Inventing your fictitious secenario

Developed by Drew Mackie <drewmackie@m2ud.com> and David Wilcox <david@partnerships.org.uk>


Sequence of play

The following instructions are for the "conference" version of the game. When used with real communities and real activists, local issues are well known to the players. In the conference game, players must first set a local context for play.

1 Inventing the community

The facilitator asks the audience to call out suggested characteristics for an area - these are then indicated on a flip chart as a map with bullet points indicating issues. If there is disagreement on which characteristics should be adopted, ask for a show of hands to resolve it. (Time: 15 mins.)

2 Picturing the community - now

Once the area has been specified, the audience will split into groups of no more than 7. Each group then considers the issues of the area and draws the sustainability model (see below) on flip chart paper to show how things are now. The facilitator now tries to get the audience to agree to a shared "picture" of the area as represented by the diagram. (Time: 10 mins.)

3 Developing projects

Each group is now issued with the set of cards showing possible online community projects. Each project has red number in circle in its upper right hand corner. This is rough indication of the relative costs of projects. Each group has a budget of 10 points i.e. the projects they select must not total more than 10. Within this restriction, groups discuss the projects and select a set that they think will work well together and address the issues outlined in stage 1. (Time: 20 - 30 mins.)

4 Picturing the community - later

Groups now draw the diagram of how things have changed because of the projects they have selected.

5 Presenting the results

Each group now presents the results of its discussions, preparatory to a general discussion. (Time: depends on number of groups and time available.)

The model

The model used to assess the present and future states of the area intentionally simple to allow communities and professionals to communicate about matters of sustainability. It consists of a three-by-three matrix.

The columns represent The Environment, The Local Community and the Local Economy. These are assessed as being Robust, Stable or Fragile and the diagram shaded accordingly.

Thus the diagram on the right shows an area where the Environment and Community are Stable but the Economy is Fragile. Arrows are used to indicate trends. In this case the Environment is becoming more Stable while the Economy is becoming less Stable, and Community could go either way.

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