Duckett, D, Feliciano, D, Martin-Ortega, J et al. (1 more author) (2016) Tackling wicked environmental problems: The discourse and its influence on praxis in Scotland. Landscape and Urban Planning, 154. pp. 44-56. ISSN 0169-2046
Abstract
Complex, social-environmental issues can be classified as ‘wicked problems’ because they are incorrigible and hugely challenging for policy makers. Here we re-evaluate what makes problems wicked and assess various theoretical and pragmatic approaches that have been advanced to tackle them. We do so with the aim of contributing new insights to theory through answering the following research questions: What strategies to tackle wicked environmental problems are prominent in the literature?; To what extent do they provide pathways for tackling the defining characteristics of wicked environmental problems?; and, How are these strategies reflected in examples of practice? Our examples look at how emergent strategies have percolated, explicitly or implicitly, in the management of four problems in Scotland: (1) Securing sustainability and resilience of landscape and land-use systems through spatial planning; (2) Addressing population health through livestock disease control; (3) Mitigating climate change through woodland planting; and, (4) Mitigating rural diffuse pollution in freshwater systems. We present a consolidated set of characteristics of wicked problems against which we map strategies to tackle wicked problems proposed by a body of literature identified through a literature review and analysed using a thematic, qualitative approach. We identify fifteen strategies and show that most of these are, within the Scottish context, evident in practice. The extent to which the actual discourse has influenced praxis and how effective it has been is more difficult to determine but we conclude that, within a context of ‘incorrigible’ problems, small steps have been made towards taming an untameable beast.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016, Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Landscape and Urban Planning. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | planning; land use; climate change; diffuse pollution; livestock disease; woodland planting |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 May 2016 10:11 |
Last Modified: | 16 Nov 2017 01:38 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.03.01... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.03.015 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:97414 |