The Wicked Problem of Climate Change: A New Approach Based on Social Mess and Fragmentation

Sun, Jiazhe; Yang, Kaizhong

doi:10.3390/su8121312

Cited by 72 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 62 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…When looking specifically at the topic of climate change, a narrative approach is particularly valuable due to its nature of being able to address ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity (Mitchell and Egudo 2003). It can help uncover underlying causes and drivers and is therefore good for understanding complex and wicked problems such as climate change (Jiazhe and Kaizhong 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New stories for a more conscious, sustainable society: claiming authorship of the climate story

Hendersson

Wamsler

2019

Climatic Change

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Sustainability philosophers claim that we are at an impasse of stories, finding ourselves in a blank chapter between the old and the new. The old story, characterized by separation, technological dominance and human superiority over nature, is unfolding in an ecological crisis giving space for a new narrative defined by inter-being, cooperation and balance. It has been put forward that this crisis is climate change, a phenomenon that epitomizes the old, while holding the potential to act as a bridge to the new. Our study shows the benefits of framing climate change as a problem of story and how the dominant story we have told about climate change can be changed. Based on an approach called "Rising strong", we address the question of how sustainability students relate to the story on climate change, how they conceptualize and situate it within a bigger narrative, and identify barriers and catalysts for authorship. The results show a clear lack of personal authorship, a feeling of disconnection to the climate story and a disbelief in any revolutionary endings, yet still a slight belief in co-authorship. Catalysts that can help to claim back authorship were identified to be positive emotions (e.g., empathy and hope), integral thinking, creation of space for creativity and co-creation. Barriers were scientific rationality and complexity alongside perceived negative emotions, such as shame and self-doubt. One of the most crucial findings was the re-occurring theme of joint engagement for story-transitioning. This point to the urgent need for both increased co-creation as well as the creation of conditions needed to enable people to engage in such processes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New stories for a more conscious, sustainable society: claiming authorship of the climate story

Hendersson

Wamsler

2019

Climatic Change

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“…Wicked problems affect whole systems, which therefore brings forth another problem of framing since the problem can be defined from the different viewpoints of various stakeholders [23,24]. Rittel proposed that the key characteristics of wicked problems include (i) the identification of wicked problems relies on the diversity of opinions of stakeholders, (ii) wicked problems entail no right or wrong, true or false solutions, (iii) since wicked problems have multiple inputs, there are hence a myriad of solutions, (iv) given that each problem is distinct, solutions are also unique and previously identified solutions cannot be applied to new problems, (v) every identified wicked problem leads to another wicked problem [25,26].…”

Section: Island Waste Metabolism Is a 'Wicked Problem' For Policy-makersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plastics Waste Metabolism in a Petro-Island State: Towards Solving a “Wicked Problem” in Trinidad and Tobago

Shah

Niles²,

Ali

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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Island systems have limited geographical, ecological, and social capacity to metabolize waste materials produced by the economic activities of their growing populations. Conceptualized as a 'wicked problem', the faults and weaknesses in waste management systems on islands continue to cause acute and cumulative ecological and human health impacts. Trinidad and Tobago is one such island jurisdiction grappling with this situation, particularly being a petroleum-dependent economy. Through the lens of neo-institutional theory, this case study of waste management in Trinidad and Tobago unpacks the efforts, reactions, drivers and circumstances that have led to various successes and failures but no definitive solutions over time, especially regarding plastics and packaging materials. We identify three temporal phases of policy evolution that have altered the waste metabolism trajectory to date: (1) government led patriarchal approach of traditional landfilling combined with behavioral change campaigns to reduce, reuse, and recycle, (2) to a more democratic, shared burden, public-private partnership approach combined with attempts at incentive-based regulations, (3) to the present, more private sector-led voluntary bans on production and use of plastics. This study contributes to our understanding of the institutional factors that shape the search for solutions to the wicked problem of island waste metabolism.

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“…Our current approach of dealing with natural resources leads to a degradation of natural systems, which builds the invaluable basis of humanity and increases the magnitude of today's biggest societal problems [44,50]. Complex societal issues are problems with multiple conflicting interests, which over time play against or occasionally with each other [45]. To those kind of wicked problems, there is no single solution, but rather an "exhaustively describable" set or series of solutions, e.g., in the form of sustainable innovations [41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Text Mining Algorithms for Crowdsourcing Can Help Us to Identify Today's Pressing Societal Issues

Köhl¹,

Fuger²,

Lang³

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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Crowdsourcing is increasingly applied in the area of open development with the goal to find solutions for today's pressing societal issues. To solve such wicked problems, manifold solutions need to be found and applied. In contrast to this, most recent research in crowdsourcing focuses on the few winning ideas, ignoring the sheer amount of content created by the community. In this study we address this issue by applying an automated text mining technique to analyze the ideas contributed by the crowd in an initiative tackling plastic pollution. We show that automated text mining approaches reveal numerous possibilities to make use of the so far unused content of IT enabled collaboration projects. We further add insights into how our findings can help researchers and practitioners to accelerate the solution process for today's pressing societal issues.

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The Wicked Problem of Climate Change: A New Approach Based on Social Mess and Fragmentation

Cited by 72 publications

References 62 publications

New stories for a more conscious, sustainable society: claiming authorship of the climate story

New stories for a more conscious, sustainable society: claiming authorship of the climate story

Plastics Waste Metabolism in a Petro-Island State: Towards Solving a “Wicked Problem” in Trinidad and Tobago

How Text Mining Algorithms for Crowdsourcing Can Help Us to Identify Today's Pressing Societal Issues

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