ABSTRACT
Strategies for dealing with messes are fine as long as most of us share an overriding social theory or overriding social ethic. If we don’t, we face wicked problems.
Our point is that diverse values are held by different groups of individuals, that what satisfies one may be abhorrent to another, that what comprises problem-solution for one is problem generation for another. Under such circumstances, and in the absence of an overriding social theory or an overriding social ethic, there is no determining which group is right and which should have its ends served.1
