1(c) Revealing
system structures
Figure 1. Changemakers need to make invisible systems visible - diagrams can help (Pushandplay, CC BY 2.0)
Communities as complex systems (systems of systems)
The second underwater layer of the Iceberg Model is the structure of a system.
A system is a set of:
interconnected parts that
work together to
make a more complex whole to
achieve a purpose.
In biology, you may have learned about your digestive system. Think about the parts of the digestive system in your body. How do they work together to make a more complex whole? What is the purpose? In social studies, you may have encountered political systems. You are very likely learning in a school system. Systems are everywhere!
Systems are both natural and human-made. All systems are interconnected. For example, your body has cells, which are a system. Cells work together to form body systems, such as the digestive system and nervous system. These individual systems work together as the entire body system. Our bodies are affected by the human-made systems that we engage in: schools, local communities, cities, politics, economy, etc. Finally, all of those social systems are interconnected with and dependent on environmental systems. Social systems are also heavily influenced by belief and value systems.
If you want to understand a situation, problem or a group of people, you need to understand the systems in which they act. These systems are usually invisible, so you need to talk to people, ask the right questions and observe to find out how systems work. The tools at the end of this section can be used to find out the information you need to visualise the systems that affect people’s behaviour.
Elements of a system
Inputs and Outputs
Inputs flow into a system from outside its boundary. Inputs can take many different forms. In physical and biological systems, these can be in the form of matter and energy. In social systems, we can also see inputs of ideas and information, people, and money, among others.
Outputs flow out of a system from inside its boundary. Outputs can also take many different forms depending on the system involved. Matter, heat, waste, ideas, information, people, money and much more can all flow out of a system.
Stocks and Flows
Stocks are elements in a system that you can see, feel, count or measure. Flows can cause stocks to increase or decrease.
A bathtub analogy can help you understand stocks and flows in a system. In Figure 2 below, the water flows into the bathtub. As it does, the stock of water increases. However, the diagram also shows water flowing out of the bathtub. This will decrease the stock of water.
Causal loops and feedback
Another way of representing systems is through causal loop diagrams. These show the cause-effect relationships between a number of variables in a system. If we use the bathtub visual above as an example, causal loops would act inside the bathtub.
Feedback is the return of information in a system from output to input, or between two or more systems in their relationships. Systems are never linear, so all outputs have further impacts or consequences. The output of a system will always go on to affect other systems, or even affect itself through changes in its own inputs. There are two types of feedback: positive (reinforcing) feedback and negative (balancing) feedback.
Positive (reinforcing) feedback causes changes to occur in the same direction or trend. It can increase another variable, or further increase a system's inputs, making change to a system accelerate in the same direction. As an example, when a region warms up, more people use air conditioners. The CO2 released into the atmosphere when more people use air conditioners increases the greenhouse effect, warming the climate further. Positive feedback is represented with a "+" or "R" symbol on feedback loop diagrams diagrams.
Negative (balancing) feedback causes changes that reverse or balance an effect. It can decrease another variable, or further decrease a system's inputs, making change to a system reverse, or decelerate. For example, when you catch a virus, your body will increase its temperature to fight the virus. As a result, you may sweat and through the evaporation and release of heat, your body cools again. Negative feedback is represented with a "-" or "B" symbol on diagrams.
Figure 3 shows a simple causal loop diagram, with the relationship between births and population through positive (reinforcing) feedback and competition for resources and population through negative (balancing) feedback.
Figure 3. Causal loop diagram for births, deaths and population (CC0)
An increase in population will increase births, which will further increase population. This is positive, or reinforcing, feedback.
An increase in population will increase competition for resources, which will decrease population. This is negative, or balancing, feedback.
Practice Activity 1
Examine the causal loop diagram for Paris’s traffic congestion situation in Figure 4 below - don’t be intimidated by how large it is! The author made it in response to reading a news article about Paris’s traffic problem and some proposals to reduce that problem. If you want to look at a slightly larger version, you can click on the article link in the caption.
Figure 4. A systems map of urban transport issues in Paris (Source: Systems Mapping: How Paris meets Climate Change by Gian Wieck, Systemic Design Group)
2. Select two of the feedback loops, either reinforcing (R) or balancing (B) or one of each. Alone or with a partner, explain in words what the relationship is between the elements in the loop. In your explanation, make sure to get the direction of feedback correct.
3. Do you agree with the way the author diagrammed the relationships you selected? Why or why not?
Practice Activity 2
A school is a complex system. It is a system of systems. Use a systems diagram to illustrate some aspect of this system using either a causal loop diagram, or a stock and flow diagram. Tip: if you do a causal loop diagram, it does not need to be perfectly circular with two elements as shown in Figure 3. For now, simply identify elements and show the positive (reinforcing) relationship or negative (balancing) relationship between the elements with + or - signs.
If you are feeling ambitious and want to learn a new digital tool, you can try out Kumu.
How do you find out about systems?
As was mentioned earlier, systems are sometimes hard to see. Your task as a changemaker is to make invisible systems visible, so that you and others can take appropriate action to change them where necessary. Just like in Module 1(b), doing primary and secondary research is critical.
Engaging with the stakeholders in the community to find out about their experience with systems is very important and there are a number of ways of doing this. These methods are called research instruments and include: interviews, surveys, observations and focus groups conducted by you as well as camera / collage / drawing studies and narrations done by the stakeholders. The Tools section below has instructions for these various research instruments, including some question prompts to stimulate your thinking about what to ask about systems. As was mentioned in the Stage 1 Investigating overview, it can be helpful to use multiple research instruments because this can improve your ability to triangulate your findings and come to more valid conclusions.
