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It’s Time to Retire ‘This Isn’t Rocket Science’ - Try ‘This Isn’t a Wicked Sustainability Problem’ Instead

Why wicked problems challenge our society and how transdisciplinary approaches could help.

Today, when talking about sustainability challenges like climate change or biodiversity loss, we increasingly hear the term “wicked problem.” In this context, wicked has (unfortunately) nothing to do with The Wizard of Oz or Defying Gravity. What makes a problem wicked isn’t witchcraft or magic - it’s the tangled web of social, environmental, and scientific complexities that make such problems impossible to “solve” in a traditional sense.

A fundamental challenge with wicked problems is that they are hard to define, have no clear solution, and may never be fully solved. Potential solutions aren’t true or false but rather better or worse. And every solution comes with consequences, as one wicked problem is usually a symptom of another (1). For example, pushing the energy transition toward renewable sources to mitigate climate change doesn’t fully solve the problem. It brings the consequence of high material use, which is connected to another wicked problem - material consumption and the limited availability of natural resources. 

While problems in rocket science are certainly complex, they are still well-structured. There might be multiple solutions like different boosters, carriers, or fuels but these can be tested, compared, and optimized. Trial and error works in rocket science, it doesn’t in wicked problems.

You may wonder: Is everything lost now? Shall we just give up and welcome New York City, the Pacific Islands, and the Netherlands as our new Atlantis, and start practicing our diving skills in orange speedos? No! (Especially since orange speedos really don’t suit many of us.)

This is where transdisciplinarity comes in: a way of thinking and working that’s gaining attention as a tool to tackle wicked problems. Simply put, it’s about breaking down walls between science, policy, and society, and combining different ways of knowing. No single perspective can untangle challenges that stretch from small island communities battling rising seas to global geopolitics shaped by melting polar caps. So, to save us from orange speedos, researchers, decision-makers, and communities need to pool their knowledge and experience, creating more flexible and societally relevant solutions (2).

Having more perspectives at the table may not make our sustainability problems as simple as rocket science but it can make them a little less wicked and a lot more manageable.

[1] Lawrence, Mark G., Stephen Williams, Patrizia Nanz, and Ortwin Renn. (2022) Characteristics, potentials, and challenges of transdisciplinary research. One Earth 5, no. 1 : 44-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.12.010

[2] Vilsmaier U., Merçon J., and Meyer E., Transdisciplinarity, in Philipp, T., & Schmohl, T. (2023). Handbook Transdisciplinary Learning, pg. 381-391