Birth of a concept

Researchers recognize limitations of a purely rational scientific approach in the realm of town planning and the term Wicked Problem is coined

The term Wicked Problem was first coined in academic literature in 1967 (Raisio, Puustinen and Vartiainen). Professor C. West Churchman was a system scientist at the University of California engaged in operations research and systems analysis, engaged in a project for NASA, exploring how to transfer technology from the space program to urban problems. In a seminar held at University by West Churchman, one of the attendees Horst Rittel presented his list of differences between social and scientific or technical problems, outlining the “ten attributes” . . . in the now famous Rittel and Weber (1973) article (Skaburskis). It was at the end of Rittel’s presentation that West Churchman responded with Hmm, those sound like “wicked problems” to which Skaburskis claims a field was born. In 1967, West Churchman wrote a guest editorial in Management Science:

Professor Horst Rittel of the University of California Architecture Department has suggested in a recent seminar that the term “wicked problem” refer to that class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing. The adjective “wicked” is supposed to describe the mischievous and even evil quality of these problems, where proposed “solutions” often turn out to be worse than the symptoms. (Churchman)

The abstract of the 1973 paper authored by Rittel and Weber’s Dilemmas in General Theory of Planning paper gives a succinct summary of the issue these two academics recognized. Horst J. Rittel was a Professor of Science of Design and Melvin M. Webber was a Professor of City Planning.

The search for scientific bases for confronting problems of social policy is bound to fail, because of the nature of these problems. They are “wicked” problems, whereas science has developed to deal with “tame” problems. Policy problems cannot be definitively described. Moreover, in a pluralistic society there is nothing like the undisputable public good; there is no objective definition of equity; policies that respond to social problems cannot be meaningfully correct or false; and it makes no sense to talk about “optimal solutions” to social problems unless severe qualifications are imposed first. Even worse, there are no “solutions” in the sense of definitive and objective answers. (Rittel and Webber)

This paper begins by painting a picture of a disquiet of the public towards professionals: In the courts, the streets, and the political campaigns, we’ve been hearing ever-loader public protests against the professions’ diagnosis of the clients’ problems, against professionally certified standards for the public services. While acknowledging the spectacular record of paved roads, housing, eradication of diseases, clean water, sanitation, schools and hospitals, an anti-professional movement does exist. They question why an ‘anti-professional movement’ appears to exist as the social services are beginning to acquire professional competencies, condemning professionalism as they appear to be getting better at their jobs. Recall this paper was published in the early 1970’s, while in current times, some 50 years later, the idea of ‘anti-professional’ or ‘anti-science’ attitude seem to not only exist but has become more pronounced.

References

Churchman, C. W. (1967, Dec). Wicked Problems. Management Science, 14(4).
Raisio, Harri; Puustinen, Alisa; Vartiainen, Pirkko (2020) The Concept of wicked problems: improving the understanding of managing problem wickedness in health and social care. In Thomas, Will; Hujala, Anneli; Laulainen, Sanna; McMurray, Robert (2020); The Management of Wicked Problems in Health and Social Care.
Rittel, H. W., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning. Policy Science (4 (1973), 155-169).
Skaburskis, A. (2008, June). The Origin of “Wicked Problems”. Planning Theory & Practice, 9(2), pp. 277-280.