ABSTRACT

The term ‘wicked problems’ is today widely used in the sustainability literature, but there is no consensus on its theoretical underpinnings or its utility for research. This paper reports on a mapping review of the wicked problems literature for which we analyzed a sample of 55 papers regarding 1. whether and how the term ‘wicked problems’ is used as a theoretical concept, 2. what meanings are associated with the concept, 3. what epistemological assumptions are stated, and 4. what rhetorical functions the concept performs. The results indicate that the concept is not always consistently applied as a theoretical concept; that authors ascribe many different meanings to the concept; that authors use diverse epistemological assumptions that are not always made explicit; and that the concept performs a wide range of rhetorical functions. The results provide a vocabulary that enables sustainability researchers to more clearly position their work in the dispersed wicked problems literature.

摘要

“棘手问题”一词如今在可持续性文献中被广泛使用，但对其理论基础或研究效用尚未达成共识。本文报告了对邪恶问题文献的映射审查，我们分析了 55 篇论文的样本，内容涉及 1. 术语“邪恶问题”是否以及如何用作理论概念，2. 与该概念相关的含义是什么， 3. 陈述了哪些认识论假设，以及 4. 该概念具有哪些修辞功能。结果表明，该概念并不总是作为理论概念始终如一地应用；作者为这个概念赋予了许多不同的含义；作者使用了不同的认识论假设，这些假设并不总是明确的；并且这个概念具有广泛的修辞功能。