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This Lessons Learned Paper describes a yearlong faculty development pilot program that was designed to help a team of faculty de-risk their pursuit of wicked research problems. Wicked problems are extraordinarily difficult to solve due to their incomplete, contradictory, and at times changing requirements. They often include multiple stakeholders with competing interests and worldviews. As a result, they are risky by definition because they are difficult to fund, publish, and collaborate on. Presented here, a team of eleven faculty, from six different academic units, explored their personal and professional values during an initial off-site two and a half day retreat. These values were repeatedly revisited when discussing the implications of the team working together on their curriculum, tenure and promotion guidelines, hiring criteria, and pursuit of wicked problems. Faculty representation included all ranks from a brand new assistant professor to several full professors. This paper will discuss the background and implementation of our program, along with key lessons learned and how we are building on those lessons.
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This content will become publicly available on April 1, 2026
A convergence research approach to resolving ‘wicked problems’: Lessons from an interdisciplinary research team in land use science
Many contemporary social and environmental problems are increasingly ‘wicked.’ Convergence research offers an effective approach to tackle wicked problems by integrating diverse epistemologies, methodologies, and expertise. Yet, there exists little discussion of how to develop and employ a convergence research approach. This article describes our collaborative research efforts to achieve convergence research and team science. For over a decade, we have sought to understand how drug trafficking activities, and the counternarcotics efforts designed to thwart them, catalyze catastrophic changes in landscapes and communities. We first discuss how understanding our wicked problem called for epistemological convergence of diverse data through a team science approach. We then unpack the potential insights and challenges of methodological convergence by drawing upon examples from our land cover and land use change analysis. Third, we argue that the nature of complex, pressing problems requires convergence research to be politically engaged and accountable to the multiple communities affected. This article aims to provide research teams insight into how to pursue epistemological and methodological convergence while attending to the inherent politics of producing knowledge about wicked problems.
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- PAR ID:
- 10589568
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Geography
- Volume:
- 177
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0143-6228
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 103538
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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