Systems Map

by | Feb 23, 2022 | Geography

The essence of seeing systems is to think in circles rather than in straight lines. This is especially important when looking at societal issues and challenges, as well as large organizations.

Your assignment is to choose a large system and map the feedback loops, e.g., how one thing affects another. (The reason I’m having you do this is to identify the processes and relationships that form/evolve in systems. These can parallel what we see (on a smaller scale) in organizations.)

The essence of seeing systems is to think in circles rather than in straight lines. This is especially important when looking at societal issues and challenges, as well as large organizations.

There are no rules re: complexity or how big it should be or what it should be about, because it needs to be interesting to you for this to be a good exercise and I cannot define that. You just need to be willing to share it with a few other classmates in breakout rooms, as you’ll be asked to do that in our live session.

Examples of possible systems for mapping include, but are not limited to:
● The systemic issues in some current social issue or challenge (urban poverty,students at risk, alcoholism or drug abuse, ethnic conflict, etc.). Here’s a video version of mapped systems issues in the educational system.
● One of the classic examples from On the follow of rewarding A, while hoping for B (Kerr, 1995) would make excellent subject matter
● Any leadership triangle scenario would make a great map as well or one of the cases from that course.
● Back in the day I mapped my family’s feedback/control systems as an exercise for my therapist (Dr. Perkl), it was incredibly interesting and useful for helping see how to disrupt the parts of that system that were damaging and make new patterns to move forward.
● Any scenario involving power/influence/resources/control from your own life you want to explore and try to figure out can be a great candidate!

MORE Examples: Still not sure what a system’s map is or how to complete one? Here are some resources:
● Example: System Map of Human Exploration (note that the arrows are all labeled to indicate how things affect one another)
● The System is Us from the Interaction Institute
● Line Diagrams and System Maps from The Open University
● https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-systems-mapping-2db5cf30ab3a

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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