Games for a new climate: experiencing the complexity of future risks

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Center Task Force Reports, a publication series that began publishing in 2009 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.This report is a product of the Pardee Center Task Force on Games for a New Climate, which met at Pardee House at Boston University in March 2012. The 12-member Task Force was convened on behalf of the Pardee Center by Visiting Research Fellow Pablo Suarez in collaboration with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre to “explore the potential of participatory, game-based processes for accelerating learning, fostering dialogue, and promoting action through real-world decisions affecting the longer-range future, with an emphasis on humanitarian and development work, particularly involving climate risk management.” Compiled and edited by Janot Mendler de Suarez, Pablo Suarez and Carina Bachofen, the report includes contributions from all of the Task Force members and provides a detailed exploration of the current and potential ways in which games can be used to help a variety of stakeholders – including subsistence farmers, humanitarian workers, scientists, policymakers, and donors – to both understand and experience the difficulty and risks involved related to decision-making in a complex and uncertain future. The dozen Task Force experts who contributed to the report represent academic institutions, humanitarian organization, other non-governmental organizations, and game design firms with backgrounds ranging from climate modeling and anthropology to community-level disaster management and national and global policymaking as well as game design.Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centr

The effects of serious gaming on risk perceptions of climate tipping points

A growing body of research indicates that effective science-policy interactions demand novel approaches, especially in policy domains with long time horizons like climate change. Serious games offer promising opportunities in this regard, but empirical research on game effects and games’ effectiveness in supporting science-policy engagement remains limited. We investigated the effects of a role-playing simulation game on risk perceptions associated with climate tipping points among a knowledgeable and engaged audience of non-governmental observers of the international climate negotiations and scientists. We analysed its effects on concern, perceived seriousness, perceived likelihood and psychological distance of tipping points, using pre- and post-game surveys, debriefing questions and game observations. Our findings suggest that the game reduced the psychological distance of tipping points, rendering them more ‘real’, proximate and tangible for participants. More generally, our findings indicate that role-playing simulation games, depending on their design and future orientation, can provide effective science-policy engagement tools that allow players to engage in future thinking and corresponding meaning making.publishedVersio

Designing role-play simulations for climate change decision-making: a step-by-step approach to facilitate cooperation between science and policy

Literature has demonstrated the benefits of role-play simulations (RPS) for decision-making and social learning in the field of climate change and environmental policy. Despite growing interest, step-by-step guidelines are still rare when it comes to the practical design and implementation of RPS, which hinders the adoption and implementation of this promising approach. This article aims to facilitate the development of RPS by proposing a step-by-step framework for designing role-play simulations around three stages – before, during, and after the simulation. To develop the methodology, we use as a starting point a pilot simulation on decision-making and knowledge production in contexts of uncertainty and complexity. Focusing on negative emission technologies in Switzerland, the pilot simulation involved 12 scientists and 12 politicians who role-played each other for half a day. Overall, we propose an actionable framework for RPS designed to facilitate cooperation between groups with different socialisations, timelines, and imperatives towards more informed and collaborative decision-making practices. Doing so, this article contributes to making RPS more accessible to a broad audience as a method supporting cooperation between science and policy in the field of climate and environmental politics and beyond

Ecomodding. Understanding and Communicating the Climate Crisis by Co-Creating Commercial Video Games

This article explores how the climate crisis and specifically the underlying “crisis of the imagination” (Bendor 2018, 132) exacerbate the entrenchment of environmental communication, and how modifying commercial video games (ecomodding) can facilitate the use of games as effective communication infrastructures to address this issue. Environmental communication challenges are well-studied, but remain difficult to tackle in practice. Timothy Morton summarizes these challenges by defining climate change and related phenomena as “hyperobjects” (Morton 2013), which appear tangible but are always only partially knowable and communicable. In recent years, games have been increasingly regarded as a potential solution to these problems (e.g. Chang 2013); as games provide agency to players, they can be specifically effective as “tools to communicate about climate (change) uncertainty” (van Pelt et al. 2015). More recently, though, the promises of ecogames are offset against more critical questions. For example, (Asplund 2020) addresses “credibility aspects in research-based gaming”, and researchers become more aware of the inequities of “discursive gaming” (Voorhees 2012) like the carbon footprint of contemporary gaming technology and the disproportionate influence of larger publishers and platform owners. To address this issue, the article develops a comparative perspective on “ecocritical” (Bohunicky 2017) modifications of commercial games (ecomods) as an ongoing discursive process. Ecomods for two major game franchises – The Sims and Civilization – are analyzed as communicative acts over time, quoting, re-phrasing or outright challenging the procedural rhetoric of the original games. The definition of eco games as boundary objects (van Pelt et al. 2015) is thereby adapted to the characteristic multiplicity and redundancy of ecomods. This perspective acknowledges how modding can affect the games as communication infrastructure, e.g. considering that both franchises recently ‘responded’ with official expansions including environmental themes, Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (2019) and The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle (2020). To conclude, the article briefly reports on an exploratory workshop, in which students applied ecomodding techniques to repurpose Epic Games’ Fortnite (2017-) as a platform for academic communication on the climate crisis. Due to the game’s immense popularity, climate researchers and activists have tentatively used Fortnite, e.g. via the ‘ClimateFortnite’ channel , where players can “find climate researchers and others discussing global warming while they play” (Boykoff 2019, 22), or a 2019 WWF ad campaign . These approaches, however, are characteristically relegated to small existing ‘niches’ within the “ecology of communication” (Altheide 2019) surrounding the game because they cannot modify or otherwise appropriate its contents. The workshop outlines how ecomodding not only constitutes a uniquely productive site for societal debate, but may also hold potential for augmenting academic communication on the climate crisis

