Exploring risk related to future climates through role-playing games: the African catchment game
- Authors: Rowntree, Kate M , Fraenkel, Linda A , Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6671 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006807
- Description: Risk is the result of two interacting components: hazard and vulnerability. Climatic hazards are related to extrinsic factors such as drought or severe storms. Vul- nerability is the result of intrinsic factors that often arise from the socio-political- economic context. The interplay of risk and vulnerability is difficult to predict. Although computer models have been widely used to forecast climate related risk, albeit with con- siderable uncertainty, they can never capture sufficiently the vulnerability of human sys- tems to these hazards. Role-playing games can be used more realistically to simulate pos- sible outcomes of different climate change scenarios, and allow players to reflect on their significance. The authors have developed the African Catchment Game to simulate a wa- ter scarce African country. Risk can be modelled mechanistically by changing the nature of the annual rainfall input. Vulnerability can in part be modelled by changing the start- ing parameters (such as access to land and resources) and, secondly, through the unpredictable response of players to game dynamics. Players’ reflections demonstrate that through the game they become more aware of the concept of risk and the complex response of individuals and societies that determine their vulnerability to climatic hazards. This paper reflects on the potential for developing the game further as a tool for participatory learning around climate change, based on the authors’ experience of playing the game with participants from South Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Learning about sustainability through experiencing complex, adverse conditions typical of the South : reflections from the African Catchment Games played in Finland 2008
- Authors: Fraenkel, Linda A , Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6666 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006678
- Description: The African Catchment Game is an innovative role playing game which was played twice in Finland in 2008 as part of the CIMO funded collaboration between Finland Futures Research Centre and Rhodes University. It simulates a "real imaginary country" and enables participants to explore and experience how southern countries may or may not develop scenarios of sustainable resource extraction and consumption. New processes modelling climatic variability, water management and consumption were introduced for these two game runs. This imaginary country has roles for an urban/industrial sector, the informal sector, trading intermediaries, overseas trade, a government comprised of a president and two ministers, peasant and commercial farmers. Chapman's original game, Green Revolution Game/Exaction, is based on systems and complexity theories from the 1970s and 1980s. Our modifications to Chapman’s game are underpinned by theories of Complex Adaptive Systems and educational approaches based on constructivist, active/experiential learning models. The paper presents an analysis of the two Finnish games from the perspectives of the participants and the game managers. Participants’ information came from pre and post game questionnaires and the focus group discussions that were part of the debriefing pro-cess. These two methods enabled us to examine the local and network processes which de-veloped during the games. Global scale processes of production, consumption, resource utilization, trading and water provision was collected by the game managers as part of their management processes throughout each game run. Our analysis shows that the par-ticipants’ understanding altered and deepened as a result of playing the game. The nature of the game, as a Complex Adaptive System, and the constructivist learning approach through which the game is experienced means that lessons of a more universal nature cannot be extrapolated.
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- Date Issued: 2009