If Only Planning Problems Were This Easy To Get Rid Of

I think I may have found one of the best explanations for why it is planners get taken to task all the time: Planning Problems Are Wicked.

Planning problems are not easy to solve, let alone figure out. In Rittel and Webber's article, "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning," they outline what makes planning so difficult.

Let me present the list:
1. There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem.
2. Wicked problems have no stopping rule.
3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but good-or-bad.
4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem.
5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly.
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions; nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique.
8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem.
9. The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution.
10. The planner has no right to be wrong. (If that isn't the truth than I don't know what is).

Considering that planning, to me, is essentially politics, (here is where my credo holds true: Planning: politics without being elected) it makes perfect sense that the problems planners face are wicked. You try hitting a moving target knowing that you only have one shot and that if you miss you will be horribly reprimanded and potentially booed in public (no one likes that).

The whole point of this article I think is to educate those out side of planning that as professionals, planners face a seriously difficult task in carrying out their duties while trying to make communities better. Everyone should read this article the next time they feel like badmouthing planning/planners.

I am feeling their pain now trying to work on my thesis, which is planning oriented. It has taken and is taking an incredible amount of time to gather all the information and to write, because this is a moving/changing target. Frustrating is all I can say.

Moral of the story: We need a Dorthy to click her heels and make this wicked problem melt away.

A Breath of Fresh Air: Island Air That Is

Finally we are reading something that is new, interesting, and refreshing. We are getting into the sub disciplines of geography--specifically biogeography and GIS. The one reading that really interested me this week was the chapter "The Man Who Knew Islands," from the book: The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions.

This chapter is an amazing blend of fieldwork, science, regions, controversy, and challenges. The chapter discusses the story of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin and their parallel discovery of evolution through the examination of animals on islands. While the chapter focuses mostly on Wallace's rise and interest in evolution it does raise questions and doubts about Darwin's actions in suppressing Wallace's findings until his own were published.I was particularly interested in reading the rest of the book because of this discussion and challenges to Darwin as the progenitor of evolution.

While we have read many examples of good writing, I must admit that the writing found in Song of the Dodo is amazing. Written like a travel log, historical story with modern commentary works well in dealing with this potentially difficult subject.

More importantly or perhaps why I liked this chapter so much is that it doesn't harp on historical geography or the loss of geography as a science or discipline. Finally a geography writing about their subject that is accessible to all readers, not just hifalutin geographers.

Best read thus far in the semester of article/assigned readings (books excluded).

Themes This Week

After mulling over the readings this week, two themes presented themselves: 1-Get out there and 2-Make geography accessible to everyone.

Specifically these readings are a variety of Peirce Lewis' works that range from regional studies to commentary on notable geographers. Lewis' work hits home for me and actually inspired me to approach the professor that I TA for and suggest that we use one of the Lewis articles as an introduction to geography for 100 level course students (Lewis, Peirce. 1985. Presidential Address: Beyond Description. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 75(4). 465-478.) It is a brief overview of the variety of professions and works that geographers do, but also a call to students to get out there, explore, read good writing (of which this blog may or may not be) and to then produce good descriptive writing about what they have experienced. Not hard to do right?

Right, now get out there and get to it. The general public, who is largely ignorant of geography, both its breadth and depth, wants to know more about the place that they live and wants to better understand what exactly it is that they are experiencing. As a geographer you, we, can do this.

I should really take my own advice and get back to writing this thing called a thesis.

Geography is everything--or at least everywhere

This is a recent article that I was asked to read for class. It raises interesting questions about the environment and how humans are interacting and changing it. As I read this I noticed two things, Germany and India are doing some amazing things to make their respective places green and sustainable. Germany on the one hand it tackling consumer/consumption issues specifically energy/solar energy. They are combining the forces of science, market demand and controls, business, and regulation to create an arena that fosters alternative energies rather than stifles them. India on the other hand it taking a more Ghandian approach and returning to traditional methods of agriculture, water management, and information sharing.

The common thread of geography in this article is both a physical and cultural connection. Trying to change how humans interact with the environment takes the understanding of the various subfields in science along with the ability to understand how human culture works and then how it can change = Geography.

If you haven't read the article flip through it and see what you will find to inspire you.

The Cultural Physical Interaction

A brief post about the book review Deforesting the Earth: from prehistory to global crisis: an abridgment by Michael Williams, reviewed by Ruth DeFries, University of Maryland College Park in Area 39 (3) 410-411.

As I read this book review it dawned on me that this book review represents a few elements of geography: cultural and physical geography with a dash of historical geography for flavor. Williams book attempts to describe not only the historical condition of global forests (in this case that means mostly a European history), but the cultural or human interaction/use of forests and the consequences of this interaction.

