(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) The Paris climate agreement is another example of an attempted grand solution to a ...

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. In 1973, two design theorists at the University of California, Berkeley, coined the term “wicked problem” to refer to ...

The term wicked problem has become a standard way for policy analysts to describe a social issue whose solution is inherently elusive. Wicked problems have many causal factors, complex ...

As the T-shirted regulars straggle in to Melinda Tarver's cardio-kickboxing class on a recent Saturday morning, it's obvious the gym's air conditioning isn't working properly. We always get a good ...

Guru Madhavan is the Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar and senior director of programs at the National Academy of Engineering. His new book is Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World (W.W.

Our world is filled with pernicious problems. How, for example, did novice pilots learn to fly without taking to the air and risking their lives? How should cities process mountains of waste without ...

The importance of differentiating between kind and wicked problems when deciding how to solve them Your email has been sent Some problems are solvable, and some just aren't. That doesn't mean they're ...