COREvents #5 & BIBU Talks: Serious games for collaborative governance

Getting serious with games! What role can games and gamification play in addressing local and global sustainability challenges? How have they been used? What are the opportunities and challenges from the point of view of young people especially?

To share knowledge and encourage discussion on these questions, Academy of Finland Strategic Research Council projects CORE, ALL-YOUTH, BIBU and PALO invite all interested to this open event. A keynote lecture on serious games by Assistant Professor Todd Schenk will be followed by three talks including comments on his points and presentation of topical approaches to gamification in Finland. 

Date:  2nd of December, 2019, 16:00-18:00

Place: Think Corner, Think Lounge, Yliopistonkatu 4, Helsinki

Programme

16:00 Welcome! Lasse Peltonen, University of Eastern Finland

16:05 Todd Schenk: Serious games for collaborative governance in times of change and uncertainty

Dr. Todd Schenk is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and affiliate with the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, U.S. He has extensive research and consulting experience working on environmental policy and planning, and collaborative governance issues in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Todd has developed and facilitated a variety of role-play simulation exercises, and other serious games, to facilitate social learning, foster reflection, and support collaborative experimentation with stakeholders at all levels, from students in the classroom to senior government officials. See examples of Todd Schenk’s publications below. 

16:45 Discussion 

17:00 Jari Varsaluoma: Gamifying societal discussion service – Youth perspective (slides here)

PhD Jari Varsaluoma, researcher at Tampere University. Jari has over ten years of experience in user experience related research and evaluation studies in academia and with industrial partners. Currently Jari is working in ALL-YOUTH research project which explores the capacities of young people (aged between 16 and 25) and the obstacles that hamper their engagement with society. Jari’s research focus is on digital services and how they can support youth engagement in societal discussions, and what is the role of gamification in this context.

17:15  Mikko Meriläinen: Jam it! – Learning through co-creation of games (slides here)

Mr. Mikko Meriläinen (M.A.), researcher at Tampere University Game Research Lab. As part of the Growing Mind project’s research into innovative pedagogies, he is currently studying the use of game jams as an avenue of learning and collaboration.

17:30 Nina V. Nygren & Ville Kankainen: Science communication and engagement with the biodiversity offsetting game (slides here)

Dr. Sc.(Admin.) Nina V. Nygren, post doc researcher in environmental policy at the Faculty of Management and business, Tampere University. She has done research on biodiversity offsetting, and conservation conflicts and solutions. Currently she is leading the biodiversity offsetting game project and teaching.  Nygren is specialized in collaborative and multidisciplinary research and teaching.

Mr. Ville Kankainen (M.Sc.) is a researcher and a PhD student in the Tampere University Game Research Lab with a background in game design. In his dissertation Kankainen studies how the use of digital media affects the tabletop-gaming culture. His research interests are focused on hybrid play, post-digitality, tabletop game culture, game jams and game design research. Currently he works as a researcher in the Offsetting Game project.

17:45 Discussion

18:00 End of the event

No registration needed. Welcome!

Facebook event here.

Publications by Todd Schenk

Rumore, D., Schenk, T. & Susskind, L. 2016. Role-play simulations for climate change adaptation education and engagement. Nature Climate Change 6, 745–750.

Schenk, T. 2013. Boats and Bridges in the Sandbox: Using Role Play Simulation Exercises to Help Infrastructure Planners Prepare for the Risks and Uncertainties Associated with Climate Change. In: A. V. Gheorghe et al. (eds.), Infranomics, Topics in Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality 24.

Schenk, T. 2018. Adapting Infrastructure to Climate Change Advancing Decision-Making Under Conditions of Uncertainty. Routledge.

Schenk, T. & Susskind, L. 2015. Using role-play simulations to encourage adaptation – Serious games as tools for action research. In van Buuren, A., Eshuis, J., van Vliet, M. Action Research for Climate Change Adaptation: Developing and Applying Knowledge for Governance. Routledge.