Climate change, one of the most significant challenges facing public administrators around the world, is not a traditional disaster; it is an integrated, tangled, slow-onset crisis with multiple implications to existing rules, programs, and regulations at every level of government. Public administrators are often at the helm of local adaptation and mitigation efforts, but is this reflected in the mainstream public administration literature? Using Conklin’s wicked problems framework, this study analyzed 20 years of climate change research published in high-ranking public administration journals to understand how the literature in these leading journals are addressing this wicked problem and related impacts.
AlfordJ.HeadB. W. (2017). Wicked and less wicked problems: A typology and a contingency framework. Policy and Society, 36(3), 397–413.
2.
AmundsenH.BerglundF.WestskogH. (2010). Overcoming barriers to climate change adaptation—A question of multilevel governance?Environmental Planning C Governance and Policy, 28, 276–289.
3.
AnsellC.SørensenE.TorfingJ. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic as a game changer for public administration and leadership? The need for robust governance responses to turbulent problems. Public Management Review, 23(7), 949–960.
4.
ArtmannM. (2015). Managing urban soil sealing in Munich and Leipzig (Germany)—From a wicked problem to clumsy solutions. Land Use Policy, 46, 21–37.
5.
BallA.MasonI.GrubnicS.HughesP. (2009). The Carbon Neutral Public Sector: Early developments and an urgent agenda for research. Public Management Review, 11(5), 575–600.
6.
BarnesJ.DoveM.LahsenM.MathewsA.McElweeP.McIntoshR.MooreF.O’ReillyJ.OrloveB.PuriR.WeissH.YagerK. (2013). Contribution of anthropology to the study of climate change. Nature Climate Change, 3(6), 541–544.
7.
BatieS. S. (2008). Wicked problems and applied economics. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 90(5), 1176–1191.
8.
BellD. (2011). Does anthropogenic climate change violate human rights?Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy, 14(2), 99–124.
9.
BernickE.KruegerS. (2010). An assessment of journal quality in public administration. International Journal of Public Administration, 33(2), 98–106.
10.
BlumerH. (1971). Social problems as collective behavior. Social Problems, 18, 298–306.
11.
BoinA.EkengrenM.RhinardM. (2021). Understanding the creeping crisis. Springer Nature.
12.
BoinA.LodgeM. (2016). Designing resilient institutions for transboundary crisis management: A time for public administration. Public Administration, 94(2), 289–298.
13.
BorinsS. (2018). Public sector innovation in a context of radical populism. Public Management Review, 20(12), 1858–1871.
14.
BozemanB.BretschneiderS.LindsayS.NelsonJ. P.DidierN. (2023). Reports of practitioners’ use of public affairs faculty published research. Studies in Higher Education, 48(5), 719–732.
15.
BürginA. (2020). The impact of Juncker's reorganization of the European Commission on the internal policy-making process: Evidence from the energy union project. Public Administration, 98(2), 378–391.
16.
BurnsD.HydeP.KillettA. (2013). Wicked problems or wicked people? Reconceptualising institutional abuse. Sociology of Health & Illness, 35(4), 514–528.
17.
CampbellN.McHughG.Dylan-EnnisP. (2019). Climate change is not a problem: Speculative realism at the end of organization. Organization Studies, 40(5), 725–744.
ChristensenT.FimreiteA.LægreidP. (2011). Crisis management: The perceptions of citizens and civil servants in Norway. Administration & Society, 43(5), 561–594.
20.
ConklinJ. (2003). Dialog mapping: Reflections on an industrial strength case study. In KirschnerP. A.Buckingham ShumS. J.CarrC. S. (Eds.), Visualizing argumentation: Software tools for collaborative and educational sense-making (pp. 117–136). Springer.
21.
CorbinJ.StraussA. (Eds.). (2015). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (4th ed.). Sage Publications.
22.
CrosbyB. C. (2010). Leading in the shared-power world of 2020. Public Administration Review, 70, s69–s77.
23.
DarnallN. (2009). Regulatory stringency, green production offsets, and organizations' financial performance. Public Administration Review, 69(3), 418–434.
24.
DavisK. F.DownsS.GephartJ. A. (2021). Towards food supply chain resilience to environmental shocks. Nature Food, 2(1), 54–65.
25.
