This assignment is due in Week 6, Friday, midday. 

Describe and analyse a ‘wicked problem’ of either local, national or global relevance.  Canvass at least one campaign, policy approach or intervention that has been launched to overcome this problem, evidence the degree to which this succeeded, and identify and provide evidence of at least one unintended consequence of this attempt to address the problem.

The assignment should not exceed 2000 words, and should draw on credible written evidence, including scholarly books and articles, non-scholarly books and book chapters, and credible media sources (a minimum of 10 scholarly references are required).   This assignment requires you to show evidence that you understand the term ‘wicked problem’ and are able to relate that definition to a ‘real world’ wicked problem, using evidence you’ve gathered through your own readings of the scholarly or other science literature.   You can make use of reputable media sources as part of your case, but a preference should be given to either scholarly (peer-reviewed) papers, scientific reports (e.g. from United Nations bodies or the CSIRO), or reputable government or non-government reports.  Unintended consequences of policy solutions are not easy to find, therefore we encourage you to think through what MIGHT be an unintended (negative or positive) consequence to a campaign designed to tackle a wicked problem.   Once you have identified a likely candidate for an unintended consequence, you should be able to find some plausible good quality evidence to show that such a consequence may have transpired.

The format of this assignment is a formal essay or report.  There is no ‘right’ structure, but the assessment item should be clearly and logically structured, and can be illustrated with graphs, figures or tables as required.  Using sub-headings to help organise your work is encouraged, but not required.