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Digital government and wicked problems: Solution or problem?

Issue title: Digital Government and Wicked Problems: Solution and Problem

Guest editors: Jing Zhang and Yushim Kim

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zhang, Jinga; * | Kim, Yushimb

Affiliations: [a] Graduate School of Management, Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA | [b] School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Jing Zhang, Graduate School of Management Clark University Worcester, MA 01610-1477, USA. Tel.: +1 508 793 7102; E-mail:[email protected]

Keywords: Wicked problems, digital government, open data, smart grid, public health, crisis management, digital divide, and social media

DOI: 10.3233/IP-160395

Journal: Information Polity, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 215-221, 2016

Published: 24 October 2016
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Abstract

The theme of the 16th International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o 2015) - ``Digital Government and Wicked Problems'' - drew attention to the increasingly complex global problems we are facing today. In the late 1960s, the term ``wicked problems'' was coined to refer to societal and public planning problems that had no definitive solutions [1,2]. Many problems, such as those identified in the theme of the conference - climate change, urbanization, and inequality - often exhibit the characteristics of ``wickedness'' in the sense that they are both difficult to define and solve. The selection of this theme for dg.o 2015 reflects the digital government research community's ambition and dedication to achieve a degree of understanding necessary to address some of the most intractable of these problems with the aid of emerging technologies. This special issue includes seven of the best papers from the dg.o 2015 conference.

In this editorial, we highlight the characteristics of ``wicked problems'' briefly, and the way in which the term is relevant in digital government research. We then introduce the articles selected for this special issue. Lastly, we provide suggestions to foster future research that addresses the nature of ``wickedness'' in digital government initiatives.

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