You may also be able to find information about the systems involved in your project through secondary research. University or government research papers, news and journal articles are all good places to find information about the systems that may be affecting the situation you are investigating. Again, try to find varied types of sources to improve triangulation and use a recording strategy such as Cornell notes or an annotated bibliography. Instructions for these are again included in the Tools section below.
When you think you have some information about the relevant systems, you may want to diagram your ideas and show them to the stakeholders involved, to see whether the systems diagrams make sense to them. They may be able to give you some valuable feedback on where you could improve your understanding of how things work in their experience.
Project Activity
Identify one or more systems that are related to your Youth Mayors project. What research instruments can you use and which stakeholders can you engage with to find out how those systems work?
Reducing plastic in the household
Interviews with family members about household systems related to plastic packaging including:
- how it enters the household (input)
- how it is processed inside the household (systems / stocks)
- how it leaves the household (output)
- positive (reinforcing) and negative (balancing) feedback loops related to plastic packaging in the household
Observations of the information above
Camera study, where family members take pictures of the relevant inputs, processes, outputs and feedback loops
Secondary research:
Information from local government waste management division, explaining how plastic waste is collected, transported and processed
News articles about global transfers of plastic waste (from high-income to low-income countries), China’s end to imports of plastic waste
Mitigating CO2 emissions in the school
Interviews (with drawing study and narration) with school administration about systems related to electricity and heating including:
- how electricity / heating oil enters the school energy systems (inputs)
- how electricity / heating oil is put to use in the school (systems / stocks)
- what outputs exist from this system (including heat loss from the buildings walls and roof)
- positive (reinforcing) and negative (balancing) feedback loops related to electricity and heating oil use in the school
Interviews with regular car drivers to school with questions on transportation systems
Observations of the information above
Secondary research:
Information from websites and energy and transportation agencies about alternative energy inputs, and non-car transportation systems
News articles about changes to transportation systems (such as large increase in bike lanes during COVID-19 pandemic)
Informing people with Down syndrome about social distancing during a pandemic
- Interviews with the director of a local Down syndrome organisation and the president of a organisation that supports people with learning disabilities about how the various stakeholders and systems (institutions, representatives of global organisations like UNICEF, news outlets and individual people with disabilities) are involved in getting the information from the governing bodies, to the final stakeholders.
- Interview with a representative of the national Health Insurance Fund, from the department responsible for people with disabilities, about the systems in place that enable the creation and dissemination of accessible materials.
Secondary research:
- Materials by the local UNICEF office that often works together with the government and local organisations
- Down Syndrome International (DSI) publications: Guidelines on how to create materials for people with disabilities and disseminate them.
Tools
An explanation of how to draw causal loop and stock and flow diagrams to illustrate the systems related to your project.
A list of some general questions that you can use or adapt for your interviews, surveys, focus groups when you are investigating or seeking feedback on a pilot.
A template you can use to get consent from participants in interviews, focus groups, observations and other methods. The tool helps clarifies how you may use information gathered in your primary research.
A set of useful tips for preparing for and conducting interviews. Useful especially used in conjunction with the Question Prompts tool.
Some useful advice for writing surveys. The tool will help you create a survey that people will actually answer and get you the information you need.
Advice for setting up and running focus groups. The tool will help you select participants and lead a discussion in the group.
A tool outlining different types of observation and advice on how to set up the observation to collect useful data.
A brief list of steps for you to get a stakeholder to take pictures related to the problem or issue you are researching. The tool is useful in conjunction with the Interviews tool to empathise with the people you are designing for.
A list of steps for you to get a stakeholder to construct a collage or set of drawings related to the problem or issue you are investigating. The tool is useful in conjunction with the Interviews tool to empathise with the people you are designing for.
A set of instructions for how to get a stakeholder to narrate their experience with a product, action, issue or environment. The tool can be used in conjunction with other primary resource instruments like interviews, and camera / collage / drawing studies.
Add a brief two-sentence description of the tool.
Simple instructions for taking 'chunked' notes to help deepen your understanding and build memory of what you read. A tool that is useful for everyday school readings too.
An explanation of how to add useful information to a bibliographic citation in accepted academic format. The tool provides an useful concrete example.
Documentation for exhibitions and reports
Don’t forget to document your work. For information about documentation, see Module 1(e).
Ideas for documentation in this section include:
Systems diagrams
Interview transcripts
Survey results in charts
Focus group transcripts or summaries of results
Observation notes, tables, sketches, etc.
Camera study photographs from stakeholders with their comments
Collages or drawings from stakeholders with their comments
Narration transcripts from stakeholders
Cornell notes
Annotated bibliography
Works cited
Pushandplay. “Obesity System Influence Diagram.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 24 Oct. 2008, https://tinyurl.com/ycxlcry7.
Wieck, Gian. “Systems Mapping: How Paris Meets Climate Change.” Medium, Systemic Design Group, 16 Aug. 2019, medium.com/systemic-design-group/systems-mapping-how-paris-meets-climate-change-664321d31f47.
Images for examples in different contexts source information:
Samoilov, Yuri. “Coronavirus.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 20 Mar. 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ya2ngksd. CC BY 2.0
Webster, Tony. “Plastic Bottles - Waste.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 16 Sept. 2012, www.flickr.com/photos/87296837@N00/7992944072. CC BY 2.0
XoMEoX. “Tree.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 28 May 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y8bw46ns. CC BY 2.0
