundamental question of ‘rebuilding for whom’ are essential for stewardship, equity and long-term resource sustainability.