Mapping actors

Activity concept

An important aspect of any issue are the actors, which means first of all those who have power to shape the decisions and those who are affected by the issue, whether directly or indirectly, now or in the future, human - or not. Beyond, there are also those who have knowledge about the issue, others who might have stakes and interests in how it is addressed. Finally, there are also those who can help out with the implementation of a project - or, indeed, oppose it. Consequently, it is important to have a good understanding of who is involved and therefore who should be considered, brought to the table or supported. This is important whether the participatory process aims to develop a project, take decisions on matters of common concern or build new collaborations.

Stage: Sense-making

Format: In person, Online, Hybrid

Work Modality: Small groups, Large groups, Plenary

Location: Outdoor, Indoor

Duration: 60mins

Topic(s): Pollinators

Tools

Post-its, Pens, crayons etc..., Tables and chairs, Poster template

Team

Facilitator / moderator

To support this activity you might consider involving someone with a wide knowledge of the stakeholder landscape. Who this can be will differ depending on your topic and scale, but the one keyword you might want to use in searching for the right person is 'knowledge broker' - these are people who work with a diversity of actors in a given thematic domain, trying to create connections and support collaborations to make the best of knowledge exchanges.  

Process

The three templates introduced here allow you to dig deeper to understand who the actors actually are, beyond the immediate assumptions you might have. You can use the templates in progression, moving from one t another to narrow down and deepen the scope of reflection. Or use of only one of them if there is only a specific aspect you need to focus on. 

The actant mapping canvas provides a broad overview of who can affect or is affected by the problem. Importantly, it moves beyond the humans to include also non-humans in this reflection. When filling it in, invite participants to be as open as they want or can about who that involves. Bruno Latour proposed the concept of a Parliament of Things, wanting to draw attention to the agency that even material objects have on our lives and societies. In animal and environmental ethics proposals are being made to take into consideration the interests of animals, plants and even of ecosystems. In considering the impacts of climate change it has become quite common to speak about the interests of future generations.

The actor power matrix helps to visualise the influence that different actors and groups might have on a specific issue or project. By considering the level of influence and support they have on, e.g., an intervention you are working out, you can identify exactly who to approach and in what way.

While the empathy map canvas comes from design practices and market research, usually used in the context of user experience design, it can be very useful in participatory processes. If part of your process is to develop concrete projects or interventions, then it is likely in their implementation you will have to work with specific communities. This activity can help participants get an understanding going beyond the initial assumptions, forcing them to think further about who the different actors are. For participatory processes that bring together different groups of citizens (or citizens and other actors, like stakeholders, scientists or civil society groups) to collaborate on things, this can be an exercise to better understand each other. This tool can be particularly useful as a last step, after one of the previous two actor mapping tools have been used, to deepen the understanding of particular actors.

To use the empathy map,  first write down the name of the actor (or a group of actors) that you want to focus on. You can also include drawings, pictures - these are actually important as in themselves will say something about how you see that group, how they are usually perceived by the society and how they want to be seen. When you move to actually answering the questions you can start from what you already know on that person/group. When you do this, be aware that it might be more about your perceptions than about who they actually are. For this reason this activity can ideally be associated with some ethnographic or journalistic work, where you engage with the actors to understand them. Even better - you can invite the actors to your activities.

For all three templates you can work with post-it notes, inviting participants to put their ideas and put them where they think is right. Use different colours of post-its to mark different types of actors. Continue working on this iteratively, encouraging discussion on whether the actors are characterised well or if the post-its are rightly located on the canvas. If you want, you can also draw lines to make impacts and influences between different groups more tangible. 

Compatibility

• The understanding of actors can be something that follows on the identification of problems carried out through >Mapping the system or >Problems tree as it can help you understand better who is involved in the issues.
• These activities can also be an important element of >co-designing solutions, as all ideas that you work out will have to be implemented by someone and will also have impacts on specific groups.