Abstract

The failure to address the world’s most pressing problems comes at a huge cost in terms of the catastrophic harm and destruction caused to humans and the natural environment. Although there are numerous pressing problems to deal with across society, the ‘grand problem’, or overarching ‘meta-problem’, is society’s inability to find more effective approaches to bring about the change required to materially reduce suffering, harm and destruction. This paper critically theorises social problems and social change as well as providing a critique of the current failing approaches deployed to realise change. The paper concludes by describing a critically informed approach to progressive social science knowledge making.