3. A snapshot of everything: Tools for systems mapping
In 2015, Boho was engaged by Swedish NGO Miljoverkstan to create a model of the Flaten nature reserve south of Stockholm.
Flaten lake was a popular destination back in the early 20th century — this is where a lot of Swedish kids learned to swim — but it has fallen out of use since the 60s.
The forest is one of the nature corridors for wildlife in the region. It contains stunning untouched woodland, including thousand-year oak trees (home to a type of stag beetle not found anywhere else in the world).
In recent decades, Flaten has been home to Romany encampments, squatters living in the woods in the summer months, and occasional illegal raves in the forest.
There was interest in developing the reserve again — but there were concerns about doing it in a thoughtful way that acknowledged the many claims on the area. How do you avoid turning it into a preserve for middle class hikers and joggers?
Miljoverkstan wanted to create a model which could gather people from different backgrounds around the table to have a conversation about the future of the reserve.
That conversation became much more challenging and intense as the project unfolded.
Following the Syrian Civil War, Sweden accepted a large intake of Syrian refugees. There was simply not enough housing for all these people, and you can’t have people sleeping on the streets in sub-zero Scandinavian temperatures.
Suddenly the question of housing became much more pointed. What’s the value of a thousand year oak tree and a unique species of beetle when people have nowhere to sleep? How do you possibly compare these values?
Flaten was an interesting test case for these discussions, and we set out to model the reserve.
Mapping the System
To model a system, you first need to map it. Boho’s approach to systems mapping is based on Brian Walker’s practice of ‘resilience assessments’.
Brian is an ecologist and former head of the Resilience Alliance. He has spent decades mapping social-ecological systems like wetlands, river systems and farming regions. His trio of books Resilience Thinking, Resilience Practice and Finding Resilience became Boho’s bibles as we started adapting his approach for our own purposes.
The first thing Brian notes is that this is an iterative process. You don’t map a system in order to create a beautiful snapshot that lives in a scrapbook forever. The value of the practice comes from the act of mapping, and the process of re-mapping again and again. Avoid getting caught up in worrying about mapping it perfectly first time. Do, then redo, then redo.
When Boho map a system, we start with sheets of scrap paper and coloured pens, and we create a heading on each page. Then we set out to answer the following questions:
1. SCALE
How big is the system you’re mapping? Where are its borders? Often this involves drawing a rough map.
Every system is embedded in larger systems, so what’s the next scale up? If it’s a nature reserve, what region is it part of? Map the system in this larger context too.
2. USERS
Who are the users of the system? We generate a quick list. For Flaten, it might be: dogwalkers, ice skaters, long term campers, beavers, migrating birds, people living in the nearby suburb…
Are there secondary users? These are users who might not exist within the boundaries of the system we’ve defined, but who feed into it or who rely on things that come out of it?
Are there non-human users — animals, plants, organisations, political entities, NGOs, companies…?
What are the rules that these groups operate by? Are they stated or unstated? These might be legal rules, they might be unspoken social traditions.
3. VALUES & ISSUES
On one sheet of paper, we write down anything that users value in the sytem. What do they get from it? These are the things that you’d often like to preserve. For a nature reserve like Flaten, it might be: clean water, habitat, isolation, money, good soil, tourism…
On another sheet, we write down issues — what are people worried about in the system? With Flaten, these might be: fertiliser runoff, crime, gentrification, a lack of visitors…
One quick way is to simply skim through the list of users and try to answer for each one their key values and issues within the system.
Alongside these sheets we’ll make another sheet of trade-offs — this is where we mark cases where values conflict, where the more you get of one thing, the less you can have of another. (There was a definite trade-off between ‘isolation’ and ‘tourism’ in Flaten, for example.)
4. SHOCKS
This is the fun one. On three sheets of paper, we write characteristic, large infrequent and unknown.
Characteristic shocks are things that happen regularly, that the system can easily handle. A tree falling down is a characteristic disturbance for a forest — other vegetation grows around it, and the system continues to function.
Large infrequent shocks are bigger, more unusual impacts that have the potential to really knock the system around. For our forest system, larger shocks include algal blooms in the lake, or a decision to expand tourist facilities.
