Mapping Meaningful Engagement
A relational system map of community dynamics in social housing
Marleen van Gerner ¹, Jairo da Costa Junior ², Dulaj Perera ²
1 University of Twente
KEYWORD
#causal loop diagram #social housing
#community engagement #participatory approach
ABSTRACT
The Trudo Tower Community Map presents a social housing community in Eindhoven as a dynamic relational system. Drawing on interviews and observations, we adopt a qualitative approach to System Dynamics (Kenzie et al., 2025) to surface participants’ mental models and explore how assumptions, values, lived experiences, and diverse capacities for engagement shape community, responsibility, and liveability over time. Adopting a participatory systemic design approach (van Gerner, 2026), we created a causal loop diagram, identified system archetypes, and crafted system stories. As a research-through-design artefact, the map advances systemic design practice by demonstrating how relational data visualisation can make systemic interdependencies visible and support pluralistic sense-making.
CREATIVE PROCESS
We conducted 17 semi-structured interviews (13 residents, 4 employees) and 4 observations during intake sessions to explore perspectives on community, responsibility, and liveability. Transcripts and notes were analysed following Kenzie et al. (2025), yielding an initial system map that was iteratively refined. Structural analysis identified four key system archetypes — Fixes that Fail, Escalation, Drifting Goals, and Success to the Successful — informing narrative system stories. Consolidating variables resulted in a final map of 15 reinforcing and balancing loops spanning the social and physical environments.
IMPLICATIONS & NEXT STEPS
This work shows how system mapping synthesises analytical, experiential, and situated knowledge into a flexible interpretive canvas. It demonstrates that participatory data visualisation facilitates epistemic plurality and collective reflection on sociotechnical dynamics. Consequently, causal loop diagrams function not only as analytical representations of social complexity but also as reflexive design artefacts through which institutional problem framings can be questioned and reformulated. More importantly, it positions mapping not merely as a visualisation tool but as a systemic intervention capable of surfacing hidden assumptions, reframing institutional narratives within social housing, and redirecting organisational attention from prescribing resident behaviour to cultivating conditions in which diverse forms of community engagement can emerge.
References
Kenzie, E. S., Wakeland, W., Jetter, A., Lich, K. H., Seater, M., & Davis, M. M. (2025). Mapping mental models through an improved method for identifying causal structures in qualitative data. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 42(3), 756–771. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3030
van Gerner, M. (2026). Cultivating Change: A Participatory Systemic Approach to Resident Empowerment. A Trudo Tower Case Study (Master Thesis, University of Twente). Retrieved 4 September 2026 from https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/109514