Wicked Problems, Politics, and Justice

POLS449 offers an advanced examination of social policy issues from a comparative context. Students will examine a range of "wicked policy problems" (problems that are complex and hard to solve) and governance issues. Students will learn how and why issues are labelled as particularly challenging, analyse a range of responses that have been labelled as successes and failures, and hear from differently situated people in support or opposition of these responses, to understand and gain lessons for future and continuing policy analysts and decision-makers. Over the semester students will engage with key conceptual, methodological, and theoretical challenges that have sparked research seeking to evaluate, explain, and design effective public policy. Importantly, students will engage with critical literature which unpacks assumptions of wicked problem literature and discussions, challenges mainstream policy approaches, and seeks alternative futures.