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According to Head (2008), wicked problems are not just wicked problems in the sense of complex challenges, but situations that are confusing, unique, diffuse, without clear responsibilities or accountabilities, and difficult to resolve. These problems stand out for their uncertain nature, lack of clear solutions and possible irreversible consequences of attempted interventions. Recognising the pertinence of wicked problems in contemporary public policy discourse, this chapter aims to explore and better understand political decision-makers’ handling of these issues, in a tourism-specific context. The discourse on wicked problems, in accordance with 10 characteristics outlined by Rittel and Webber (1973), remains relevant when examining policy responses to mega trends, such as indigenous disparities, sustainability, digital transformation and demographic change. Against this backdrop and positioned within current academic discourse, this introductory chapter briefly foreshadows the volume’s various contributions by academics from around the world who present a wide range of wicked problems in tourism from their respective perspectives and contexts.

There are profound challenges inherent in understanding and addressing complex and contested issues. Divergent perspectives abound, at local, national and global levels. This is not surprising, given the different interests, experiences and resources of key stakeholders. When they cannot agree about the nature of the problem and their conflicting perspectives are shaped by divergent values and priorities, the situation can be described as a ‘wicked problem’. It is wicked in the sense of unruly, unmanageable, and resistant to consensual problem-solving. A low level of agreement about the key features of the problem, and disagreement about the values which should guide solutions, make the task of developing shared goals and strategies impossibly difficult. Governments can respond to such difficult problems in a variety of ways. Common approaches are to deny responsibility for the issue; attribute blame to other actors; or deflect attention to other issues. Other common approaches are to facilitate incremental adjustments to current policy settings, while deferring to ‘business-as-usual’ continuity and stability to impose an ideologically driven solution that will reflect the influence of dominant interests; or determine that a knowledge-rich solution pathway is needed, to explore robust long-term shifts in policy approaches. This can entail technocratic investment in science and technology to generate rational evidence-based solutions and ‘depoliticise’ conflicts; or investment in collaborative dialogue with multiple stakeholders to generate short- and long-term social objectives and to develop adaptive management strategies for implementing agreed policy directions. There is no single best solution, and various tensions and paradoxes are likely to persist.

The purpose of this paper is to ask how the public sector manages complex issues, and suggests that new strategic thinking is needed about ways forward.

The paper outlines recent conceptual and empirical research demonstrating the challenges for government posed by complex problems, and the difficulties of addressing them successfully.

The paper suggests that most governmental systems are preoccupied with a host of issues which impede the consideration of long‐term goals and methods.

More research is needed on the capacities of governments to identify and respond to complex problems while maintaining performance in other areas.

Implications arise for leadership, building policy capacity, building coordination capacity, and better use of partnering to improve implementation capacity.

The paper encourages new thinking about the capacities required for strategic direction setting and coordination to tackle complex problems.

It is widely agreed that transformation processes that are triggered by crisis events can challenge conventional behavioural norms and stimulate new ideas and innovations that can assist in the preparations for future challenges. This impetus for transformation processes not only applies to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has also been seen in many other instances, such as the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 or the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, which have sparked significant socio-political change processes often with a global reach. The multitude of wicked tourism policy problems discussed in our book often occur in parallel, are of growing complexities, are often not well understood and indistinguishable from one another and exert pressure on the resilience of vulnerable political, economic and community-based systems. These circumstances often present as tipping points which can trigger necessary long-term transformations. However, this process of long-term change must be well planned and strategically implemented. Thus, future transformative destination management should be built on a holistic approach, underpinned by adaptive political leadership in which tourism is not only seen as a driver for economic growth and employment, but as a strategy which successfully integrates social, cultural and ecological goals.

Thanks to a background of federal structures with varied jurisdictions, responsibilities and competencies, and a wide range of stakeholders active in tourism policy and the tourism industry, a high degree of complexity characterises tourism structures in Germany. These structures often present a great challenge in the sense of Head’s (2022) wicked problems, as policy success depends on identifying the relevant political level, the relevant tourism policy decision-makers and the relevant political institutions with whom to communicate and interact. One option for realising interests is tourism lobbying. In this context, the tourism lobbying model according to Pillmayer and Scherle (2014) serves as a starting point to visualise and ultimately implement the procedure.

Surveys the use of mathematics in what are now commonly called the social sciences up to the time of the earliest use of the term “social science” in the late 1700s. Explains the rationale for the organization and structure of the paper and proceeds to reason for the broad definition of mathematics as it relates to the social sciences. The introduction also describes the periodization used. The next section contains a brief description of the state of what were to become the social sciences in the late 1700s. This is followed by a brief description of the state of mathematics at that time. Then follow sections demonstrating that mathematics was used by important developers of social thought from the earliest times right up to the dawn of the modern social sciences. Concludes with a discussion of some of the lessons to be learned from history. The most important lesson that history teaches us about the role of mathematics in the modern social sciences at the dawn of their existence is that the social sciences require the use of mathematics and could not exist without them.

Presents a special issue, enlisting the help of the author’s students and colleagues, focusing on age, sex, colour and disability discrimination in America. Breaks the evidence down into manageable chunks, covering: age discrimination in the workplace; discrimination against African‐Americans; sex discrimination in the workplace; same sex sexual harassment; how to investigate and prove disability discrimination; sexual harassment in the military; when the main US job‐discrimination law applies to small companies; how to investigate and prove racial discrimination; developments concerning race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; developments concerning discrimination against workers with HIV or AIDS; developments concerning discrimination based on refusal of family care leave; developments concerning discrimination against gay or lesbian employees; developments concerning discrimination based on colour; how to investigate and prove discrimination concerning based on colour; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; using statistics in employment discrimination cases; race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning gender discrimination in the workplace; discrimination in Japanese organizations in America; discrimination in the entertainment industry; discrimination in the utility industry; understanding and effectively managing national origin discrimination; how to investigate and prove hiring discrimination based on colour; and, finally, how to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the life of the musician Brian Wilson from five different perspectives.

The authors used a mixed method of collaborative autoethnography, psychobiography and digital team ethnography to try and better understand the life and contributions of Brian Wilson.

Each of the five contributors provides different insights into the life and music of Brian Wilson.

While the focus of this paper is on a single individual, a case study, the long and distinguished life of Brian Wilson provides much material for discussion and theorising.

Each individual presenting to mental health services has a complex biography. The five different contributions articulated in this paper could perhaps be taken as similar to the range of professional opinions seen in mental health teams, with each focusing on unique but overlapping aspects of the person’s story.

This account shows the importance of taking a biological-psychological-social-spiritual and cultural perspective on mental illness.

This multi-layered analysis brings a range of perspectives to bear on the life and achievements of Brian Wilson, from developmental, musical, psychological and lived experience standpoints.