Wicked Problems and Global Challenges: How to Study Crises, Controversies and Catastrophes
| Module title | Wicked Problems and Global Challenges: How to Study Crises, Controversies and Catastrophes |
|---|---|
| Module code | SPA2023 |
| Academic year | 2025/6 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Professor Mike Michael (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 40 |
|---|
Module description
The module focuses on the contemporary world as increasingly characterised by major environmental, political or technological upheavals. Understanding and responding to these global challenges requires interdisciplinary approaches. In addition to examining how crises, etc. can be theorised, there is an overview of interdisciplinary approaches to conducting relevant crises-oriented research. The module presents a series of topic-based case studies from the perspective of different SPSPA disciplines and addresses how these co-formulating a shared research approach. Enhancing collaborative skills will be enabled by a practical element where students from different programmes work together to formulate a common research agenda to crises, etc.
The module is recommended for interdisciplinary pathways.
Module aims - intentions of the module
A key distinctive feature of the module is its avowed interdisciplinarity as applied to major contemporary issues of concern. Here interdisciplinarity is topic as well as resource, and thus will involve interdisciplinary team teaching as well as individual teaching on the theorisation and operationalisation of interdisciplinarity.
The module aims:
- To familiarise students with the literatures on identifying and analysing crises, controversies, global challenges and wicked problems.
- To provide a thorough overview of scholarly approaches to disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity etc.
- To provide substantive and practical examples of how different disciplines can collaborate to address crises, controversies and wicked problems.
- To provide students with practical opportunities for collaboration with students from other discplines to formulate research questions and agendas in relation to crises, controversies and wicked problems.
- To develop and enhance collaboration and negotiation skills in students that can potentially be applied in post-undergraduate public, private or 3rd sector work settings.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. demonstrate knowledge of multiple forms of research perspective as applied to social issues, problems or debates associated with wicked problems and/or global challenges;
- 2. demonstrate knowledge of different interdisciplinary approaches and how they can be applied to researching on wicked problems and/or global challenges
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. demonstrate an understanding of the disciplinarity of inter-disciplinary research (ie how knowledges and practices associated with interdisciplinarity vary across disciplines).
- 4. demonstrate an understanding of the conceptual and practical issues that arise in applying interdisciplinary approaches researching on wicked problems and/or global challenges
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. demonstrate competence in collaborating with co-workers with divergent forms of (disciplinary) expertise to critically formulate inter-disciplinary research questions and projects;
- 6. demonstrate an ability to address the broad range skills needed effectively to interact with co-workers with divergent forms of (disciplinary) expertise and skill.
Syllabus plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
What is a wicked problem/global challenge? What are disciplines? Overview of SPSPA and different disciplinary perspectives. Broader overview of the historical and institutional emergence and pliability of disciplines.
Approaches to Interdisciplinarity – inter, cross and multi-disciplinarity. Institutional and socio-political contexts for facilitating or undermining interdisciplinary initiatives. Examples of interdisciplinarity across social, natural, biomedical sciences and humanities. Logics of Interdisciplinarity.
Contemporary Research Topic or Current Issue – discussed from different disciplinary perspectives, and in terms of inter-disciplinary collaboration. The following topics/issues are suggestions but will be adapted in light of what is current.
- Health and Wellbeing (e.g. ageing population and dementia; recent pandemic outbreaks; mental health crisis). Anthropology, Philosophy, Sociology
- Political and Economic Issues (e.g. Brexit; financial crisis; globalization). Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, Politics, IR
- Disasters (eg Grenfell; Catastrophic flooding; chemical and nuclear accidents). Criminology, Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies (STS), Policy Research.
- New Media and Information Science (e.g. Big Data and Knowledge, machine learning and robotics; surveillance/control society). Philosophy, Criminology, Sociology, IR
- Technoscientific Innovation and Society (e.g. Artificial Meat; stem cells; nanotechnology). Anthropology, STS, Philosophy, Policy Research
- Inequalities, Discrimination and Resistance (e.g. Me Too movement; Black Lives Matter; Educational Inequalities) Sociology (Q-Step), Anthropology, Politics and Philosophy
- Nature, Animals and Environment (e.g. Plastic pollution, smart metering, global climate crisis, Anthropocene). Anthropology, STS, Philosophy, Environmental Politics
- Employment, Families, State (e.g. Precarity/Precariat, neoliberal state and austerity, debt). Sociology (Q-Step), Anthropology, Criminology, Politics.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 22 | 11 x 2-hour. 1 hour lecture of academic field OR 1 hour of introduction to disciplinary approaches to pre-specified global challenge/wicked problem. Followed by 1 hour of open discussion on lecture topic informed by pre-designated readings |
| Guided independent study | 72 | Readings of key texts and supplementary materials designated for individual lectures in handbook and ELE2 |
| Guided independent study | 56 | Reading and research into relevant academic texts and substantive materials for identifying problem-topic and relevant disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collective Seminar Presentation | 5 minute collective presentation on chosen topics (global challenge/wicked problem) and interdisciplinary collaboration process | 1-6 | In-seminar feedback on presentations of interdisciplinary topics and collaboration process |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay - (global challenge/wicked problem) | 50 | 1800 words | 1-3, 5 | Written |
| Essay (interdisciplinary research proposal, with reflection) | 50 | 1800 words | 1-6 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay - (global challenge/wicked problem 1800 words) | Essay - (global challenge/wicked problem 1800 words) | 1-3, 5 | Referral / Deferral period |
| Essay (interdisciplinary research proposal, with reflection 1800 words) | Essay (interdisciplinary research proposal, with reflection 1800 words) | 1-6 | Referral / Deferral period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Balmer AS, Molyneux-Hodgson S, Callard F, Fitzgerald D (2018). “Could we
- meet?”: a conversation on collaboration, feeling and failure. BioSocieties, 13(3),
- 668-674.
- Barry, A. and Born, G. (eds) (2013). Interdisciplinarity: Reconfigurations of the Social and Natural Sciences. London and New York: Routledge.
- Callard, F. and Fitzgerald, D. (2015). Rethinking interdisciplinarity across the
- social sciences and neurosciences. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Frickel, S., Albert, M. and Prainsack, B. (eds) (2017) Investigating Interdisciplinary Collaboration. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
- Frodeman, R.; Thompson Klein, J.; Mitcham, C. y Tuana, N. (2007): “Interdisciplinary studies in science, technology and society: New directions: Science, Humanities, Policy”, Technology in Society, 29, 145-152.
- Lury, C. et al. (eds) (2018). Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Methodology. London and New York: Routledge.
- Lönngren, J., & Van Poeck, K. (2021). Wicked problems: A mapping review of the literature. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 28(6), 481-502.
- Ludwig, D., Blok, V., Garnier, M., Macnaghten, P., & Pols, A. (2022). What’s wrong with global challenges?. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 9(1), 6-27.
- Osborne, P. (2015). Problematizing Disciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Problematics.
- Theory, Culture & Society, 32(5–6), 3–35.
- Peters, B. G. (2017). What is so wicked about wicked problems? A conceptual analysis and a research program. Policy and Society, 36(3), 385-396.
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 5 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 01/02/2023 |
| Last revision date | 11/03/2025 |
