Revisiting Rittel and Webber’s Dilemmas: Designerly Thinking Against the Background of New Societal Distrust

In this article, we posit designerly thinking as a family of design approaches that some believe are able to effectively respond to wicked problems. We will scrutinize this premise by revisiting Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber’s 1973 article in which the notion of wicked problems was originally intro...

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Main Authors: Pieter E. Vermaas, Udo Pesch
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2020-01-01
Series:She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics and Innovation
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405872620300691
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spelling doaj-4b8e6d507c574d51971564614adf45af2020-12-19T05:09:30ZengElsevierShe Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics and Innovation2405-87262020-01-0164530545Revisiting Rittel and Webber’s Dilemmas: Designerly Thinking Against the Background of New Societal DistrustPieter E. Vermaas0Udo Pesch1Corresponding author.; Philosophy Department, Delft University of Technology, NetherlandsPhilosophy Department, Delft University of Technology, NetherlandsIn this article, we posit designerly thinking as a family of design approaches that some believe are able to effectively respond to wicked problems. We will scrutinize this premise by revisiting Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber’s 1973 article in which the notion of wicked problems was originally introduced. In it, Rittel and Webber note the emergence of a general sense of distrust in professionals in the 1960s and interpret it as a loss of confidence in the then leading approach to addressing societal problems: systems-based planning. Rittel and Webber formulated three dilemmas that societal problems pose, of which the second is their wickedness, and argued that planning does not resolve these dilemmas. In the 2010s, an emerging distrust in professionals has arisen once more, raising the question of whether designerly thinking is equipped to address societal issues. Our review and discussion of Rittel and Webber’s three dilemmas reveals that designerly thinking currently does not resolve any of them, as there can always be groups that will oppose certain solutions. We argue that designerly thinking cannot overcome societal pluralism, but that designers can and should interpret social distrust as an invitation to discuss the consequences and their societal equity.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405872620300691Designerly thinkingPlanning dilemmasRittel and WebberSocietal problemsWicked problems
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Pieter E. Vermaas
Udo Pesch
spellingShingle Pieter E. Vermaas
Udo Pesch
Revisiting Rittel and Webber’s Dilemmas: Designerly Thinking Against the Background of New Societal Distrust
She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics and Innovation
Designerly thinking
Planning dilemmas
Rittel and Webber
Societal problems
Wicked problems
author_facet Pieter E. Vermaas
Udo Pesch
author_sort Pieter E. Vermaas
title Revisiting Rittel and Webber’s Dilemmas: Designerly Thinking Against the Background of New Societal Distrust
title_short Revisiting Rittel and Webber’s Dilemmas: Designerly Thinking Against the Background of New Societal Distrust
title_full Revisiting Rittel and Webber’s Dilemmas: Designerly Thinking Against the Background of New Societal Distrust
title_fullStr Revisiting Rittel and Webber’s Dilemmas: Designerly Thinking Against the Background of New Societal Distrust
title_full_unstemmed Revisiting Rittel and Webber’s Dilemmas: Designerly Thinking Against the Background of New Societal Distrust
title_sort revisiting rittel and webber’s dilemmas: designerly thinking against the background of new societal distrust
publisher Elsevier
series She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics and Innovation
issn 2405-8726
publishDate 2020-01-01
description In this article, we posit designerly thinking as a family of design approaches that some believe are able to effectively respond to wicked problems. We will scrutinize this premise by revisiting Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber’s 1973 article in which the notion of wicked problems was originally introduced. In it, Rittel and Webber note the emergence of a general sense of distrust in professionals in the 1960s and interpret it as a loss of confidence in the then leading approach to addressing societal problems: systems-based planning. Rittel and Webber formulated three dilemmas that societal problems pose, of which the second is their wickedness, and argued that planning does not resolve these dilemmas. In the 2010s, an emerging distrust in professionals has arisen once more, raising the question of whether designerly thinking is equipped to address societal issues. Our review and discussion of Rittel and Webber’s three dilemmas reveals that designerly thinking currently does not resolve any of them, as there can always be groups that will oppose certain solutions. We argue that designerly thinking cannot overcome societal pluralism, but that designers can and should interpret social distrust as an invitation to discuss the consequences and their societal equity.
topic Designerly thinking
Planning dilemmas
Rittel and Webber
Societal problems
Wicked problems
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405872620300691
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