Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: The Case of Climate Change

In: Public administration: an international journal, Band 84, Heft 4, S. 817-843

Abstract

Successful solutions to pressing social ills tend to consist of innovative combinations of a limited set of alternative ways of perceiving and resolving the issues. These contending policy perspectives justify, represent and stem from four different ways of organizing social relations: hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism and fatalism. Each of these perspectives: (1) distils certain elements of experience and wisdom that are missed by the others; (2) provides a clear expression of the way in which a significant portion of the populace feels we should live with one another and with nature; and (3) needs all of the others in order to be sustainable. 'Clumsy solutions' -- policies that creatively combine all opposing perspectives on what the problems are and how they should be resolved -- are therefore called for. We illustrate these claims for the issue of global warming. References. Adapted from the source document.