Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants
Pragmatism in a Wicked World
Department
Liberal Studies Department
College
Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies
Date Range
2012-2013
Disciplines
Education
Abstract
Wicked problems scholarship today concretizes the problems of foundationalism. The burgeoning body of literature on wicked problems today focuses most on issues of sustainability, but the application of this literature is far reaching. Such problems are not amenable to easy or final solutions; instead they are defined by copious amounts of disagreement, conflicting objectives, as well as high levels of uncertainty (ie. public policy problems). They are dynamically complex and ill-structured. Calls to address such problems are supported by a skepticism of neutrality, of experts proffering the final word, and of any claim that facts and values can be separated. In confronting wicked problems we see that our facts are instead always incomplete, always capable of multiple interpretations. Thus, calls to address such problems solidify the need for both the pragmatic method and for deliberative democracy.
Conference Name
'Making it Work: US Thought and Culture Between Practice and Paralysis'
Conference Location
Ann Arbor, MI
ScholarWorks Citation
Lake, Danielle L., "Pragmatism in a Wicked World" (2013). Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants. 1161.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg/1161
