Wicked Problems, Wicked Good Solutions: Maine as a Sustainability Science Laboratory

Producing knowledge and linking it to actions that meet human needs while preserving the planet’s life-support systems is among the great challenges facing society. Such sustainability challenges are also “wicked problems”, because they are difficult to define, resist generalization and involve diverse stakeholders with divergent perceptions and values. Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI) is an innovative effort to employ theory and practices from sustainability science to understand and help solve such wicked problems. Supported in part by a $20 million grant from NSF EPSCoR, SSI also represents a novel institutional experiment in increasing the capacity of research universities to help society understand, anticipate and respond to a wide range of sustainability challenges. SSI is based on the working hypothesis that the ability of scientific knowledge to produce useful solutions is greater when researchers collaborate with stakeholders. Accordingly, SSI’s interdisciplinary research teams engage with stakeholders to jointly define problems, determine research needs and evaluate potential solutions. SSI uses three linked research strategies to pursue real-world solutions: 1) Examining interactions between natural and human systems; 2) Analyzing and strengthening links between scientific knowledge and societal action; 3) Investigating and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and researcher-stakeholder partnerships. Mobilizing expertise from the majority of Maine’s universities and colleges, SSI includes more than 100 faculty, representing more than 30 disciplines within the natural sciences, social sciences and engineering. More than 160 stakeholder organizations have partnered with SSI, including federal, state and local governments, tribal communities, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations. SSI includes a portfolio of 12+ Maine-based research projects that are broadly focused on problems related to landscape dynamics, including issues involving urbanization, forest management, climate change and alternative energy. This research portfolio also provides opportunities for the comparative analysis of place-based projects, thereby supporting efforts to develop general principles in sustainability science.  To date, SSI’s accomplishments include playing key roles in developing innovative legislation, producing decision-support tools, advancing alternative energy technologies, building social capital and training a new, more nimble generation of sustainability researchers and practitioners.