22nd February, 2024
This blog was originally posted on the CADR website.
The OPTIC team were delighted to host CADR friends and Swansea University Geography students for an intergenerational climate change board games lunch on Monday 22nd January.
CADR friends and Swansea Geography students playing games at the intergenerational climate games event in January
The session kicked off at 11:30am with an introduction to the project and some background about how ‘serious games’ can be used in climate change research and engagement. We spent the rest of the session playing games, enjoying a delicious vegan lunch by Judy Roots, and discussing the pros and cons of different playful activities.
We were particularly interested in the power of tabletop games (e.g. cards, board games) to get conversations going between different generations, to facilitate learning, and to provide a disarming way to think about the complex challenges of climate change.
Our 16 participants had chance to play a variety of games, set out on tables in Taliesin Create. They included quick, simple, and light-hearted games like Climate Dice, as well as bingo, snakes and ladders, top trumps and the Climate Emergency Action Card Game, all by EcoActionGames. Their adaptation of the classic bingo game was a particular hit. This features amusing rhymes for each eco action and proved a fun way to learn about small actions we can take to reduce our carbon footprint.
Something valuable that emerged was how existing games such as these can be updated to topics such as climate change. For example, why not adapt very familiar games that are no longer covered by copyright? As one participant noted, “everyone knows Bingo”. Well-known formats can be modified with our own descriptions and a font type, contrast and size that works for players.
Playing EcoActionGames’ snakes and ladders
Strategy board games including Carbon City Zero, Wingspan and a climate change adaptation of Catan were more complicated and took a while to get to grips with, but generated lots of discussion about environmental issues (e.g. bird decline) and approaches to addressing climate change. A favourite was Carbon City Zero. Whilst this game took over two hours to play, participants enjoyed working together (rather than competitively against each other) to create a low carbon city.
The additional rules involved in the Catan climate adaptation made us think about the implications of different decisions we made. Players not investing in renewable technologies in their settlements increased carbon emissions; and choosing to speed up production caused damage to ecosystems and environments. In both cases these decisions had impacts for everyone. This certainly made us think about how a lack of collaboration could stop the game before any clear leader has emerged.
By the end of the session, there had been much laughter, serious discussion, and new intergenerational friendships made. Sincere thanks to all those who came along and gave so generously their time, enthusiasm, and ideas. We are especially grateful for insights about conversational activities brought by Women4Resources volunteers after their recent crafting event, and to Geography students who were able to explain how some of the more complex games work.
We are now creating an intergenerational activity pack (including games!) based on the Climate Comic that we created during the OPTIC project. The pack will be co-designed with older and younger people in southwest Wales, with the aim to engage intergenerational groups with climate change. If you would like to be involved in this project, please email OPTIC@Swansea.ac.uk for more information. We would be delighted to hear from you.
By Merryn Thomas, Aled Singleton and the OPTIC team
OPTIC (Understanding Older and younger people’s Perspectives and Imaginaries of Climate change) was a one-year project funded by the University of Stirling Ageing and Place: Pandemic Recovery and Action on Climate CHange (APPROACH) fund, as part the Social Behavioural & Design Research Programme, and supported by CADR. The OPTIC team are: Dr. Merryn Thomas, Dr. Aled Singleton, Dr. Carol Maddock, Dr. Aelwyn Williams, Dr. Deborah Morgan, Prof. Tavi Murray, Prof. Charles Musselwhite and illustrator Laura Sorvala.
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