Unknown shocks are things that almost never happen, but which utterly change the system. A major fire which cleared the forest, or a government decision to turn Flaten into a National Park, would both completely transform the nature reserve.
5. TIMELINES
Finally, we lay out several sheets of paper and mark different timescales on them. For a nature reserve, we chose the timescale of a single day, the timescale of a year, and the timescale of the nature reserve since the end of the last ice age.
Then we enter key events on each timeline — dawn is a key event in the daily timescale, the arrival of birds in the spring is a key event in the annual timescale, and the building of the Flatenbadet swimming beach was a key event in the longer term history of the system.
While we’re filling these in, we move rapidly between sheets. If something in the Values page reminds us to add something to the Users page, we jump between them. In full flow, this process has all five of us simultaneously writing on different sheets, moving between them and scribbling diagrams, lists and pictures until the room is covered in paper.
Of course, we don’t always have all the information we need in front of us to answer these questions. Some modelling happens with an expert consultant in the room — a researcher, or someone very familiar with the system. Often it involves jumping between writing and gathering information from books, reports or online.
We typically undertake this process multiple times with different stakeholders from the system — for Flaten, we interviewed locals, government authorities, historians, scientists and conservationists. Each have different perspectives on the system, and each help to fill in the bigger picture.
Where possible, systems mapping should also involve immersion in the system itself. Our mapping of Flaten also entailed numerous walks through the forest.
The end result of all this work is a huge mess of papers — scribbled diagrams, lists, pieces of paper pinned to the walls with more pinned on them. This is the systems map.
Once we’ve created a systems map, we then start to develop a model.
We might illustrate the connections between different parts of the system using a box and stick diagram. We might create a thresholds model which shows how shocks propagate throughout the system. These models are what we then share with the audience.
Mapping as an outcome
But sometimes the systems mapping is the project. On a few occasions I’ve run workshops with participants to help them map their own system. At a high school in Barking-Dagenham in east London, I worked with Year 9 and 10 students to capture a snapshot of their school. This was a useful way for them to reimagine their school from a variety of perspectives, and to open up new conversations with teachers.
In a systems mapping workshop as part of the Karnabal Festival in Manila, Tassos Stevens simplified the process even further. He invited participants to create two lists for their system: one list of all the nouns — the people, objects and forces in the system — and another list of all the verbs — how these different components connect. This was a quick but surprisingly powerful way of capturing a sense of how a system works.
The task of mapping is often enough in itself to help people see their institutions, environments and cultures in a new way. Simply asking these questions and documenting the answers can be enough to unlock insights and help make connections.
1. We live in systems: Becoming aware of what surrounds us
The disasters were designed by us — cuckoo clocks vs ants nests — the humility of systems thinking — seeing deep patterns — my practice as a writer, theatre artist and game designer, tools & techniques for thinking about the world
2. How to make a model: The art of systems modelling
What is a model? — maps on napkins vs satellite images — as simple as possible but no simpler — Best Festival Ever: modelling a disaster
3. A snapshot of everything: Tools for systems mapping
Mapping a Swedish forest — thousand year old oak trees — resilience assessments — a walk through the woods — Democratic Nature —
4. The future doesn’t exist: Scenarios and prediction
Why bother trying to predict the future? — the practice of creating scenarios — there are four possible futures — CrimeForce: LoveTeam
5. Narrative in systems: How to tell stories about complexity
Are theatre shows systems models? — underdog narratives & police procedurals — perspectives on an Indonesian rainforest in 95 Years or Less
6. Creating an experience: What design and dramaturgy teach us about worldbuilding
Theatre as rehearsal for revolution — dramaturgy & design thinking — tactility in Get The Kids and Run — collective experiences in Gobyerno
7. Don’t play games, make games: Interactivity in complex systems
Games are systems — game theory in Temperature Check — calculating risk in Busy Mayors — skilltesters vs decision-makers in Run A Bank
8. Lessons learned
Final thoughts — steering 9 billion people through a century of climate and global change — working with time instead of against it -
