Disadvantage: a wicked problem
Our most vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians experience life in a vastly different way than the least disadvantaged. Right across the life course, starting from life in the womb, disadvantage exists.
Social disadvantage has its roots in a complex interplay of factors largely underpinned by personal capacities, family circumstances, access to support mechanisms, community cohesion, life events, all surrounded by the broader social and economic context. What we know about disadvantage is:
Trickle-down economics does not have a positive effect on stubborn and persistent social disadvantage. Australia has experienced decades of strong economic growth but it seems some in the community are being left behind.
Groups most likely to experience disadvantage are lone parents, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with long-term health conditions or disabilities, and people with low educational attainment.
A child’s earliest years fundamentally shape their life chances and opportunities. Gaps between the most disadvantaged and least disadvantaged surface in the first years of life and have a snowball effect on a child's life.
Social issues are inter-connected. Education is a foundation capability - it improves employability, earning capacity and social mobility. Employment is the route out of disadvantage for most people. Health and housing are requisites for undertaking education and steady employment.
Disadvantage imposes costs on people and families who experience it as well as the broader community and government.
We know that disadvantage is bad for individual wellbeing, bad for community social outcomes and bad for the economic bottom line. However, providing social opportunities and eliminating disadvantage have all the characteristics of a 'wicked problem':
“Wicked problems are difficult to clearly define. Wicked problems have many interdependencies and are often multi-causal. Attempts to address wicked problems often lead to unforeseen consequences. Wicked problems are often not stable. Wicked problems are socially complex. Wicked problems hardly ever sit conveniently within the responsibility of any one organisation. Wicked problems involve changing behaviour. Some wicked problems are characterised by chronic policy failure.”
Reproduced from ‘Tackling wicked problems: A public policy perspective’ published by Australian Public Service Commission, 2012
Social opportunity is the contrast of disadvantage - the opportunity to thrive in and contribute to society. Social opportunity is based on five things; good health, good education, safe housing, secure employment, and a sense of inclusion in one's community.
In future blog posts, we will look at the global social innovation movement as a means of disrupting some of the barriers that prevent us from solving this 'wicked problem'.
Because as one William Jefferson Clinton once said:
“It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics – because discrimination, poverty and ignorance restrict growth, while investments in education, infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase it, creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us.”
Our most vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians experience life in a vastly different way to the least disadvantaged. Right across the life course, starting from life in the womb, disadvantage exists.
Social disadvantage has its roots in a complex interplay of factors largely underpinned by personal capacities, family circumstances, access to support mechanisms, community cohesion, life events, all surrounded by the broader social and economic context. What we know about disadvantage is:
Trickle-down economics does not have a positive effect on stubborn and persistent social disadvantage. Australia has experienced decades of strong economic growth but it seems some in the community are being left behind.
Groups most likely to experience disadvantage are lone parents, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with long-term health conditions or disabilities, and people with low educational attainment.
A child’s earliest years fundamentally shape their life chances and opportunities. Gaps between the most disadvantaged and least disadvantaged surface in the first years of life and have a snowball effect on a child's life.
Social issues are inter-connected. Education is a foundation capability - it improves employability, earning capacity and social mobility. Employment is the route out of disadvantage for most people. Health and housing are requisites for undertaking education and steady employment.
Disadvantage imposes costs on people and families who experience it as well as the broader community and government.
We know that disadvantage is bad for individual wellbeing, bad for community social outcomes and bad for the economic bottom line. However, providing social opportunities and eliminating disadvantage have all the characteristics of a 'wicked problem':
Wicked problems are difficult to clearly define. Wicked problems have many interdependencies and are often multi-causal. Attempts to address wicked problems often lead to unforeseen consequences. Wicked problems are often not stable. Wicked problems are socially complex. Wicked problems hardly ever sit conveniently within the responsibility of any one organisation. Wicked problems involve changing behaviour. Some wicked problems are characterised by chronic policy failure.
Reproduced from ‘Tackling wicked problems: A public policy perspective’ published by Australian Public Service Commission, 2012
Social opportunity is the contrast of disadvantage - the opportunity to thrive in and contribute to society. Social opportunity is based on five things; good health, good education, safe housing, secure employment, and a sense of inclusion in one's community.
In future blog posts, we will look at the global social innovation movement as a means of disrupting some of the barriers that prevent us from solving this 'wicked problem'.
Because as one William Jefferson Clinton once said:
“It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics – because discrimination, poverty and ignorance restrict growth, while investments in education, infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase it, creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us.”
