Review: Collaborative approaches to wicked problems
As a society, we face wicked problems. Problems that transcend borders and are not easily defined or solved. These include labor shortages, mental ill-being and climate change, to name but a few. These are problems that cannot be solved with traditional bureaucratic policy tools, but require new approaches.
If you consult the research on approaches to tackling wicked problems, it points to collaboration as a fruitful way to go. However, there is currently no comprehensive overview of collaborative approaches, making it difficult for practitioners to learn from the research.
To provide an overview of research insights, this review takes a closer look at scientific articles on collaborative approaches to wicked problems, i.e. articles that explore how wicked problems can be tackled through collaboration managed in different ways.
Reviews of collaboration models show that research points to three dimensions of collaboration that are central to tackling wicked problems: 1) Understanding the problem, 2) capacity and competence to handle the problem, and 3) organizing around the problem.