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Atavism, layering and subversion: Understanding great social challenges of today through the lens of cultural contingents

Dymitrow, Mirek LU ; Brauer, Rene ; Arsovski, Slobodan and Biegańska, Jadwiga (2019) In Geographical Reviews 52. p.157-170
Abstract
Great social challenges of today no longer come one by one. What makes them great is their ever-greater entanglement in one other and across multiple levels, including landscapes, regimes and niches. To this background, a major challenge facing many countries today is how to successfully address issues of interlocking problems of unsustainability caused by cultural contingents. We argue that while the social problems of today have gone wicked, we still imagine them as if they were tame. Tame approaches to wicked problems, in turn, are likely to spawn “wicked solutions”, i.e. purported counteractions that are so conceptually unsuitable for the problem at hand that they can even overwhelm the wickedness of the wicked problem. This makes it... (More)
Great social challenges of today no longer come one by one. What makes them great is their ever-greater entanglement in one other and across multiple levels, including landscapes, regimes and niches. To this background, a major challenge facing many countries today is how to successfully address issues of interlocking problems of unsustainability caused by cultural contingents. We argue that while the social problems of today have gone wicked, we still imagine them as if they were tame. Tame approaches to wicked problems, in turn, are likely to spawn “wicked solutions”, i.e. purported counteractions that are so conceptually unsuitable for the problem at hand that they can even overwhelm the wickedness of the wicked problem. This makes it so much more difficult to resolve. In this paper, we present three conspicuous examples in this dimension: cultural atavism, artificial layering and pathological subversion. We argue that acknowledging wicked solutions as different from wicked problems is a first step to mitigate the daunting effects that may arise when the two intertwine. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
unsustainability, great social challenges, wicked problems, wicked solutions, cultural contingents
in
Geographical Reviews
volume
52
pages
157 - 170
ISSN
1409-908X
DOI
10.37658/GR19520157d
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bacdca5b-5a06-4257-a9a6-ef6c29f18b1d
alternative location
http://www.igeografija.mk/MGD/Reviews-52_2019/09-Mirek%20Dymitrow.pdf
date added to LUP
2020-07-09 15:46:26
date last changed
2020-07-27 15:22:04
@article{bacdca5b-5a06-4257-a9a6-ef6c29f18b1d,
  abstract     = {{Great social challenges of today no longer come one by one. What makes them great is their ever-greater entanglement in one other and across multiple levels, including landscapes, regimes and niches. To this background, a major challenge facing many countries today is how to successfully address issues of interlocking problems of unsustainability caused by cultural contingents. We argue that while the social problems of today have gone wicked, we still imagine them as if they were tame. Tame approaches to wicked problems, in turn, are likely to spawn “wicked solutions”, i.e. purported counteractions that are so conceptually unsuitable for the problem at hand that they can even overwhelm the wickedness of the wicked problem. This makes it so much more difficult to resolve. In this paper, we present three conspicuous examples in this dimension: cultural atavism, artificial layering and pathological subversion. We argue that acknowledging wicked solutions as different from wicked problems is a first step to mitigate the daunting effects that may arise when the two intertwine.}},
  author       = {{Dymitrow, Mirek and Brauer, Rene and Arsovski, Slobodan and Biegańska, Jadwiga}},
  issn         = {{1409-908X}},
  keywords     = {{unsustainability; great social challenges; wicked problems; wicked solutions; cultural contingents}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{157--170}},
  series       = {{Geographical Reviews}},
  title        = {{Atavism, layering and subversion: Understanding great social challenges of today through the lens of cultural contingents}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.37658/GR19520157d}},
  doi          = {{10.37658/GR19520157d}},
  volume       = {{52}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}