I was reading Aaron’s post and was considering the challenge of finding solutions to wicked problems, and I started on what may prove to be a controversial train of thought.
I’m starting to be of the opinion that solutions are overrated. That is, at least for wicked problems. To seek a solution is to seek utopia, and we all know what happens when people try to seek utopia… (see: Eugenics, secessionist movements, colonization and establishment of Portland, Oregon). Seeking a solution can be distracting from many other ways one can approach in a flawed system beyond fixing it. I’m being provocative here, but just go with it for a moment.
Not always, but often, a solution means saying “Let’s just pause and think of a way to end this problem.” For small things, that can work. But as lesson number one of ENVS 330, wicked problems are glocal (that is, global+local). They are here and there and waaaay over there; now and then and waaay back when. And as I have considered solutions to wicked problems over the years, I have found my voice getting lost in the void when I just want to shout “Now stop for a second!” The world does not stop; it doesn’t even slow down. So we can keep looking for solutions, but I don’t think a “solution” alone gets at the complexity. A solution feels like an endpoint, and it does not fit with the idea of systems being alive and continuous. We don’t want to stop climate change. We want to redirect the change.
Now, I’m sure there are ways to make solutions dynamic, so that they address the interconnected systems that result in all these tangled messes, but the idea of a endpoint–after which, “ahh, we can just stop and breathe”–is just really off-putting. It is too big, and it is a burden too heavy for any one person. So this goal must be communal, it must be incrementally achievable, it must recognize that the challenge will likely persist, and it must account for you and me and everyone we know and all those we don’t know and all those they don’t know.
When considering wicked problems, I wonder if instead of talking of solutions, we are talking revisions. Or adjustments. Or maybe even revolutions. The word itself matters less than the mindset. In a math problem, the solution isn’t just what equals x, it is what balances the equation. But how do you balance an equation that is so wildly variant, ever changing, unpredictable, and just plain massive?
This should not be taken to mean that we choose a laissez faire attitude to the problems of the world and hope they work themselves out. We are still all agents and have the power and responsibility to thoughtfully shape our actions and outcomes. What I hope this idea does is relieves me from the paralyzing fear of pursuing the wrong solution. Because everything is more complicated than it seems, and studying those things, working to understand the nuance, fixating on details or immersing your mind in the big picture are all methods of working toward changing problems. Maybe this will help Ariel too in confronting the challenge posed by this paralysis, and embracing the many right answers that Marlene writes about. So that I may act each day and not put off change or liberation for another day. It makes the future now and makes the challenge more approachable.
I can’t convince myself that things will slow down long enough to find a Solution, and it seems like a game of whack-a-mole, so I challenge myself and you to think of something better.