What Is A Wicked Problem?

1252 Words3 Pages

In the development of the eel management, transdisciplinary policy-making is implemented to solve this ill-defined societal problem through the collaboration between scientists and other stakeholders (Scholz et al., 2015). The transdisciplinary process involves different types of knowledge, e.g. scientific and societal knowledge, while the uncertainty and complexity characteristic of the wicked problem will disrupt the transdisciplinary process.
A wicked problem is a problem that contains diverse and conflicting criteria to define solutions which may cause more problems to others and it is hard to define when the problem is solved (Rittel et al., 1973). The decline of eel population is thought to be a wicked problem because it is relevant to …show more content…

The committee of Dutch fisheries focuses more on the social and economic value, while some actors related to the ecological environment like NGOs concentrate more on sustainable development of eel population. Government agency and scientists are going to do more research on the improvement of the protection of eel. However, if completely banning on eel fishing is taken to be the solution, the public whose work or lives are closely related to the eel fishing are influenced. Industries and companies will not abandon their interest in business as …show more content…

The control of power may cause unfairness and non-transparency. There are those who believe that involving multiple stakeholders contributes to generating higher levels of the public’s participation in policy-making. Donders et al. (2018) indicated that the multi-stakeholder-based processes can contribute to developing the transparency of public service media in policy-making. However, relative unfairness and non-transparency exist in the process of policy-making to some extent. In the process of formulating eel management, some relatively vulnerable groups are excluded from the experts meeting. The committee of Dutch fisheries, the NGOs, even journalists can’t be visitors at the experts meeting or participate in the discussion in the process of eel management formulation.
In addition, Mark (2015) proposed a paradox that online transparency tools are provided to the citizens to increase their visibility of the policy process. However, these tools are selectively used to undermine the public’s trust in EU by campaigning groups. The political power still primarily controls the policy process and there won’t be absolutely fair and

More about What Is A Wicked Problem?

Open Document