Sometimes, the sheer weight of the social, economic and environmental “wicked problems” in our world can leave us feeling frozen, unable to take any kind of action. But these are exactly the kinds of problems that researchers everywhere can help with – especially if we use methods that include and draw attention to the communities most affected by them.
First, let’s define our terms: the concept of a wicked problem dates to the 1970s, when two researchers used it to describe problems with no obvious or clear solution. Today, they’re also thought of as problems for which time to find a solution is running out.
A good example of a “wicked problem” is climate change, but there are
numerous others: lack of access to healthcare and clean water, to agricultural
land, sovereignty and self-determination, and the prevalence of poverty and
In the case of climate change, the bulk of evidence supports the findings of the US Climate Science Special Report, which states that it is “extremely likely” that human activities have caused warming since the mid-20th century. The report reviewed thousands of scientific studies from around the world that documented changes in surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; diminishing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea levels; ocean acidification; and increasing atmospheric water vapour.
Yet even with this large body of research-based evidence, we see the
continuation of practices that are destructive to the environment – often in the name of economic development and job creation. A wicked problem seems a pretty apt description to my mind.
If the world seems to be ignoring the evidence produced and presented by
researchers, why should we have a key role to play? The answer lies in the methods we use and how these can strengthen the credibility of evidence.
First, our research needs to be transformative, by which I mean it needs to acknowledge that many of the problems we are facing are systemic – based in a system that is unjust, discriminatory and oppressive.
Thirty years of working with marginalised groups, including the deaf community, indigenous people, women, disabled people and members of minority ethnic groups has taught me that many of them don’t think researchers are accurately capturing their experiences. What they tell me is that researchers come, take data and leave – and they see no substantive change.
Researchers can change this by being culturally respectful and responsive,
and by working with people to create a platform for a change that they see as valuable for themselves and their communities.
We can do this by not assuming that we understand the nature of a problem
and the nature of the solution. We also need to accept and take into account
that there are different perspectives on the same issue.
In the case of climate change, for example, there are two versions of
the same reality. One version is that climate change does not exist. Another
version is that a community where dozens of trucks drive over a bridge every
day has the highest rates of asthma, heart disease and cancer.
To move forward we have to make both versions visible, examine the
consequences of both and ask ourselves who suffers and who benefits.
When we set out on our research, we must ask who needs to be included,
how we build relationships with people and work with them, how we can be transparent and understand that things may need to be flexible and change.
We need to understand the history and not treat our participants like animals in the zoo that we have come to observe.
Unless we put the systemic nature of the world’s wicked problems out on the
table, we will not come up with solutions and our research will simply help
reinforce and perpetuate the status quo.
Researchers stand at an important point in history. They can be frozen in
their tracks, continuing to do research “on people”: collecting, analysing and
reporting and moving on. Or they can work in a more inclusive way that stands a better chance of solving some of the world’s wicked problems – and helping achieve economic and social justice.
- Donna Mertens is an emeritus professor at Gallaudet University, Washington DC. She will be giving a keynote talk at the ESRC Research Methods Festival at the University of Bath on 4 July 2018.
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