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Broadly speaking, there are three types of problems in the world: Tame, Wicked and Critical
problems problem-solving wicked-problems understanding solutions culture hierarchy future
Wicked problems require ‘Clumsy’ rather than ‘Elegant’ solutions that combine different ‘cultural understandings’
The social anthropologist Mary Douglas describes a number of ‘cultural understandings’ with which people attempt to position and tackle problems: hierarchical, egalitarian and individualist (we’ll ignore the fatalist type for the time being). Hierachists tackle problems by implenting stringent rules and punishments; egalitarians by cultivating the right norms and community values; and individualists by designing the best forms of incentives and support structures. Elegant solutions to problems are those which focus on using one particular cultural understanding. They are often simple, practical and with a clear timeframe, and are therefore useful for tackling Tame and Crticial problems where the response needed is fairly obvious to all concerned. However, when it comes to Wicked problems they rarely do much good and can even exacerbate the situation. Grint spells this out with a few examples:
Individualists can solve the problem of decreasing carbon emissions from cars (a Tame problem open to a scientific solution), but they cannot solve Global Warming (a Wicked problem). Egalitarians can help ex-offenders back into the community (a Tame problem) but they cannot solve crime (a Wicked problem). And Hierachists can improve rule enforcement for the fraudulent abuse of social services (a Tame problem) but they cannot solve poverty (a Wicked problem).
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