Thinking Tools for Wicked Problems

Responding critically and ethically to contemporary issues, whether they be of local, national or global significance, requires one to go beyond the mere discovering of ‘facts’ and determining of ‘truths’. What one does with these ‘facts’ and ‘truths’ is equally important. What we claim to know may be helpfully understood in its emergence from and application to highly complex and seemingly intractable problems. Addressing such ‘wicked problems’ thoughtfully and collaboratively can reveal the nature of knowledge: how it is generated, how it is applied and contested, and what purposes it serves. Research areas in the Humanities, The Arts and the Social Sciences (HASS) as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) will be introduced and problematised.