How researchers can help the world face up to its 'wicked' problems

We’re running out of time to deal with issues like climate change. Researchers must work at a local level to effect change

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.

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We need to understand the history and not treat our participants like animals in the zoo that we have come to observe

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