“Wicked Problems”: Humanities Advocacy’s Need for History of Humanities

Advocates for the humanities have ongoing need of good work in the history of humanities as they canvas evidence of how the field has, in the past, sought to describe its contributions to knowledge and articulate the importance of its distinctive concentration on the objects, media, and value of culture. Apprehending better which arguments have been persuasive contextually and which have fared less well can help sharpen defenses for the future and avoid errors of description. This forum contribution considers the need to take a wide view of which disciplinary histories will be relevant—reinforcing the introduction’s observation that the history of the humanities continues to develop in close connection with the history of knowledge, construed more generally. In recent years, numerous advocates have advanced claims that humanities disciplines are well equipped (even uniquely equipped) to handle “wicked problems”—intractably complex problems germane to the future flourishing of our societies and the planet. Returning to the origins of the wicked problems concept within late 1960s urban planning, and subsequent disputes within the social sciences over its validity, I argue that deploying it persuasively on behalf of the humanities will require careful attention to a history that has left it with uneven traction in other disciplines.