The Good-Enough Life

Alpert, Avram

doi:10.1515/9780691204345

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…In the tradition of rational-comprehensive planning, the ‘good-enough’ has been commonly relegated to the result of ‘satisficing’ under bounded rationality (Simon 1983 , p. 85). Yet in a world where wasteful competition frequently drives the search for the ‘perfect’, ‘best’ or ‘most marketable’ solution at the expense of alienating people and damaging the environment, seeking just the ‘good-enough’ reflects an ethic of restraint and change (Alpert 2022 ). The ‘good-enough’ is never excessive and ‘just right’, and recalls Protzen’s ( 1982 , p. 86) notion of the idoneous: that which is “adequate” and proper to the ends and intentions of any design solution.…”

Section: The Ten Properties Of a Wicked Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ethics of wicked problems: an exegesis

Chan

2023

Socio Ecol Pract Res

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For nearly all the most urgent issues confronting humanity today, there is neither consensus about how to address them nor clarity on how tackling them might further compound existing inequality, erode democratic capacities and accelerate environmental decline. Urgent issues of climate change, rapid urbanization and public health are teeming with wicked problems. Even so, their prospective solutions may nevertheless exacerbate these problems and bring about new ones. Taming any one of these wicked problems with planning and public policy tools presumes making decisions on ethical questions such as what to tame and what to ignore, who or what to prioritize in the solution, or conversely, who or what should bear the costs and risks, and how to strike a balance between uncertain benefits and probable harms. Despite the saliency of ethics in the formulation of wicked problems and how they are tamed, the ethics of wicked problems has remained woefully under-developed ever since (Rittel and Webber, Policy Sci 4:155–169, 1973) publication nearly five decades ago. In this article, each of the ten properties of the wicked problem, following their original sequence, will be examined in relation to ethics. What is the moral significance of each of these properties? How does explicating their moral content advance present understanding of wicked problems? And how might this study of ten properties in relation to ethics enable planners to avoid moral blindspots and pitfalls that often accompany wicked problems? Finally, how can the ethics of wicked problems aspire new planning ideals?

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Section: The Ten Properties Of a Wicked Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%