Lets break this down:
Forests = Physical
People/Interaction = Cultural
Historical Context = Historical Geography

Oh and one last point to be made--the whole study is regional in nature: Europe, its regions; the Americas, all of the vast regions there; Asia and Africa. It doesn't get much more regional than this.

But I do have one question: Could historical periods be considered regions in and of themselves?

Icon on Icon

Watch out for name bombs and icon shrapnel when reading Peirce F. Lewis' generously descriptive homage to Wilbur "Wolf" Zelinsky. (Lewis, Peirce F. 2006. Wilbur As Icon. The Geographical Review. 96 (2). viii-xii.) For me this article was heavy with icons and words that I spent time looking up (see the list below). What Lewis does in the article is remove the mystic from the icon and reveal that Zelinsky was a humble, highly curious, and a dedicated researcher and explorer--traits that are found in all good geographers. Lewis notes that Zelinsky's ocular observation of the world led and drove much of his research--sort of a follow your nose method, but be sure and ready to do the necessary research to back up what you find.

As I read through this article I felt as though I was reading an advertisement for how geography and cultural geography in particular, is one of the best tools for a person to understand and analyze the world. Lewis stressed the importance of Zelinsky's extensive fieldwork and his ability to match the data and statistics to the landscape. Not only was Zelinsky a fantastic field research he was also a cartographer. As Lewis explains a picture can be worth a thousand words; an eye opener to difficult concepts or vast amounts of data.

When Lewis recounted his first meeting with Zelinsky at a local bar at the annual AAG (Association of American Geographers) meeting and his nervousness and excitement to meet one of his own icons, I recalled my own encounters--even from a distance-- at the San Francisco AAG meeting of the icons of my era: Yi-Fu Tuan and Bill Wycoff to name just a few and my own giddiness of potentially shaking hands with them to say thank you for inspiring young scholars to enter the field of geography.

Really what Lewis demonstrates in this article are the characteristic of a good geographer, nay, great geographer and how these traits can be emulated by humble curious students.

The list of words:
polymathic: a person of wide ranging knowledge or learning
mirabile dictu: wonderful to relate
logleptic: this what I found for definitions (plus the website is pretty cool for obscure words)
logolepsy n. - an obsession with words
logolept n. - a person who is obsessed with words
fuscous: techincial/literary, dark and somber in color
jerkinheads: the sloping ends of the ridge at the gables

The name bombs/icon shrapnel:
Peirce F. Lewis
Peter Gould
Don Meinig
These names are dropped on UNR Geography students all the time-better know who they are and how they have contributed to avoid getting blown up by them!

Zelinsky and the South

Just when I thought I had escaped the study of Vernacular Architecture it reared its head in this article (Zelinsky, W. 1951. Where the South Begins: The Northern Limit of the Cis-Appalachian South in Terms of Settlement Landscape. Social Forces. 30 (2): 172-178) as a method for delineating the South. Zelinsky uses settlement landscapes (the aggregate pattern of all structures and assemblages of structure in which man houses his activities; or in layman's terms--where man puts his structures and does his thing) and the specific patterns created in these landscapes to create a boundary of the cultural South.

This method of creating a data set and observing the landscape is very similar to the methods employed in archeology, anthropology, vernacular architecture study, and folklore to create and define boundaries for particular groups. Not surprising then that it is used in geography to spatial observe a cultural boundary. What differs, and usually will when put to use by geographers, is scale. Zelinsky moves the reader from the small localized scale of houses to small towns. His transition to the larger scale allows the reader to visual the physical make up and perhaps the cultural make up of the area, giving a sense of place to the area.

Zelinsky finds that when this method is employed it creates a boundary that extends north into Maryland (Cecil County) but is abutted by distinct cultural shift to Pennsylvania German. The western edge of this culture area runs along the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Great so Zelinsky has delineated the South based on buildings and their patterns but as I read through this article there was something that bothered me.

Specifically the issue of diffusion. People and ideas move, as would building types and placement patterns. Zelinsky never really addressed this issue, with the exception of the brief comment of "large numbers of African Americans" in the same area that he had delineated. I wonder how his boundary would shift and change over time, perhaps this is a project for an ambitious geographer to undertake.

One particular thing that I did like about this article are the maps. It took me a few moments of examining them to realize that they are all turned 90 degrees to the right. While it may not seem like that big of deal it is sort of a novel thing to do. It focused my attention to the greater depth and coastal location of Zelinsky's South. It gave new perspective on how to see the South. Zelinsky's use of comparative maps to support his delineation is great, in particular the mule to horse ratio map. After I read the paragraph relating to this map I immediately thought of the canals in Washington, D.C. that I had seen with mule paths along the sides so that they could pull the boats along. If you'd like to see these canal paths head over to Georgetown.