Scaffolding the Future

In this time of myriad crises rippling, colliding, escalating…

…we naturally pull toward urgent solutions — yet in our urgency, we often default to the very thinking and ways of working that produced the crises. Impact Networks have emerged as one of the most promising alternatives: a vital form whose very nature aligns the means of organizing with the ends of living in relationship with life itself.

And yet…

Almost all of us who espouse Impact Networks are still learning what they actually require. The inspiring language, the compelling vision, the excitement of joining something larger — these spark deep yearnings, and still, they often don't, on their own, ripen into the capacity to live up to the hopes they generate. Deep-seated relational dynamics embedded in power, privilege and history can be very hard to shift. And systemic-transformation vocabulary doesn't, on its own, generate transformation. More is needed for a network to become more than the sum of its parts.

This book is about Social System Mapping: a distinctive approach to mapping that can help Impact Networks inspire, catalyze, and reflect a growing capacity for systems change.

Already signed up? Sign in to read.

More below

Praise

This book left me feeling excited, empowered, and inspired to keep working as a network weaver. Through personal anecdotes, practical examples, and beautiful storytelling, Christine Capra shows that a Social System Map is far more than a directory: mapping is a practice, not merely an artifact, and an essential one for changing the systems we care about. A must-read for every change agent, weaver, and mapper. It will transform what you thought you knew about mapping.
— Denise Challenger, Director, Network Weaving and Learning, Network for the Advancement of Black Communities (NABC)

Christine Capra has been an invaluable partner to Impact Networks in helping them visualize relationships, make sense of emergence and navigate the waters of social systems transformation. This book is a long overdue contribution to systems change efforts and will be a useful and engaging companion for those working toward transformational change. Her wisdom, humility, and vision offer a bright light during a dark time—a path towards more meaningful, relational engagement with the complexities we face locally and globally.
— Charmagne Campbell-Patton, Director of Organizational Learning and Evaluation, Utilization-Focused Evaluation

Christine Capra’s Scaffolding the Future: Social System Mapping presents the potential of Social System Mapping not only as a tool for bringing visibility to the networks that we hope to amplify, but also as a pathway toward the relational ways of being we need for a sustainable future. Capra frames Social System Mapping as a critical participatory and capacity building methodology that enables us to embody our interdependence and turn toward mutuality. This book is accessible, deeply practical, and an invaluable systems tool for the mindful co-creation of generative impact networks.
— Gretchen Ki Steidle, Director, Spirituality & Social Change Program, Garrison Institute

Changing social systems is the pathway to transformation toward a more equitable and sustainable world. Social System Mapping is essential to guide, evaluate and adapt transformational initiatives. Scaffolding the Future is essential to understanding and using Social System Mapping, emphasis on essential. The title says it all. You can’t build without scaffolding. That’s what makes Social System Mapping essential.
— Michael Quinn Patton, Author, Developmental Evaluation, Blue Marble Evaluation and many other books; past president, American Evaluation Association

Those of us inside a system rarely see the whole of it — its parts, or how they fit together. Christine’s vision of Social System Mapping and the wise guidance offered in Scaffolding the Future allow us, as parts of a system, to create, participate in, and navigate living and evolving maps where we can see, activate, and care for all the parts and their relationships. This book balances rigorous integrated theory with practical, inspiring application. Anyone who wants to understand, contribute to, and fully experience the systems we live in should read it from cover to cover with a highlighter and sticky tabs close by.
— Curtis Miller, Founder, Connect ED

Christine and Tim are crusaders. They moved something forward that helped many different communities see the impact of network building — and they did it when people were talking about networks but very few were bought in. They took a real risk on behalf of many communities, and they’ve added a great deal to change movements across the board.
— Christy Gabbard, Founder, Local Concepts

About me

Christine Capra

I've worked with movements and change networks for more than half a century, and exclusively with Impact Networks for over fifteen years. I developed Social System Mapping out of an ongoing need to understand what might shift our destructive collective trajectory — and how I could do my part. That search led, over decades, from activism and movements through leadership theory, systems thinking, self-organizing labs, and — tangentially — data visualization.

Social System Mapping draws on all of those, and was shaped most by years of partnership with Impact Networks, and by a long, slow learning to align how I work with what I'm working toward.

What I offer in this book is what I've learned so far, in the hope that it gives others a head start — and that they'll carry it further, adding their own discoveries to this emerging field.