Editing Wicked problem (section)

{{Short description|Problem that is difficult or impossible to solve}}
In [[planning]] and [[policy]], a '''wicked problem''' is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnston |first=Jane |last2=Gulliver |first2=Robyn |date=2022 |title=What are wicked problems? |url=https://commonslibrary.org/what-are-wicked-problems/ |website=Commons Social Change Library}}</ref> It refers to an idea or problem that cannot be fixed, where there is no single solution to the problem; "wicked" does not indicate evil, but rather resistance to resolution.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications-and-media/archive/publications-archive/tackling-wicked-problems|title=Tackling Wicked Problems: A Public Policy Perspective|publisher=Australian Public Service Commission|date=25 October 2007|access-date=26 July 2012|archive-date=18 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518064046/http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications-and-media/archive/publications-archive/tackling-wicked-problems|url-status=dead}}</ref> Another definition is "a problem whose [[social complexity]] means that it has no determinable stopping point".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/11796491|title=Design for Transitions - from and to what?|last=Tonkinwise|first=Cameron|date=4 April 2015|website=[[Academia.edu]]|access-date=9 November 2017}}</ref> Moreover, because of complex [[interdependencies]], the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems. Due to their complexity, wicked problems are often characterized by organized irresponsibility.

The phrase was originally used in [[social planning]]. Its modern sense was introduced in 1967 by [[C. West Churchman]] in a guest editorial he wrote in the journal ''[[Management Science (journal)|Management Science]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |journal= Management Science |last= Churchman |first= C. West |title= Wicked Problems |volume= 14 |issue= 4 |pages= B-141-B-146 |date= December 1967 |doi= 10.1287/mnsc.14.4.B141|doi-access= free }}</ref> He explains that "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." In the editorial, he credits [[Horst Rittel]] with first describing wicked problems, though it may have been Churchman himself who coined the term.<ref name="skaburskis">{{cite journal |last1=Skaburskis |first1=Andrejs |title=The origin of "wicked problems" |journal=Planning Theory & Practice |date=19 December 2008 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=277–280 |doi=10.1080/14649350802041654 |s2cid=145667746 |quote=At the end of Rittel's presentation, West Churchman responded with that pensive but expressive movement of voice that some may well remember, 'Hmm, those sound like "wicked problems."'}}</ref> Churchman discussed the moral responsibility of [[operations research]] "to inform the manager in what respect our 'solutions' have failed to tame his wicked problems." Rittel and [[Melvin M. Webber]] formally described the concept of wicked problems in a 1973 [[treatise]], contrasting "wicked" problems with relatively "tame", solvable problems in [[mathematics]], [[chess]], or [[puzzle]] solving.<ref name="Rittel and Webber 1973" />