Amme İdaresi Dergisi

The concept of a wicked problem is an important analytical framework in public administration and public policy for examining complex policy problems that are difficult to define and address and that involve multiple actors, substantial uncertainty, and competing values. Although the concept has long been discussed in the international literature, no systematic study has comprehensively examined its patterns of use, methodological characteristics, and thematic distribution in Turkish public administration literature. This study therefore aims to examine the development and use of the wicked problem concept in Turkish public administration scholarship through a systematic literature review. A total of 29 scholarly works identified through Google Scholar and the Turkish Council of Higher Education National Thesis Center in accordance with predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria were examined in terms of publication type, year, research method and design, policy context, actors, policy instruments, and proposed response strategies. Although no date restriction was applied, all studies included in the analysis were published between 2020 and 2025, and no Turkish-language study published before 2020 was identified. In addition, 16 studies (55%) were coded as conceptual analyses. The findings indicate that Turkish scholarship on wicked problems is predominantly conceptual and qualitative and that the concept has been employed particularly in discussions of public administration and governance, COVID-19, disaster management, migration, and various urban policy problems. Collaboration, coordination, administrative capacity, adaptability, and multi-actor governance emerge as recurring themes. At the same time, the limited number of empirical and comparative studies and the concentration of publications within particular years and publication outlets indicate important methodological and thematic gaps in the literature. By systematically examining the existing body of Turkish scholarship, the study provides an integrated assessment of the current state and future research needs of wicked problem studies in Turkish public administration.