Outline

Overview

Students have encountered the study of public policy and administration in theory as well as practice. This unit builds on, and challenges, their understanding by looking at wicked problems: those that are multi-dimensional, multi-scalar, and inter-disciplinary. It encourages them to engage deeply with the challenges of contemporary policy-making. Because the topics are 'wicked', the approach to them will be flipped so that rather than going from the general to the specific, the reverse will be the case. Students will be challenged to take what appears to be a simple problem, but as it is a sub-set of a broader and more complex set of issues, to go from a narrow to broad conception of it.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Government and International Relations
Credit points	6
Prerequisites ?	24 credit points at 3000-level in Politics and International Relations stream, including GOVT3601 and a minimum of 126 credit points
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	James Der Derian, james.derderian@sydney.edu.au

Assessment

The census date for this unit availability is 31 August 2026

Details
Criteria

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length	Use of AI
In-person written or creative task	Film Review Submit and present in tutorial a review of an assigned film that includes a short synopsis and relevance to current wicked problem	20%	Multiple weeks	750 words	AI limited - refer to Canvas
Outcomes assessed:
In-person written or creative task	Book Review Submit and present in tutorial a review of an assigned book/essay that includes a short synopsis and relevance to current wicked problem	20%	Multiple weeks	750 words	AI limited - refer to Canvas
Outcomes assessed:
Creative work	Short Video/Manifesto/or Policy Paper Choice of producing a: (i) short video; (ii) manifesto; or (iii) policy paper on one of the assigned wicked problems	50%	Week 13 Due date: 05 Nov 2026 at 23:59	5-10 min; 2K-3K words; or 3K words	AI allowed
Outcomes assessed:
Conversation	Tutorial participation Active participation in tutorials	10%	Weekly	500-word equivalent	AI allowed
Outcomes assessed:

Assessment summary

Detailed information for each assessment can be found on Canvas.

Assessment criteria

Result name	Mark range	Description
High distinction	85 - 100	听
Distinction	75 - 84	听
Credit	65 - 74	听
Pass	50 - 64	听
Fail	0 - 49	When you don鈥檛 meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see guide to grades.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI)

You can use generative AI tools for open assessments. Restrictions on AI use apply to secure, supervised assessments used to confirm if students have met specific learning outcomes.

Refer to the assessment table above to see if AI is allowed, for assessments in this unit and check Canvas for full instructions on assessment tasks and AI use.

If you use AI, you must always acknowledge it. Misusing AI may lead to a breach of the听Academic Integrity Policy.

Visit the听Current Students website听for more information on AI in assessments, including听details on how to acknowledge its use.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The University expects students to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

Our website听provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. This includes advice on how to avoid common breaches of academic integrity. Ensure that you have completed the听Academic Honesty Education Module (AHEM)听which is mandatory for all commencing coursework students

Penalties for serious breaches can significantly impact your studies and your career after graduation. It is important that you speak with your unit coordinator if you need help with completing assessments.

Visit the听Current Students website听for more information on AI in assessments, including听details on how to acknowledge its use.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a听simple extension.鈥� The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can鈥檛 complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for听special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students,听听includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Support for students

The Support for Students Policy听reflects the University鈥檚 commitment to supporting students in their academic journey and making the University safe for students. It is important that you read and understand this policy so that you are familiar with the range of support services available to you and understand how to engage with them.

The University uses email as its primary source of communication with students who need support under the Support for Students Policy. Make sure you check your University email regularly and respond to any communications received from the University.

Learning resources and detailed information about weekly assessment and learning activities can be accessed via Canvas. It is essential that you visit your unit of study Canvas site to ensure you are up to date with all of your tasks.

If you are having difficulties completing your studies, or are feeling unsure about your progress, we are here to help. You can access the support services offered by the University at any time:

Support and Services (including health and wellbeing services, financial support and learning support)
Course planning and administration
Meet with an Academic Adviser

