• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. polarization>

America’s most wicked problem

Lisa Swallow
April 10, 2023
America’s most wicked problem

Lisa K. Swallow is the co-founder and executive director of Crossing Party Lines, a national nonprofit creating an open dialogue between Americans with dissimilar ideologies. She has developed a series of workshops teaching the concepts, skills, and techniques for having civil, respectful conversations with people who view the world differently. Listening with a curious open mind is the cornerstone of her work.

Toxic polarization is wreaking havoc with our democracy, driving wedges between elected officials, alienating co-workers, and tearing friendships and families apart. It fuels the divisiveness between sides on almost every issue we face, from COVID causes to immunization; environmental concerns to global policy; abortion to gender rights. It is a wicked problem, characterized by animosity towards anyone who opposes our ideas about how to address the problems we care most about.


The term wicked problem may be new to many readers. According to Jon Kolko, author of Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving, a wicked problem is “a social or cultural problem that is difficult or impossible to solve for as many as four reasons: incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, the large economic burden, and the interconnected nature of these problems with other problems.”

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Sound familiar? Kolko goes on to say, “These problems are typically offloaded to policy makers, or are written off as being too cumbersome to handle en masse. Yet these are the problems—poverty, sustainability, equality, and health and wellness—that plague our cities and our world and that touch each and every one of us.” While Kolko does not include polarization in his list of wicked problems, it fits the criteria perfectly.

Over the past few decades, some of our brightest minds have turned their attention to the problem of toxic polarization. The PEW Research Center tracks a range of indicators from ideological uniformity and Congressional voting patterns to attitudes. Political scientists study its impact on the health of our democracy. Neuroscientists examine the relationship between polarization and the brain. Psychologists explore beliefs and behaviors that contribute to it. Educators are asking how they can better prepare our young people to either survive or reduce it.

Meanwhile hundreds of organizations have found ways to translate researchers’ insights about the causes and contributing factors of polarization into interventions designed to address this wicked problem. Recognizing that despite their different approaches, all these organizations are striving to bridge the divides that are tearing us apart, this work has come to be referred to as “Bridging.”

At present, the bridging community is comprised of more than 500 organizations. Some offer opportunities to observe debates or discussions, others to watch documentaries or films portraying bridging in action. Some teach skills and concepts that make talking with the “other” possible, while others offer opportunities to participate in conversations across differences by providing conversation guides or facilitated gatherings. Many bridging organizations offer more than one of these approaches.

To anyone questioning the investment of time, energy, and money into reducing toxic polarization, this may appear as a shot-gun approach. They may wonder why we don’t focus all our energies on one tried-and-true solution. The problem is, because toxic polarization is a wicked problem, there is no single solution. According to Horst Rittel who popularized the concept of wicked problems, “Solutions to wicked problems can be only good or bad, not true or false. There is no idealized end state to arrive at, and so approaches to wicked problems should be tractable ways to improve a situation rather than solve it.”

Framing bridging as a wicked problem helps us recognize the value in having a wide range of solutions. Rather than seeing our collection of work as a shotgun approach, we can appreciate the way each offers its own piece of the puzzle. What really differentiates our collective work from a shotgun approach, though, is the reliance on science and proof. To ensure that we are investing in work that is bringing about positive change, the Bridging Movement Alignment Council (BMAC) has designed the Social Cohesion Impact Measure (SCIM) tool for measuring the impact of individual interventions. This follows closely on the heels of last year’s Strengthening Democracy Challenge, a mega study funded by the Civic Health Project and others that tested over 250 interventions and proved the effectiveness of many of the approaches used by these organizations today.

Kolko advises us that to solve wicked problems we must "design with versus design for." The National Week of Conversation (NWOC) is an example of the bridging field doing exactly that as we invite all Americans to work with us to solve America’s overarching wicked problem. NWOC is YOUR opportunity to discover how you can play a part in reducing toxic polarization.

Over 100 bridging organizations will be hosting events during the week of April 17-23 and posting them on CitizenConnect.US, where you can explore a wide range of experiences that will help you become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

·Do you want to learn more about what bridging is and why it matters? Sign up for one of the many speaker events or panel discussions.

·Do you want to see bridging in action? Join us for a screening of a bridging-related documentary or watch a debate between civil, respectful, thoughtful people who happen to be on different sides of the political spectrum.

·Do you want to experience a new way of talking politics, one that is civil and respectful and often fun? Participate in one of the many conversations hosted by bridging organizations, choosing the formats and topics that appeal to you most.

·Do you want to develop skills that will help you navigate difficult conversations in real life? Attend one of the many workshops teaching skills and concepts that have been proven to improve the chances that your next difficult conversation will be more productive than your last.

What all these experiences have in common is a focus on reducing toxic polarization through listening and connecting with people who view the world differently than you do. Through conversation.

The National Week of Conversation is risk-free. It offers seven full days of programming. – a smorgasbord of opportunities that you can sample for free. Most are virtual, allowing you to help address one of our country’s most wicked problems from the comfort of your own home.

From Your Site Articles
  • Patriotism over polarization ›
  • The truth is that our citizens are not polarized ›
  • Attacking polarization with leveraging ›
  • Polarization is more of a cultural problem than a political one ›
  • Bringing it home - The Fulcrum ›
polarization

Join an Upcoming Event

Living Room Conversation: Legalized Marijuana

Unify America
May 30, 2023 at 1:00 pm CDT
Read More

New York Meet & Greet! – STAR Voting

Equal Vote
May 31, 2023 at 2:00 pm EDT
Read More

Democracy Happy Hour

Fix Democracy First
May 31, 2023 at 5:00 pm PDT
Read More

2023 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Meeting

Unify America
Jun 01, 2023 at 10:30 am CDT
Read More

Conversation Collective hosted by

Citizen Discourse
Jun 01, 2023 at 11:00 am CDT
Read More

Can Philanthropy Bridge America’s Divides?

Jun 02, 2023 at 12:00 pm EDT
Read More
View All Events

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Our Staff
18h

Your Take on congressional incivility

Lennon Wesley III
26 May

White House plan to combat antisemitism needs to take on centuries of hatred, discrimination and even lynching in America

Pamela Nadell
26 May

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

David L. Nevins
26 May

Supreme Court math: 3x3=5

Lawrence Goldstone
25 May

Want young people to vote in NY? Open the primaries.

Christina Roggenkamp
25 May
Videos

Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Our Staff

Video: What is the toll of racial violence on Black lives?

Our Staff

Video: What's next for migrants seeking asylum after Title 42

Our Staff

Video: An inside look at the campaign to repeal Pennsylvania’s closed primaries

Our Staff

Video: Where the immigration debate stands today

Our Staff

Video: Bridging divides in the workplace

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?

Our Staff
25 May

Podcast: Can we fix America's financial crises?

Our Staff
23 May

Podcast: Gen Z's fight for democracy

Our Staff
22 May

Podcast: Political Football, Inc.

Our Staff
19 May
Recommended
Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Test Unlisted
Your Take on congressional incivility

Your Take on congressional incivility

Your Take
White House plan to combat antisemitism needs to take on centuries of hatred, discrimination and even lynching in America

White House plan to combat antisemitism needs to take on centuries of hatred, discrimination and even lynching in America

Government
Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

Test Unlisted
Supreme Court math: 3x3=5

Supreme Court math: 3x3=5

Government