Systems Mapping, Social Innovation and Social-Ecological Transformations Across Scales

This paper clarifies the meaning and role of systems mapping in supporting social innovators as they confront complex societal challenges. While recognized for its capacity to visually represent intricate relationships between interconnected elements, systems mapping remains underutilized in management and organization theory and practice. Moreover, ambiguity in the definitions and uses of systems mapping endures also in other scientific fields – such as ecological economics, innovation studies, and sustainability science. Hence, this paper redefines and highlights the multiple roles of systems mapping in strategizing for social innovation. We distinguish between the meanings of systems mapping as tool, event, and process, and between its roles for making sense of complex issues, for deliberating where and how to address them, and for strategizing novel partnerships that address them. From the literature on participatory social innovation processes and the nexus with visual approaches of representing systems, we therefore shed light on the affordances and limitations of systems mapping in fostering multiple pathways of social-ecological transformation across scales.