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	Week 1: Wicked Problems	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 01	Week 1 Questions: 1. What makes a problem wicked? 2. Wicked problems are often described as resistant to solution. Is the language of "solving" part of the difficulty, imposing an expectation of closure on issues which are contested? What alternative vocabulary and approaches might better describe the practice of governing wickedness?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 02	Week 2: Technology	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 02	Week 2 Questions: 1. Assess the precautionary principle against permissionless innovation as competing approaches to technology governance. Which is better suited to wicked technological risk, and why? 2.Begin with a single device you use daily, a smartphone, and trace the supply chains, labor relations, environmental costs, and geopolitical dynamics embedded within it. At what scale would technology policy need to operate to govern this object meaningfully?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 03	Week 3: Alienation	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 03	Week 3 Questions: 1. From a labour and social policy perspective, what mechanisms, welfare, retraining, universal basic income, have governments used to address alienation arising from automation and precarious work? Evaluate their effectiveness. 2. Drawing on Marx and more recent theorists of alienation under digital capitalism, is alienation a problem policy is able to solve, or is it constitutive of the social and economic order policy sustains? What would de-alienating policy look like, and	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 04	Week 4: Uncertainty	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 04	Week 4 Questions: 1. Take a single "known" policy fact and interrogate its production. What assumptions, exclusions, and disciplinary conventions produced the appearance of certainty, and what is rendered invisible in the process? 2. Some scholars argue uncertainty is not a deficiency to be reduced through better information but a permanent condition of complex systems. Does the appearance of manageable uncertainty in policy function ideologically, and in whose interest?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 05	Week 5: Infowar	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 05	Week 5 Questions: 1.What is the appropriate division of responsibility between government regulation, platform self-governance, and civil society in countering infowar tactics? 2.Start with a single viral piece of disinformation and trace its circulation across platforms, algorithms, geopolitical actors, and audiences. At what point does it become impossible to separate information warfare from the ordinary condition of networked media?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 06	Week 6: Infopeace	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 06	Week 6 Questions: 1. Can international institutions play a role in establishing norms for peaceful information exchange, comparable to arms control regimes? What would such a policy framework look like? 2. If infowar describes an entrenched condition of networked conflict, is infopeace a coherent policy goal? Begin with one attempt to build digital trust, a fact-checking initiative, and trace whether it escapes or reproduces the logics of infowar.	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 07	Week 7: Policy	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 07	Week 7 Questions: 1.Begin with a single policy document and trace its discursive assumptions: whose knowledge counts as evidence, whose voice is absent, what problem definition is naturalised. How does the document construct the wickedness or tameness of its subject? 2. Is "policy" an adequate concept for governing wicked problems, or does the idea of policy, as a bounded, rational, state-centric instrument, presuppose tamer conditions? What would governance beyond policy look like?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 08	Week 8: Nuclear	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 08	Week 8 Questions: 1. How does the unthinkability of nuclear war shape and distort policy discourse about it? 2. Drawing on critical security studies, does deterrence theory rest on a rational-actor fiction which obscures the affective, symbolic, and apocalyptic dimensions of nuclear policy? What is at stake in treating the nuclear as a rational policy object?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 09	Week 9: AI	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 09	Week 9 Questions: 1. What are some of the major national security threats that AI poses? What are some major human security threats? 2. What policies can be developed to tackle these? Are there any contradictions and tensions between the national and human security elements here?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 10	Week 10: Quantum	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 10	Week 10 Questions: 1. How should states approach the strategic competition dimension of quantum technology, research funding, export controls, talent policy, given its dual-use nature? 2. Quantum technology remains speculative in many of its security applications. Does policy discourse around quantum threat outpace the technology itself, and if so, whose interests are served by generating urgency around a still-emergent capability?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 11	Week 11: Zombies	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 11	Week 11 Questions: 1. What social anxieties does the Zombie metaphor represent, and how does this manifest in contemporary security discourse? 2. Does the zombie apocalypse genre function as a rehearsal space for authoritarian or exceptional governance measures, martial law, suspension of rights, harder to justify in ordinary policy discourse? What is normalised through the play of the scenario?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 12	Week 12: Aliens	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 12	Week 12 Questions: 1. Governments have historically responded to UFO and UAP phenomena with a mix of secrecy, dismissal, and recent disclosure, including US Pentagon UAP reports. What does this pattern suggest about how democratic institutions manage genuinely unprecedented uncertainty? 2. Is "first contact" policy ultimately a projection of existing geopolitical rivalries and colonial encounter narratives onto an imagined Other?	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 13	Week 13: Get (Wicked) Smart	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 13	Week 13 Questions: 1. "Wicked smart" policymaking is often associated with practices such as systems mapping, scenario planning, and cross-sector collaboration platforms. Take one such practice and assess it against a case from the unit. Does the practice produce better policy outcomes, or does it repackage familiar administrative tools under a new label? 2. What would policymaking look like if it accepted the wickedness of its problems rather than managing it away?	Tutorial (1 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner鈥檚 Board. The Examiner鈥檚 Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.
Lecture recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.
Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours鈥� preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Most of the readings and films for this unit can be accessed through the Library and are available on Canvas or through open access. Students might also prefer to purchase the book that they choose to review.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. Introduce the key theoretical debates about the causes and consequences of wicked problems in public policy.
LO2. Develop an understanding of the theory and practice of governing wicked problems in the context of a wide range of other social, political, economic, cultural, environmental, technological, justice, security, and geopolitical issues.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all 爆料王 graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one鈥檚 personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This is the first time this unit has been offered.

Disclaimer

Important: the 爆料王 regularly reviews units of study and reserves the right to change the units of study available annually. To stay up to date on available study options, including unit of study details and availability, refer to the relevant handbook.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an .

爆料王

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI)

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Support for students

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

爆料王

GOVT4603: Wicked Problems and Policy Innovation

Semester 2, 2026 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI)

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Support for students

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links