Imagination, Creativity, & Innovation: Wicked Problems

From climate change to GM foods, we are increasingly confronted with complex, interconnected social and environmental problems that span disciplines, knowledge bases and value systems. This book offers a transdisciplinary, open approach for those working towards resolving these 'wicked' problems and highlights the crucial role of this 'transdisciplinary imagination' in addressing the shift to sustainable futures. Tackling Wicked Problems provides readers with a framework and practical examples that will guide the design and conduct of their own open-ended enquiries. In this approach, academic disciplines are combined with personal, local and strategic understanding and researchers are required to recognise multiple knowledge cultures, accept the inevitability of uncertainty, and clarify their own and others' ethical positions. The authors then comment on fifteen practical examples of how researchers have engaged with the opportunities and challenges of conducting transdisciplinary inquiries. The book gives those who are grappling with complex problems innovative methods of inquiry that will allow them to work collaboratively towards long-term solutions.

This book summarizes the results of the second year in the Design Thinking Research Program, a joint venture of Stanford University in Palo Alto and Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam. The authors have taken a closer look at the issue of co-creation from different points-of-view. The concept of co-creation can also be applied to the phase in which new ideas and related thought start to influence companies, the economy, our culture, and society. The perpetual pursuit for inventions, new creations and innovations is inherent in human nature. The concept behind co-creation may sound simple, however, it is both an essential element of Design Thinking and highly complex. It is about creating positive synergies for all parties involved.