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Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change

Policy sciences, 2012-06, Vol.45 (2), p.123-152 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

2012 Springer ;Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2012 ;ISSN: 0032-2687 ;EISSN: 1573-0891 ;DOI: 10.1007/s11077-012-9151-0 ;CODEN: PLSCBZ

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Title:
Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change
Author: Levin, Kelly ; Cashore, Benjamin ; Bernstein, Steven ; Auld, Graeme
Subjects: Analysis ; Behavior ; Climate ; Climate Change ; Climate change policy ; Collectives ; Critical path analysis ; Disasters ; Economic Policy ; Emissions policy ; Environmental impact ; Environmental policy ; Epistemology ; Global warming ; Governance ; Increasing returns ; Intervention ; Path Dependence ; Policy Analysis ; Policy Making ; Political Science ; Political Science and International Relations ; Political Science and International Studies ; Politics ; Population policy ; Positive feedback ; Problem solving ; Public Administration ; Science ; Scientific research ; Social Sciences ; Social Scientists ; Studies ; Sustainable development ; Technological change ; Trajectories
Is Part Of: Policy sciences, 2012-06, Vol.45 (2), p.123-152
Description: Most policy-relevant work on climate change in the social sciences either analyzes costs and benefits of particular policy options against important but often narrow sets of objectives or attempts to explain past successes or failures. We argue that an "applied forward reasoning" approach is better suited for social scientists seeking to address climate change, which we characterize as a "super wicked" problem comprising four key features: time is running out; those who cause the problem also seek to provide a solution; the central authority needed to address it is weak or non-existent; and, partly as a result, policy responses discount the future irrationally. These four features combine to create a policy-making "tragedy" where traditional analytical techniques are ill equipped to identify solutions, even when it is well recognized that actions must take place soon to avoid catastrophic future impacts. To overcome this tragedy, greater attention must be given to the generation of path-dependent policy interventions that can "constrain our future collective selves." Three diagnostic questions result that orient policy analysis toward understanding how to trigger sticky interventions that, through progressive incremental trajectories, entrench support over time while expanding the populations they cover. Drawing especially from the literature on path dependency, but inverting it to develop policy responses going forward, we illustrate the plausibility of our framework for identifying new areas of research and new ways to think about policy interventions to address super wicked problems.
Publisher: Boston: Springer
Language: English
Identifier: ISSN: 0032-2687
EISSN: 1573-0891
DOI: 10.1007/s11077-012-9151-0
CODEN: PLSCBZ
Source: Alma/SFX Local Collection
ProQuest Central

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Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change

2012 Springer ;Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2012 ;ISSN: 0032-2687 ;EISSN: 1573-0891 ;DOI: 10.1007/s11077-012-9151-0 ;CODEN: PLSCBZ

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