Locating Sociological Concepts in Business Games

This article describes one strategy for demonstrating the value of sociological concepts to business students by adopting a transversal approach to a business game at a French-American business school. This strategy proved effective in allowing a social science professor to demonstrate the practical implications of two concepts – gender and race – to undergraduate students while simultaneously allowing an international management professor to demonstrate how cross-cultural teams should be managed in order to work effectively. This article firstly explains the Ecotonas business game; secondly, it explains the crucial debriefing process for the business game and demonstrates how sociological concepts can be highlighted in an international management simulation; thirdly, it argues that business games are an effective pedagogical tool for teaching social science concepts; fourthly and finally, in concluding the article it is suggested that using games in core courses in a business school to demonstrate social science concepts is an effective way of demonstrating the utility of those concepts in future business careers

Locating Sociological Concepts in Business Games

This article describes one strategy for demonstrating the value of sociological concepts to business students by adopting a transversal approach to a business game at a French-American business school. This strategy proved effective in allowing a social science professor to demonstrate the practical implications of two concepts – gender and race – to undergraduate students while simultaneously allowing an international management professor to demonstrate how cross-cultural teams should be managed in order to work effectively. This article firstly explains the Ecotonas business game; secondly, it explains the crucial debriefing process for the business game and demonstrates how sociological concepts can be highlighted in an international management simulation; thirdly, it argues that business games are an effective pedagogical tool for teaching social science concepts; fourthly and finally, in concluding the article it is suggested that using games in core courses in a business school to demonstrate social science concepts is an effective way of demonstrating the utility of those concepts in future business careers

Mapping International Chaos

Mapping is inherently a subjective and exclusionary practice as the cartographer decides which elements of the world are included and which can safely be ignored. Similarly, when an international relations theorist describes a new theory it is necessary to define the elements which are essential to understanding the complexities of an international political system, explain why other elements have been excluded and justify why those decisions were made. The subjective nature of theorizing international affairs and the necessary exclusionary practices in which the theorist engages mean that the arguments supporting a new theory of international relations must be rather stronger than the arguments behind the scribbled directions one might offer a friend. This article explains why existing realist and liberal “maps” of the international system are insufficient to describe the system’s complexities and offers guidelines and a basic structure for mapping an alternative chaotic theory of international politics