Rockefeller Foundation 2010 Annual Report

Contains president's letter; 2010 program highlights, including support for Africa's green revolution, sustainable and equitable transportation policy, and healthy communities; grants list; financial report; and lists of trustees and staff

A comparative analysis of China-UK relations under Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping

published_or_final_versionInternational and Public AffairsMasterMaster of International and Public Affair

Science diplomacy and trans-boundary water management. The Orontes River case

The Mediterranean Basin in general, and more specifically its southeastern part, is encountering rapid changes leading to huge water stress and the tiniest percentage of available drinking water per inhabitant in the world. Changes leading to water scarcity include growing population, with rates annually exceeding 2.8%, and excessive water demand for irrigation. Climate change exacerbates water droughts and risks. Overall national sovereignty, political, social and economic factors seem to be equally important to the scarcity of water resources, which may influence conflicts and violent clashes (\u201cwater riots\u201d).This is the reason why water and hydro-diplomacy occupy a central space on the diplomatic agenda of the governments in the region, including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Egypt and Turkey. To guarantee the equitable use of water resources for the population of the countries involved, a major task of hydro-diplomacy is to overcome a number of challenges and critical thresholds by exploring all possible options for consensus building and by using reliable scientific evidence.Hydro-diplomacy, as applied in the case of the Orontes, builds partly on traditional bilateral approaches, taking account of power relations, partly on observing International Law and partly on pursuing new methods and tendencies based on the analyses of the actual water needs at national and local level, considering in particular the most vulnerable communities and enhancing prospects for social and economic development.The present publication is based, on one hand, on the results of the ICT project funded by the Italian Development Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) through the University of Insubria, and on the other hand, on the data and accumulated experience of hydro-diplomacy efforts. It thus brings together two approaches: first a crisp analysis of the evolution in addressing the water challenges applying technological tools on basin management, and secondly, a pragmatic one, based on a case study dealing with water resources in the Middle East

Coping with global environmental change, disasters and security : threats, challenges, vulnerabilities and risks

Book : vol 5 / hexagon series on human and environmental security and peac

Prospects of Cooperation in the Eastern Nile Basin : The case of Experimental Game Application

