This article aims to discuss sustainability as a wicked problem and propose ways to design in social complex systems
on emergent countries. To address these issues, this paper begins with a brief review of the literature on sustainability
(ONUBR, 2018), wicked problems (Rittel & Webber, 1973) and complexity (Jones, 2013), followed by a brief
presentation of the development of sustainability and complexity in design and new approaches to work on these
scenarios (Ceschin & Gaziulusoy, 2016; Ryan, 2013; Bistagnino, 2017). In the sequence, a case of landless settlements
of Maragogi city -AL- Brazil and its solutions for socio-ethical development will be presented and evaluated
from a perspective of design for wicked problems solutions in complex contexts. It concludes with the presentation
of ways to design solutions for wicked problems in complex social systems, such as Brazilians’, contributing to the
must needed reflection on the flexibility of design in the face of the world diversity.

Author: Priscilla Ramalho Lepre.