en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem
1 correction found
Rittel and Webber coined the term in the context of problems of social policy
This misstates the term’s origin. The phrase “wicked problem” was already being used in 1967, when C. West Churchman reported that Horst Rittel had suggested it in a recent seminar; Melvin Webber later coauthored the 1973 paper that formalized the concept.
Full reasoning
The sentence says Rittel and Webber coined the term in the context of social policy. But the documentary record shows the term predates their 1973 coauthored paper.
In 1967, C. West Churchman published a guest editorial titled Wicked Problems in Management Science. In it, Churchman wrote that “Professor Horst Rittel … has suggested in a recent seminar that the term ‘wicked problem’” refer to a class of ill-formulated social system problems. That means the term was already in use before the 1973 Rittel–Webber article, and Churchman explicitly attributes it to Horst Rittel, not to Rittel and Webber jointly.
A later historical review in PMC summarizes the same sequence: “Horst Rittel first identified wicked problems and presented his findings at a 1967 seminar in Berkeley,” and only “Six years after the seminar” did Rittel and Webber write the famous 1973 article together. So the 1973 paper is important for publishing and formalizing the concept, but the claim that Rittel and Webber coined the term is inaccurate.
A more accurate wording would be that Horst Rittel introduced or first used the term in the 1960s, and Rittel and Melvin Webber later formalized the concept in their 1973 paper.
2 sources
- Guest Editorial: Wicked Problems
"Professor Horst Rittel ... has suggested in a recent seminar that the term 'wicked problem' refer to that class of social system problems..."
- Fifty years after the wicked-problems conception: its practical and theoretical impacts on planning and design
"Horst Rittel first identified wicked problems and presented his findings at a 1967 seminar in Berkeley... Six years after the seminar, Horst Rittel was finally convinced by Melvin Webber to publish his findings; they convened and wrote the now famous 'Rittel and Webber (1973)' article together..."