Article Journal of Business and Technical Communication 2017, Vol. 31(3) 290-318 When Is a Solution ª The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Not a Solution? DOI: 10.1177/1050651917695538 Wicked Problems, journals.sagepub.com/home/jbt Hybrid Solutions, and the Rhetoric of Civic Entrepreneurship Jeffrey M. Gerding1 and Kyle P. Vealey2 Abstract This article examines the ongoing development of +POOL, a recreational pool, filtration system, and floating laboratory, to better understand the rhetorical work involved in civic entrepreneurship. The authors consider how the overall development of +POOL as an entrepreneurial venture might help expand the inventive possibilities for civic entrepreneurs coming to grips with wicked problems today. The study offers a look into the rhetorical work of civic entrepreneurship by examining the way +POOL develops a hybrid solution, which recognizes and foregrounds the notion that wicked problems, such as the pollution of the East River, can never be fully understood or known at any one moment. Hybrid solutions, then, offer stable outcomes for civic entrepreneurial ventures that are dynamic enough 1Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA 2West Chester University, West Chester, PA, USA Corresponding Author: Kyle P. Vealey, West Chester University, 720 S. High Street, West Chester, PA 19383, USA. E-mail:
[email protected] Gerding and Vealey 291 to continually adapt to the shifting and evolving contours of a wicked problem. Keywords civic entrepreneurship, wicked problems, rhetoric, technical communication The studying of New York’s 6th borough—the rivers—is half the journey to swimming in it. ( POOL, n.d.b) þ For 6 months in 2014, Float Lab—a small platform installed in New York City’s Hudson River—collected water quality readings and posted them online in real time.