Tensions over the use of Nile waters have recently increased and no comprehensive agreement till date acceptable to all Eastern Nile Basin riparian countries exists. After years of escalating tensions between upstream and downstream countries of the Nile basin, mainly because of Ethiopia's construction of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a sense of mistrust hangs over the dam's ultimate use. Preventing transboundary water conflicts cannot be realized without forming adequate cooperation in managing shared waters which through robust and equitable structures and institutions. Since conflict resolution is a political process to make decisions after a lengthy procedure of negotiations, cooperation at transboundary level needs much time, patience and persistence to have ampler chances to succeed if the drivers and interests of the riparian states are identified, quantified and shared with the help of diplomatic mechanisms. The nature of cooperative decision-making at the transboundary water scale is regarded as a complex system composed which cannot be forgone without diplomacy among parties to facilitate understanding of actors' interests by creating a transparent and confident environment. This study developed a series of laboratory game experiment as an approach to examine the impact of a set of incentivized compensation options to promote cooperation through trust building, reduction of decision makers' uncertainties and simplification of complexities. To test whether individuals have the ability to signal the economic gains expansion as a motive for cooperation, this study reports a laboratory game experiment in the form of non-binding, 3-player, trust games. Payoff schemes are calculated and provided using real-world data for the case of the Eastern Nile Basin under four different allocation scenarios. The analysis of exploring cooperation probability under each scenario aims to identify the likelihood of the "win for all" decisions, which could not be reached with the unilateral behavior of states, but through a stable integrative and collaborative framework. The results of the experimental games indicate that cooperation is indeed hard to establish in a strategic environment with a sense of uncertainty for the future, but it is still attainable. Since cooperation is mostly conditional, as long as a set of preconditions are available and certain ranges of incentives are ensured, cooperation continues. The result of the study demonstrates that basin-wide security requires regional cooperation while cooperative decision-making takes place in a transparent environment with a variety of compensation options, institutional reforms, and incentive-compatible considerations. In the end, key conclusions prove that sustained and open communication and information sharing can lead to collective actions. In order to establish joint decision-making for cooperation over the shared waters, recognition of all sorts of benefits cooperation brings in a short and long run, and fair distribution of those benefits among the riparian countries play a crucial role.Die durch die Verwendung von Nil-Gewässern ausgelösten Spannung erhöhen sich seit geraumer Zeit und nach wie vor wurde noch keine umfassende Vereinbarung getroffen, welche akzeptable Lösungsansätze für alle Staaten am östlichen Nilufer darstellt. Nach Jahren der immer wieder eskalierenden Spannungen zwischen Downstream- und Upstream-Länder im Nilbecken, insbesondere im Hinblick auf Äthiopiens Bau des Grand Äthiopien Renaissance Dam (GERD), schwebt ein Gefühl von Misstrauen über dem Damm und Nutzung. Da die Konfliktlösung einen politischen Prozess darstellt, mit Entscheidungen die nach langwierigen Verhandlungsverfahren getroffen werden, braucht die Zusammenarbeit auf grenzüberschreitender Ebene, viel Zeit, Geduld und Beharrlichkeit, sofern Entscheidungsgrundlagen und Interessen der Uferstaaten mittels diplomatischer Mechanismen bekannt und quantifiziert wurden, um letztlich eine höhere Chance auf Erfolg zu realisieren/erhalten/haben/in Aussicht zu haben. Das Wesen der kooperativen Entscheidungsfindung in einem grenzüberschreitenden Wassersystem wird als ein komplexes Netzwerksystem betrachtet, welches nicht auf Diplomatie unter/zwischen den Parteien verzichten kann, um folglich das Verständnis von Interessen, durch Schaffung eines transparenten und zuversichtlichen Umfeldes, zu erleichtern. Diese Studie trägt dazu bei, eine Reihe von Laborspiel- Experimenten zu entwickeln, welche eine Reihe von Anreizkompensationsoptionen untersuchen, die die Kooperation durch Vertrauensbildung, also der Minderung der Zweifel Entscheidungsträger und die Vereinfachung der Komplexität fördern. Um zu testen, ob Einzelpersonen fähig sind, ihre Bereitschaft zur Zusammenarbeit zu signalisieren, wodurch sie ihre ökonomischen Gewinne erhöhen könnten, zeigt die Studie eine Reihe von experimentellen Laboratorien in Form von unverbindlichen, 3-Spieler, Vertrauensspielen. Die Analyse der Kooperationswahrscheinlichkeitserforschung jedes Szenarios zielt darauf ab, die Wahrscheinlichkeit der "win for all" -Situation zu identifizieren, die zwar nicht mit dem einseitigen Verhalten der Staaten erreichbar ist, jedoch durch einen stabilen, integrativen und kooperativen Rahmen bewerkstelligt werden kann. Die Ergebnisse des experimentellen Spiels zeigten, dass obwohl Zusammenarbeit in strategischen Umfeldern mit ungewisser Zukunft schwierig zu implementieren ist, dennoch, sofern Vorbedingungen zur Verfügung stehen, machbar ist. Da die Kooperation meist unter Vorbehalt ist, schreitet die Zusammenarbeit nur voran, solange eine Reihe von Voraussetzungen gegeben ist und bestimmte Anreizbereiche sichergestellt sind. Das Ergebnis der Studie zeigt, dass ein Becken weite Effizienz, eine regionale Kooperation erfordert und eine kooperative Entscheidungsfindung in einem transparenten Umfeld unter einer Vielzahl von Ausgleichsoptionen, institutionellen Veränderungen und anreizkompatiblen Überlegungen, möglich ist. Die Schlussfolgerungen sind letztlich, dass eine nachhaltige und offene Kommunikation zur Zusammenarbeit führen und eine kooperative Entscheidungsfindung schaffen kann. Das Verständnis für den wirtschaftlichen Nutzen durch die Zusammenarbeit, die Kooperationsbereitschaft und die Vertrauenswürdigkeit der Entscheidungsträger stellen die zentralen Problemfelder dar