Table 1. Rittel and Webber’s Wicked Problems andRelation to the Gulf Spil
It is really interesting to see all the information of Webber and Rittel's information on what they would have thought were wicked problems in the Gulf spill. It helps to make a clearer understanding of what exactly were the issues that were addressed in the situation. I am really glad that he added this into the reading because I feel that it laid out all the information affectively.
wo important lessons emerged out of these student collaborations. First, theoutput of each group’s research was often complicated by the indeterminacy ofthe issue(s) that the groups as a whole were investigating. Indeed, even though thewell was officially capped on September 19th, 2010, the spill continued to be anongoing point of disputation. One prominent issue for my students—and a usefullesson for me as an instructor—was that individual groups did not always agreewith one another regarding the information they were gathering. How much oilhad actually been released into the Gulf? What effects would dispersants haveon the marine ecology? Who was ultimately to blame for the incident?
I really enjoyed that WIckman used the Gulf spill to demonstrate the use of wicked problems, this really had his students take on a whole new meaning of critical thinking when addressing research. And like i stated before this research didn't just take place in a environment research but also in politics and economics.
Rittel and Webber claim that responding to wicked problems is at once avaluative and deliberative process. It isvaluativein the sense that doing soinvolves making choices and identifying problems within a causal network; andit isdeliberativein the sense that it involves promoting some course of actionbased on one’s assessment of the situation at hand.
In this part Wickman addresses valuative and deliberative in a sense of definition to explain what Rittel and Webber meant when it was important to respond in this way toward wicked problems. I appreciated this very much, because I wasn't very sure exactly what was meant when saying the two for this process. I like that he mentions this before going into more depth on what the two were saying.
Buchanan associates these placements with a corresponding emphasis onsigns,things,actions, andthoughts. All provide viable strategies—individually andcollectively—for conceptualizing and responding to wicked problems that mustbe addressed on multiple fronts.
I really like what Buchanan did here with identifying placements to help take note of wicked problems. These steps ike stated helps others to notice signs, things, actions and thoughts. This will allow others to really take in critical thinking to a whole new level because they are looking at so many different ascents of the wicked problems.
The Gulf spill elicited an extensive response from citizens, advocacy groups,and environmental organizations around the world
The Gulf spill demonstrates a wicked problem that occurred in real life. It caused many questions from who did it and caused the situation. What we were supposed to do next when handing the oil spill. Why the it was still spilling when the well was closed. This is a great way to discuss a dilemma and find multiple issues with when looking into research.
Rittel and Webber’s
Horst Rittel and Melvin M. Webber are the ones who created the term wicked problems as I made note of before. They wrote together "Dilemmas In A General Theory of Planning" and both studied at the University of Berkley.
I found that Buchanan’s essay “Wicked problems in design thinking” clarifiedstudent understanding of wicked problems, and his doctrine of placements offeredthem a functional heuristic for developing coherent research projects.
By Wickman giving his students this guide of Buchman's essay it did help to assist them in the research issue of wicked problems and help them to address the issues of the Gulf spill. Wickman points out that there are things that he could have done better when addressing the relationship between rhetoric and design to his students in a way that could helped them further understand theory and practice of technical communication.
A Wicked Problems Framework
Like ccooper51 stated (wouldn't allow me to comment on his post), this would be a very effective way to help encourage students to think critically in school. By using the way that Rittel and Webber characterized wicked problems it helped for his students to expand their thinking to not just how the Gulf spill affected the environment but also how it was affected economically and politically. It allowed them to have "multiple perspectives" when analyzing the situation that was then at hand.
The value (and potential frustration) of focusing on wicked problems is thatthe object of analysis is ill defined and thus requires careful engagement withmultiple issues.
Again like I stated before in one of my annotations, the wicked problems that we face can cause a major challenge and frustration.There isn't just one solution or conclusion to it there are multiple issues that are at hand with them. Overtime though, as Wickman states here, people are able to identify them.
socio-technical issues
"We analyse the reasons for this, highlighting some of the problems with the better known socio-technical design methods. Based on this analysis we propose a new pragmatic framework for socio-technical systems engineering (STSE) which builds on the (largely independent) research of groups investigating work design, information systems, computer-supported cooperative work, and cognitive systems engineering. STSE bridges the traditional gap between organisational change and system development using two main types of activity: sensitisation and awareness; and constructive engagement."http://iwc.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/1/4.full
Rittel and Webber [9] developed the concept of “wicked problem” as a wayto characterize social policy issues that cannot be addressed through techno-scientific rationality alone.
Not mush of a note for the text, but I found this really interesting and amusing that the term this two men came up with was "wicked term" for a problem that they had when trying to address social policy. But it points out that not everything involving this topic with have solutions to the answer. Only some parts of it can be truly understood, others there can be many conclusions drawn.