DANIEL RAMÍREZ CORZO / VALERIA JYA SÚ GAMA RÍOS
In 1973, the term "wicked problems" (WP) was coined by design theorist Horst Rittel and urban designer Melvin Webber to designate complex problems that are hard to distinguish and impossible to solve. The concept of WP resonates strongly fifty years. Project "Contagious Tactics for Wicked Urban Problems (WUP) undertakes the local manifestations of complex global problems, but without attempting to find «solutions». Framed in the context of the Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS), this process-based action research project was designed to produce, examine, and test multi-site methodologies that can help bridge the gap between urban research and practice, as well as set the road for future spatial research methods and urban sustainability research. Three teams from Kolkata (India), Xalapa (Mexico), and Lima (Peru) participated in a short yet intense workshop series from November 2023 to July 2024. The project was divided into several phases: a co-design workshop (5-9 Nov 2023 in Xalapa), the action-research in the three cities (Kolkata, Lima, and Xalapa), a production workshop (16-23 March 2024 in Kolkata), followed by a writing/production phase, and finally an exhibition, this book, and a video re lease at the SMUS global conference in Bangkok, Thailand (26-28 July 2024).
