Wicked Problems: A Design Déjavu
Many academics from fields such as architecture, city planning and design insist on that the one goal of many should be tackling one of specific kind of problem. These problems are called wicked problems. They are called wicked for some reasons. Quoting from the work of Rittel and Webber on “Dillemas in a General Theory of Planning”, I will try to explore the reasons why they called wicked problems explaining each properties that authors mentioned. I think by revisiting these properties, I will notice how actually “design” itself is a wicked problem as Richard Buchanan puts. One can easily replace my examples on Syrian Refugee Crysis with any kind of design problem.
“There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem. Because of this there is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem. The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem’s resolution.”
* We can’t really define a “wicked problem” because “it can’t be defined until a solution can be found” because they are too complex to achieve. These problems involve many stakeholders, many actors and they may not even solved in larger scale such as governments. For example, Turkey (as government) recently is struggling with Syrian Refugee Crisis that involves many actors, even its name changes according to viewpoints. Same event may be called “Refugee Crisis in Syria”, “Refugee Crisis in Europe”, “Refugee Crisis in Germany”. Although event originated from the Syrian Civil War, it’s impact not only become visible only one type of actor, permanent residents of Syria but also the rest of the world: Turkey, Greece, European Commision (EC), Canada, USA on both governmental and residential levels. By this amount of stakeholders in a problem, it seems that it is hard (probably impossible) to solve the refugee crisis in near future. At least, we can’t test the solution on a scale this big.
“Wicked problems are not true-or-false but good-and-band, and have no stopping rules. Every solution to a wicked problem is a “one-shot operation”; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly.”
* Since solutions for wicked problems can’t be true or false but good or bad, they are simply open-ended. If there isn’t really a limitation (like time or workforce), one can come with sub-solutions for a wicked problem as many as can it be. For example, in the context of Syrian refugee crisis, sometimes people feel that there is not enough solutions to overcome this problem but it is not true. From individuals (see above picture to have a sense of ‘designerly’ way to tackle this problem) to governments are trying to tackle this problem and help Syrian’s in different scales. Since this crisis also political, many people naturally find the offered solutions bad or good. The deal between EC and Turkish government has become one of the hottest debates recently and since we, universally all people on the planet “Earth”, can’t decide on a deadline for to overcome this problem, many will be dead on the boundary lines of Syria, sadly.
“Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.”
* You can’t simply follow a specific methodology to overcome the wicked problem but can combine a set of methodologies to approach the problem from different aspects. For example, there are many key subjects, that Syrian Refugee Crisis should be examined by. Education of immigrant Syrian’s, infrastructure, which are needed to be rebuild in Syria, future political agenda of new Syrian government, public and national health of Syrians at war /after the war… With this large scope, proposed solutions are becoming atoms of the ultimate solution but they may not solve the problem on themselves.
“Every wicked problem is essentially unique and can be considered to be a symptom of another problem.”
* Created by humans at first hand, wicked problems are directly related to humans and their surroundings. The reason that they are different from each other is that their sources are different. They include so many “unique” living humans, living entities so that they somehow encode themselves in a more complex identity. On the other hand, each wicked problem can be a symptom of another (wicked) problem. For example, if you ask Syrians “Why they fled away from Syria?” Many of their responses will be “we left because of the war.” The war, the agenda of Syrian government, other external factors outside Syria…They are all blocks of problems that created a bigger problem, which we know today as “refugee crisis.”
“Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.”
* Sometimes in the ocean of scenarios, potentials, the all solutions of wicked problems can’t be defined because of its “livingness”. The reason that wicked problems can also create other “wicked” problems, a progression towards a solution may seem circular rather than lineer. In many (pragmatic) processes, solving means improvement and basically solution expected to make things better but when one are talking about wicked problems, solutions may not seem to be lineer, especially at first sight due to their projected duration. For example, in order to provide safe shelters to refugee’s, Turkish Red Crescent immediately sat up camps near the Syria-Turkey border, beginning from 2011 but when we look it today, it looks as same as it is in 2011. This is why wicked problem of refugee crisis is a process, which hasn’t finished (probably) will not finish its formation just like other wicked problems such as crime, discrimination etc.
“The planner (problem solver, designer, architecture, policy maker) has no right to be wrong.”
- All in all, person or organization ,who is working towards to solving a wicked problem has no luxury to make mistakes. The reason that “wicked solutions” are touching “too many individuals”, problem solver have the full responsibility of the outcomes that his/her actions generate. For example, European Comission as the biggest grantor of the refugee return agreement between European Union countries and Turkey should take the responsibility of the outcomes of this agreement. After this agreement, how refugees will transported from Europe to Turkey? In which conditions will refugees live? What will happen if families, who have already split during the war, will face splitting again due to this deportation? These are very important and crucial questions to be answered by EC and other stakeholders of “Refugee Agreemeent”.
