Transformability as a Wicked Problem: A Cautionary Tale?

Samia Sediri, Michel Trommetter, Nathalie Frascaria-Lacoste () and Juan Fernández-Manjarrés
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Samia Sediri: GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes, ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - UP11 - Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 - AgroParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Orée (association)
Nathalie Frascaria-Lacoste: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - UP11 - Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 - AgroParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Juan Fernández-Manjarrés: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - UP11 - Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 - AgroParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Transformability is increasingly promoted as a way of moving societies toward more sustainable futures in the era of the Anthropocene, mostly because the concept of resilience has fallen short in many instances where impacts on social-ecological systems are continuous, varied, and usually unknown. While such transformations can play a crucial role in improving the sustainability of social-ecological systems, they may lead to unexpected and undesirable outcomes. This literature review on social-ecological transformability and wicked problems seeks to shed light on and acknowledge some of the limitations of transformability regarding unforeseen conditions. We argue that wicked problems arise in transformation initiatives in the presence of high complexity, deep uncertainty, deep conflicts, and divergence among stakeholders, as well as scale mismatches concerning spatial, temporal, and institutional processes. Our findings may explain why some transformation initiatives fail to generate expected changes on the ground, mainly in two cases: (a) a polarized configuration that maintains the status quo of the system to be transformed and (b) an unforeseen transformation that causes the system to lurch from crisis to crisis. To conclude, we recommend using diagnostic questions to prevent wicked problems in social-ecological transformations

Keywords: Social-ecological system; Resilience; Transformability; Sustainability; Wicked problems; Social complexity; Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02907306v1
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Published in Sustainability, 2020, 12 (15), ⟨10.3390/su12155895⟩

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Journal Article: Transformability as a Wicked Problem: A Cautionary Tale? (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02907306

DOI: 10.3390/su12155895

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