What is Tame Problems

This chapter begins by arguing that universities and scholars have come under criticism for failing to address problems identified as relevant by their stakeholders—the general public—and there is a need to reclaim the civic mission of the university. This need arises as a result of our current inability to deal with “wicked problems.” The development of the modern university is then traced, arguing that while originally it was rooted in the “university as ivory tower” and then evolved into the “university as marketplace partner,” neither is adequate to meet contemporary needs. The university that is emerging—the “university as civic partner”—is described and its implications for scholarship explored. A case study is then presented as a means of illustrating the implicit ideas of this form of emerging scholarship and by reflecting on the case and its implication for how we understand scholarship. The challenges we face in transforming scholarship are then identified and discussed.