Project result 1 – State of art analysis

This document reports the work completed for result No1 of the SCORE project and details the main output of this work, the state-of-the-art literature synthesis report. This task has been led by the University of Ioannina and has been completed with contributions from all the SCORE project partners.

The completed work addressed a core input requirement to advancing scientific research and dialogue in HEIs concerning wicked problems, namely identifying state-of-the-art literature on wicked problems. This step is also deemed critical for successfully accomplishing the rest of the SCORE project tasks, i.e., developing the SCORE model and e-tool. To complete the work for result No1 of the SCORE project, the following activities have been performed:

1. The broad literature collection and analysis protocol

2. Compilation of the literature database and availability through an open public repository (Zotero)

3. Documentation of the results in the synthesis report presented therein

The results of this work provide the academic community with a rich reference database on wicked problems that brings together high-quality scientific work and an overview of the current landscape of the scholarly literature on wicked problems. The open library database provided via the Zotero reference management software contains all the scientific works that have been collected and analyzed for the purposes of result No1 of the SCORE project. To the best of our knowledge, this is a first-time contribution to the academic community. The library is available here: https://www.zotero.org/groups/4795632/wicked_problems_public/ and can be exported, i.e., easily downloaded and used by the HEIs.

The synthesis and analysis of the state-of-the-art literature on wicked problems show that while the existing works offer a good understanding of the characteristics and aspects that define wicked problems, they offer limited systematic approaches and insights into the solutions. The definitions repeat the use of keywords such as “social,” “complex,” “urgent,” “system,” “hard,” or “incomplete.” Several works note that wicked problems are usually ill-defined and cannot be solved with a standardized process. Most of the works agree that there is no single solution to a wicked problem, and many stakeholders and decision-makers are involved in identifying solutions. The synthesis results identify arguments favoring bridging different stakeholders and disciplines, education systems and political systems, business environment, and technological transformations to solve wicked problems. 

On the following links, you can download:

Result ID: 1

Result Title: State-of-the-art analysis

Result Title: References

Result Title: Zotero public library on wicked problems