DeasonJ. A.FriedmanL. S. (2010). Intertemporal regulatory tasks and responsibilities for greenhouse gas reductions. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 29(4), 821–853.
26.
Den UylR. M.RusselD. J. (2018). Climate adaptation in fragmented governance settings: The consequences of reform in public administration. Environmental Politics, 27(2), 341–361.
27.
DeslatteA. (2020a). Positivity and negativity dominance in citizen assessments of intergovernmental sustainability performance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 30(4), 563–578.
28.
DeslatteA. (2020b). The erosion of trust during a global pandemic and how public administrators should counter it. American Review of Public Administration, 50(6–7), 489–496.
29.
DesmaraisB. A.HirdJ. A. (2014). Public policy's bibliography: The use of research in US regulatory impact analyses. Regulation & Governance, 8(4), 497–510. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12041
30.
DinicaV. (2018). Public engagement in governance for sustainability: A two-tier assessment approach and illustrations from New Zealand. Public Management Review, 20(1), 23–54.
31.
DoelleM.HenschelC.SmithJ.TollefsonC.WellsteadA. (2012). New governance arrangements at the intersection of climate change and forest policy: institutional, political, and regulatory dimensions. Public Administration, 90(1), 37–55.
32.
DolšakN.AdolphC.PrakashA. (2020). Policy design and public support for carbon tax: Evidence from a 2018 US national online survey experiment. Public Administration, 98(4), 905–921.
33.
DormadyN. C. (2013). The political economy of collaborative organization. Administration & Society, 45(6), 748–772.
34.
DunlapR. E.JacquesP. J. (2013). Climate change denial books and conservative think tanks: Exploring the connection. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(6), 699–731.
35.
DunlopC. A.RusselD. (2012). Watching the detectives1. Public Management Review, 14(5), 681–704.
36.
DurantR. F. (2009). Getting dirty-minded: Implementing presidential policy agendas administratively. Public Administration Review, 69(4), 569–585.
37.
DurantR. F. (2011). Global crises, American public administration, and the “new interventionism” revisited. Administration & Society, 43(3), 267–300.
38.
DurantR. F.ChunY. P.KimB.LeeS. (2004). Toward a new governance paradigm for environmental and natural resources management in the 21st century?Administration & Society, 35(6), 643–682.
39.
EdelenbosJ.van MeerkerkI.SchenkT. (2018). The evolution of community self-organization in interaction with government institutions: Cross-case insights from three countries. American Review of Public Administration, 48(1), 52–66.
40.
FiorinoD. J. (2010). Sustainability as a conceptual focus for public administration. Public Administration Review, 70, s78–s88.
41.
FiskeS. J.MarinoE. (2020). Slow-onset disaster: Climate change and the gaps between knowledge, policy, and practice. In HoffmanS.BarriosR. E. (Eds.), Disaster upon disaster: Exploring the gap between knowledge, policy and Practice (pp. 139–171). Berghahn Books.
42.
ForresterJ. P.WatsonS. S. (1994). An assessment of public administration journals: The perspective of editors and editorial board members. Public Administration Review, 54(5), 474–482.
FunckE. K.KarlssonT. S. (2020). Twenty-five years of studying new public management in public administration: Accomplishments and limitations. Financial Accountability and Management, 36(4), 347–375.
45.
GalazV.MobergF.OlssonE.-K.PagliaE.ParkerC. (2011). Institutional and political leadership dimensions of cascading ecological crises. Public Administration, 89(2), 361–380.
46.
GoodsellC. T. (2019). The anti-public administration presidency: The damage Trump has wrought. American Review of Public Administration, 49(8), 871–883.
47.
GronowA.WagnerP.Ylä-AnttilaT. (2020). Explaining collaboration in consensual and conflictual governance networks. Public Administration, 98(3), 730–745.
48.
GuyM. E.McCandlessS. A. (2012). Social equity: Its legacy, its promise. Public Administration Review, 72(s1), S5–13.
49.
HeadB. W. (2019). Forty years of wicked problems literature: Forging closer links to policy studies. Policy and Society, 38(2), 180–197.
50.
HeikkilaT.WeibleC. M.GerlakA. K. (2020). When does science persuade (or not persuade) in high-conflict policy contexts?Public Administration, 98(3), 535–550.
51.
