Southeast Center for Education in the Arts

A "tame problem" is one that may be complicated but can be resolved through the application of familiar ideas and approaches. A "wicked problem" has a level of complexity that goes beyond the limits of knowledge and previous methodologies that worked in the past. The requirement here is to be open to different ways of thinking, to use imagination to the full, and to be receptive to new ideas and new directions. And that brings the challenge of developing transdisciplinary modes of inquiry.

-It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, --
--it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
.--it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
---it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,------
--we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way

As the world grows more interconnected, today’s challenges, geopolitical and otherwise, become more difficult to predict, understand, and handle. They are what design theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber (1973) called “wicked problems” which are vexing because they have multiple, interrelated causes that can’t be solved by traditional tools and methods. They are, by definition, unique and novel. They occur in a social context where stakeholders tend to disagree about the underlying causes thus hampering efforts to reach an effective solution. Wicked problems demand new ways of collaborating. Wicked problem-solvers must first seek to gain a common understanding with their counterparts. The new skills required include self-reflection, consensus-building, and mobilizing others. Wicked problems call for us to harness all the creativity and knowledge at our disposal. Solving wicked problems is the defining challenge of our age.