WICKED PROBLEMS OF URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

WICKED PROBLEMS OF URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

Every aspect of urban life in India is in chaos: building and zoning violations; traffic and transportation problems; intractable slum settlements; poor quality water and sanitation services resulting in health issues; thousands of tons of untreated garbage being dumped every day; heritage and urban aesthetics being trampled as our cities face the stampede of a billion people finally begin to have aspirations. The list is only growing.

More and more people are beginning to write about these problems. While the trend is healthy and reflects the increasing importance of urban issues, most of these “solutions” won’t work – get a CEO to run our cities, outsource key functions, privatise cities, and so on. This is because they are drawn up with a world view that doesn’t reflect the full complexity of urban challenges.

Urban issues belong to a class of problems called “wicked problems”, first defined by Professor Horst Rittel of Berkeley. According to Rittel, these problems arise from non-linear systems complexities. The main features of 'wicked' problems are:

There is no definitive statement of the problem because it is embedded in an evolving set of interlocking issues and constraints.
You only begin to understand the problem when you have developed and tested an interim solution.
There are many people who care about, or have something at stake in, how the problem is resolved. This makes the problem-solving process fundamentally social rather than technical.
Because there is no objective 'right answer', what is important is that the stakeholders work out and accept whatever solution looks most promising.

In a paper titled “The Web of Democracy”, Roy Madron and John Jopling wrote, “Tame problems (by contrast) have definable outcomes and can be objectively solved. Even putting a human being on the moon is a 'tame' problem: it is difficult and hugely expensive but if you throw enough time, skills and resources at it you can do it; and you know when you have done it.”

Applying Rittel’s framework to our urban problems, we can see that:

There is no definite statement of the problem – is our traffic problem too many private vehicles, or too few good roads; is our zoning problem too many traders who have illegally occupied residential buildings, or bad zoning and planning; are we having slums because we don’t have good enforcement, or because we don’t supply enough affordable housing stock;
Most solutions are theoretical, and being discussed and debated in seminars and private gatherings. We have very few solutions being tried on-the-ground, with little learning taking place.
All our problems have multiple stakeholders, each of whom has a legitimate viewpoint.
Answers depend on how we frame the problems. Should we build more flyovers to solve our traffic issues, or should we encourage pedestrianisation and mass transport; should we allow for mixed use of commercial and residential, or should we have flexible city plans that reflect and legitimise how people actually use their urban spaces.

We need new approaches to solving these problems, rather than look for clean, gift-wrapped solutions. These require the use of systems theory, i.e. taking a holistic view of all the components of a system and their interactions, rather than as isolated parts.

Madron and Jopling write, “If systems are separated into their component parts they cannot perform the functions of which they are capable when put together in the right combination: a pile of bicycle parts cannot be ridden until assembled in the correct way. An amputated arm cannot throw a ball. A tree here, some ants over there and a pile of leaves do not provide an environment in which an ecosystem can be sustained. (We need) to think in terms of whole systems and their relationships, not just their parts”

What is needed to solve wicked problems is what is called a “soft-systems” approach. The soft-systems approach requires the people involved in the problem situation to be actively involved in a constant cycle of thinking, acting and learning together. They need to understand each other's perspectives; to do what they can to make things better and then to evaluate how successful they have been before starting the process all over again.

Many of the developed countries have discovered that the problems facing their societies are wicked problems, and require new approaches to solve them. The environmental issue is a classic example of a wicked problem, and the soft-systems approach is slowly beginning to take traction in addressing these problems. Policy-makers in these countries are also revisiting their governance frameworks to reflect these complexities. In a paper titled, “Coordinating Interdependence: Governance and Social Policy”, Denis Saint-Martin writes, “We are witnessing a move away from hierarchy and competition as alternative models for delivering services towards networks and partnerships. The role of government (is) shifting to a focus on providing leadership, building partnerships, steering, (with) the emergence of negotiated “self-governance” in communities, cities and regions, based on new practices of coordinating activities through networks and partnerships, (and) the opening-up of decision-making to greater participation by the public.” The Labour Party in the UK defines this approach as “joined-up government”.

Unfortunately for India, our biggest stumbling block is that the soft-systems approach places enormous challenges on the status quo. Our current institutional arrangements are mostly command-and-control, with little capacity to share power and decision-making in a diffuse, non-hierarchical system. Most Indians when confronted by a problem think, “If only I were in control”, not, “How do I work with others to try and solve this”. If we have to solve our urban problems, it is this mindset that needs to change first. We need is more minds to see the complexity of our urban issues. We need not only technical experts in building our infrastructure projects – the market will provide them, given the financial incentives – but more people who acknowledge that we are dealing with wicked problems.

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The author is founder of Janaagraha. ramesh@janaagraha.org