HomsyG. C. (2016). Powering sustainability: Municipal utilities and local government policymaking. Environment and Planning C Government and Policy, 34(6), 1076–1094.
52.
HsiehH. F.ShannonS. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288.
53.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. (2021). Climate change 2021: The physical science basis. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
54.
KahnM. E. (2000). The environmental impact of suburbanization. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 19(4), 569–586.
55.
KalesnikaiteV.NeshkovaM. I. (2021). Problem Severity, collaborative stage, and partner selection in US cities. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 31(2), 399–415.
56.
KnoxC. C. (2017). A football field lost every 45 minutes: Evaluating local capacity to implement Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan. Coastal Management Journal, 45(3), 233–252.
57.
KukkonenA.Ylä-AnttilaT.BroadbentJ. (2017). Advocacy coalitions, beliefs and climate change policy in the United States. Public Administration, 95(3), 713–729.
58.
LambrightW. H. (2008). Government and science: A troubled, critical relationship and what can be done about it. Public Administration Review, 68(1), 5–18.
59.
LindblomC. E. (1959). The Science of "Muddling through. Public Administration Review, 19(2), 79–88.
60.
LukensmeyerC. J. (2010). Learning from the past, committing to the future: A practitioner’s view of our democracy. Public Administration Review, 70, s273–s283.
61.
LyonC.SaupeE. E.SmithC. J.HillD. J.BeckermanA. P.StringerL. C.MarchantR.McKayJ.BurkeA.O’HigginsP.DunhillA. M.AllenB. J.Riel-SalvatoreJ.AzeT. (2022). Climate change research and action must look beyond 2100. Global Change Biology, 28(2), 349–361.
62.
MillsC. (2000). The Sociological Imagination. Oxford University Press.
63.
MilwardB.JensenL.RobertsA.Dussauge-LagunaM.JunjanV.TorenvliedR.BoinA.ColebatchH.KettlD.DurantR. (2016). Is public management neglecting the state?Governance, 29(3), 311–334.
64.
NabatchiT.T. GoerdelH.PefferS. (2011). Public administration in dark times: Some questions for the future of the field. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 21(1), i29–i43.
65.
National Research Council. (2010). Advancing the science of climate change. National Academies Press.
66.
NeckH.BrushC.AllenE. (2009). The landscape of social entrepreneurship. Business Horizons, 52(1), 13–19.
67.
NelsonJ. P.LindsayS.BozemanB. (2023). The last 20 years of empirical research on government utilization of academic social science research: A state-of-the-art literature review. Administration & Society, 55, 1479–1528.
NoordegraafM.DouglasS.GeuijenK.Van Der SteenM. (2019). Weaknesses of wickedness: A critical perspective on wickedness theory. Policy and Society, 38(2), 278–297.
70.
NowellB.SteelmanT.VelezA. L. K.YangZ. (2018). The structure of effective governance of disaster response networks: Insights from the field. American Review of Public Administration, 48(7), 699–715.
71.
O’TooleL. J.JrHanfK. I. (2002). American public administration and impacts of international governance. Public Administration Review, 62, 158–169.
72.
OwenA. L.ConoverE.ViderasJ.WuS. (2012). Heat waves, droughts, and preferences for environmental policy. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 31(3), 556–577.
73.
ParagY.CapstickS.PoortingaW. (2011). Policy attribute framing: A comparison between three policy instruments for personal emissions reduction. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 30(4), 889–905.
74.
PollittC. (2015). Wickedness will not wait: Climate change and public management research. Public Money & Management, 35(3), 181–186.
75.
PollittC. (2016). Advanced introduction to public management and administration. Edward Elgar Publishing.
76.
PollittC. (2017). Public administration research since 1980: Slipping away from the real world?International Journal of Public Sector Management, 30(6–7), 555–565.
77.
RadinB. A. (2013). Reclaiming our past: Linking theory and practice. Political Science and Politics, 46(1), 1–7.
78.
RittelH. W. J.WebberM. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155–169.
79.
RobertC.ZeckhauserR. (2011). The methodology of normative policy analysis. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 30(3), 613–643.
80.
RobertsA. (2018). The aims of public administration: Reviving the classical view. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 1(1), 73–85.
81.
RobertsR. (2019). The judicial response to the presidential polarization of the administrative state. American Review of Public Administration, 49(1), 3–20.
82.
