1. Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Society of American Archivists
Research Forum
July 25, 2017
Eliot Wilczek
The MITRE Corporation
Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited. Case Number
©2017 The MITRE Corporation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The author’s affiliation with The MITRE Corporation is provided for identification purposes only, and is not intended to convey or imply MITRE’s concurrence with, or support for, the positions, opinions, or viewpoints expressed by the author.

2. Definition Wicked Problems and the Literature
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
Definition
Societal problems that are complex, vitally important, ill-defined, and depend on contested political judgment for resolution. (Rittel and Webber, 1973)

3. Foundational & Conceptual
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
Foundational & Conceptual
10 characteristics (Rittel & Webber)
No definitive definition.
No stopping rule.
Solutions not true-or-false, but good-or-bad.
No immediate or ultimate test of solutions.
Every attempt at solution has consequences.
No enumerable set of potential solutions
Every problem essentially unique.
Every problem a symptom of another problem.
The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem’s resolution.
The planner has no right to be wrong.

4. Foundational & Conceptual
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
Foundational & Conceptual
10 characteristics (Rittel & Webber)
Wicked problems at center of design (Cross & Buchanan)
Ill-Structured Problems (Simon)
Messes (Ackoff)
Swamps (Schön)
Wicked Issues (Chapman et al.)
Super Wicked Problems (Levin et al.)
Grand Challenges (Gates Foundation)

5. X is a Wicked Problem Wicked Problems and the Literature
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
X is a Wicked Problem
Urban Planning
Health Care
Emergency Response
Cyber Security
Education
Corruption
Economic Gender Equality
Public Drinking
Heroin Addiction
Aboriginal Land Rights
NIMBYism (“Not In My Back Yard”)
Land, Water, & Wildlife Management
Climate Change
Pollution
Nuclear energy safety
Sustainable agriculture and food security
Insurgencies

6. Methods for Addressing Wicked Problems
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
Methods for Addressing Wicked Problems
Interdisciplinary (Polyocular) Research
Critical Action Learning
General Morphology Analysis
Participatory Policy Analysis
Problem Structuring
Dialogue Mapping
Transdisciplinary Imagination
Soft Systems
Networked Approaches
Mixed Methods Research
Feminist Pragmatist Methodology
Authoritative, Competitive, and Collaborative Coping Strategies

7. Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
Literature
Research data management as a wicked problem (Awre et al, 2015; Cox et al, 2016)
Electronic records management as a wicked problem; Cynefin framework (Childs and McLeod, 2013, 2014)
“Complex systems records model” exploring recordkeeping practices organizations confronting wicked problems (Chua, 2012)

8. Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
AERI Grand Challenges
How archival and recordkeeping scholarship can help address grand challenges.
Identify critical advancements in archival and recordkeeping scholarship needed to make sustainable and impactful contributions to grand challenges.

9. Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene: A Colloquium, 2017
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene:
A Colloquium, 2017
Intersection
Libraries & Archives
Climate Change

10. On the Record, All the Time Convenes LIS education Records management
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
On the Record, All the Time
Convenes
LIS education
Records management
Law enforcement
Civic governance
Policymaking communities
“define challenges of, and set specific priorities for, the management and preservation of new forms of audiovisual evidence” with a focus on body-worn cameras.

11. Dimensions of Research Archival practices as wicked problems
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
Dimensions of Research
Archival practices as wicked problems
Role of archival practice and theory in addressing wicked problems
Archival & recordkeeping research informing nature of wicked problems
Grand challenges of the archival field

12. Principles for Research
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources
Principles for Research
Be Bold Wicked problems are recordkeeping challenges
Be Humble Addressing wicked problems takes many communities
Be Reflexive Wicked problems force communities to face their limits

13. Resources Wicked Problems and the Literature
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Resources
AERI (Archival Education and Research Initiative)
On the Record, All the Time
Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources

14. Resources Wicked Problems and the Literature Archival Examples
Towards a Wicked Problems Research Agenda for Archival and Recordkeeping Scholarship
Resources
Wicked Problems
Ackoff, Russell L. Redesigning the Future: A Systems Approach to Societal Problems. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974.
Awre, Chris, et al. “Research Data Management as a ‘Wicked Problem.’” Library Review 64, no. 4/5 (2015): 356–71.
Buchanan, Richard. “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking.” Design Issues 8, no. 2 (1992): 5– 21.
Childs, Sue, and Julie McLeod. “Tackling the Wicked Problem of ERM: Using the Cynefin Framework as a Lens.” Records Management Journal 23, no. 3 (2013): 191–227.
Chua, Yee May. “The Complex System Records Model: Recordkeeping for Wicked Problems.” Masters Thesis, University of California Los Angeles, 2012.
Chapman, Jake, Charlie Edwards, and Simon Hampson. Connecting the Dots. London: Demos, 2009.
Cox, Andrew M., Stephen Pinfield, and Jennifer Smith. “Moving a Brick Building: UK Libraries Coping with Research Data Management as a ‘wicked’ Problem.” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 48, no. 1 (2016): 3–17.
Cross, Nigel. “Designerly Ways of Knowing.” Design Studies 3, no. 4 (1982): 221–227.
Schön, Donald A. Educating the Reflective Practitioner: Toward a New Design for Teaching and Learning in the Professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1988.
Levin, Kelly, Benjamin Cashore, Steven Bernstein, and Graeme Auld. “Overcoming the Tragedy of Super Wicked Problems: Constraining Our Future Selves to Ameliorate Global Climate Change.” Policy Sciences 45, no. 2 (2012): 123–52.
McLeod, Julie. “Reinventing Archival Methods: Reconceptualising Electronic Records Management as a Wicked Problem.” Archives and Manuscripts 42, no. 2 (2014): 193–96.
McLeod, Julie, and Sue Childs. “A Strategic Approach to Making Sense of the ‘wicked’ Problem of ERM.” Records Management Journal 23, no. 2 (2013): 104–35.
Rittel, Horst W. J., and Melvin M. Webber. “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning.” Policy Sciences 4 (1973): 155–69.
Simon, Herbert A. “The Structure of Ill Structured Problems.” Artificial Intelligence 4, no. 3–4 (1973): 181– 201.
Varmus, Harold et al. “Grand Challenges in Global Health,” Science 302, no (2003): 398.
Wicked Problems and the Literature
Archival Examples
Research Directions
Resources