This book is based on the collective work of academics from The Open University in the United Kingdom who have been teaching about and researching complex environmental situations using systems concepts, techniques and theories for over 30 years. These techniques have particularly included the use of mapping or diagramming to visually explore, create, enquire, and communicate people's thinking and perceptions (throughout the book we use the words mapping and diagramming interchangeably to describe the visualisation practices discussed further in Chapter Two). From our experience of using mapping extensively within our research and teaching practice, and of supervising and examining many research students, we observed that there is a distinct lack of publications that provide practical examples and reflections on actual research projects and what happens in the practice of conducting research generally, and in particular when and how they use diagrams. Further, we found the majority of research publications, book chapters and journal articles dealing with complex environmental situations involving many stakeholders provide straightforward accounts of the methods used. They ignore the ‘messiness’ of the processes used, and the specific practices of the researchers are rarely analysed or explained in sufficient detail to be of more practical use to other researchers. They also do not provide an account of how such diagramming practices evolve over time, either within specific projects or within the working lives of the researcher themselves. These trajectories provide additional insights into how, as researchers, we intertwine theory and practice in understanding about, and acting in, complex environmental situations.

Diagramming in research not only represents and helps to explore the messiness, but also enables the researcher(s) to draw out and build on multiple perspectives on an issue. Involving users and non-researchers in research processes is increasingly widely accepted and is often required by research funders (see Lyall et al, 2015), particularly within the field of environmental sustainability where people need to interact to bring about desirable changes. Yet again, there is little critique on the realities and messiness of engaging people in this type of participatory, or action-orientated, research where researchers research with people rather than on people. Recently environmental researchers engaged in this type of research have begun to reflect more critically on their practices.