RosenthalU. (2003). September 11: Public administration and the study of crises and crisis management. Administration & Society, 35(2), 129–143.
83.
SchlagerE.HeikkilaT. (2011). Left high and dry? Climate change, common-pool resource theory, and the adaptability of western water compacts. Public Administration Review, 71(3), 461–470.
84.
SchneiderR. O. (2019). Emergency management in a changing climate. Journal of Emergency Management, 17(6), 487–495.
85.
ShiL. (2019). Promise and paradox of metropolitan regional climate adaptation. Environmental Science & Policy, 92, 262–274.
86.
SkinnerR. M. (2017). Water policy in a time of climate change: Coping with complexity. Public Administration Review, 77(1), 13–16.
87.
SørensenE.TorfingJ. (2018). The democratizing impact of governance networks: From pluralization, via democratic anchorage, to interactive political leadership. Public Administration, 96(2), 302–317.
88.
SteaneP. (2008). Public management reforms in Australia and New Zealand. Public Management Review, 10(4), 453–465.
89.
SwannW. L. (2017). Examining the impact of local collaborative tools on urban sustainability efforts: Does the managerial environment matter?American Review of Public Administration, 47(4), 455–468.
90.
TermeerC. J. A. M.DewulfA.BiesbroekR. (2019). A critical assessment of the wicked problem concept: Relevance and usefulness for policy science and practice. Policy and Society, 38(2), 167–179.
91.
TermeerC. J. A. M.DewulfA.BreemanG.StillerS. J. (2015). Governance capabilities for dealing wisely with wicked problems. Administration & Society, 47(6), 680–710.
92.
TermeerC. J. A. M.van Den BrinkM. A. (2013). Organizational conditions for dealing with the unknown unknown. Public Management Review, 15(1), 43–62.
93.
T HartP.BoinR. A. (2001). Between crisis and normalcy: The long shadow of post-crisis politics. In RosenthalU.BoinR. A.ComfortL. K. (Eds.), Managing crisis: Threats, dilemmas, opportunities (pp. 28–46). Springfield.
TurnbullN.HoppeR. (2019). Problematizing ‘wickedness’: a critique of the wicked problems concept, from philosophy to practice. Policy and Society, 38(2), 315–337.
Van de WalleS.van DelftR. (2015). Publishing in public administration: Issues with defining, comparing, and ranking the output of universities. International Public Management Journal, 18(1), 87–107.
99.
van Popering-VerkerkJ.van BuurenA. (2016). Decision-making patterns in multilevel governance: The contribution of informal and procedural interactions to significant multilevel decisions. Public Management Review, 18(7), 951–971.
100.
VerweijM.DouglasM.EllisR.EngelC.HendriksF.LohmannS.NeyS.RaynerS.ThompsonM. (2006). Clumsy solutions for a complex world: The case of climate change. Public Administration, 84(4), 817–843.
101.
WaldoD. (1972). Developments in public administration. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 404(1), 217–245.
102.
WangX.LiuC.HawkinsC. V. (2017). Local government strategies for financing energy efficiency initiatives. American Review of Public Administration, 47(6), 672–686.
103.
WeibleC. M.SabatierP. A.McQueenK. (2009). Themes and variations: Taking stock of the advocacy coalition framework. Policy Studies Journal, 37(1), 121–140.
104.
WeickK. E.SutcliffeK. M. (2001). Managing the unexpected (Vol. 9). Jossey-Bass.
105.
WelchE. W.WongW. (2001). Effects of global pressures on public bureaucracy: Modeling a new theoretical framework. Administration & Society, 33(4), 371–402.
106.
WheelerS. M. (2008). State and municipal climate change plans: The first generation. Journal of the American Planning Association, 74(4), 481–496.
107.
YangK. (2015). From administration to management. In GuyM.RubinM. (Eds.), Public Administration: Evolving from foundations to the Future (pp. 102–122). Routledge.
108.
ZhuL.WitkoC.MeierK. J. (2019). The public administration manifesto II: Matching methods to theory and substance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 29(2), 287–298.
109.
ZscheischlerJ.WestraS.Van Den HurkB.SeneviratneS.WardP.PitmanA.AghaKouchakA.BreschD.LeonardM.WahlT.ZhangX. (2018). Future climate risk from compound events. Nature Climate Change, 8(6), 469–477.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
