Sustainability Awareness and Expertise: Structuring the Cognitive Processes for Solving Wicked Problems and Achieving an
The term, “wicked problem,” describes the intractable nature of social policy and planning problems that are complex, engender multiple and often irreconcilable stakeholder views, have no definitive formulation, no solution algorithm or single best soluti
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Sustainability Awareness and Expertise: Structuring the Cognitive Processes for Solving Wicked Problems and Achieving an Adaptive-State D.S. Sweet, T.P. Seager, S. Tylock, J. Bullock, I. Linkov, D.J. Colombo, and Uwe Unrath
Abstract The term, “wicked problem,” describes the intractable nature of social policy and planning problems that are complex, engender multiple and often irreconcilable stakeholder views, have no definitive formulation, no solution algorithm or single best solution, little tolerance for imbalances or judgment error, and no single repository of expertise from which trustworthy solutions might emerge. This also describes problems of sustainability and reflects a consistent theme that emerges from the last four decades for business, science and society – the need to improve understanding of complex systems and their interactions, incorporate non-expert knowledge and public values, improve communication between expert and lay groups, and foster deliberation between business and public groups with competing deontological views.
D.S. Sweet () • S. Tylock • U. Unrath Sustainable Intelligence, LLC, 290 Linden Oaks, Suite 220, Rochester, NY 14625, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] T.P. Seager, Ph.D. Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. Bullock Rare Bird Enterprises, Rochester, NY e-mail: [email protected] I. Linkov, Ph.D. Environmental Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS, USA e-mail: [email protected] D.J. Colombo Basic Commerce and Industries, Inc., Dahlgren Road, P.O. Box 1748, Dahlgren, VA 16343, USA e-mail: dan [email protected] I. Linkov (ed.), Sustainable Cities and Military Installations, NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7161-1 5, © Springer ScienceCBusiness Media Dordrecht 2014
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We posit that a structured approach to problems of sustainability integrating (a) influence modeling, (b) assessments of sustainability, uncertainty, challenges and values, (c) multi-criteria decision analytics, (d) data visualization, and (e) building social capital can effectively address wicked problems. Rather than reductively “solve a problem” this approach results in a new, strategic managed-resiliency and persistent adaptive-state of coevolving capabilities we call Sustainability Awareness and Sustainability Expertise. Within this sustainability framework stakeholder communities make better versus right or wrong decisions and Sustainability becomes a practice versus a result.
5.1 Introduction The longevity, resilience, and success of businesses and communities can be a result of their strategic and tactical decision making. In theory, decisions in for-profit corporations are guided by maximization of financial returns for shareholders and in communities by the maximization of wellbeing for residents. However in practice, the relation between organization
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