What is capitalism and how does it work? How do you have that discussion in a meaningful way that is related to people's experience?
One game I learned from the Kani Club improv workshop in Tokyo is Master and Servants. The idea of the game is simple: three players, one is the Master who is constantly demanding things of the servants. When the servants try to meet the Master's needs, the Master is never satisfied and yells at them. For example:
A series of activities for looking at wealth inequality in the US and globally.
An idea for an activity to help people think about different ways of organizing information to build understanding of historical events.
Based on the famous speech by the Meiji era Japanese feminist leader Kishida Toshiko, this activity asks participants to create a manga version of her speech, working in teams.
I have spelled out a nine step process, but it might make sense to do a much quicker, rougher version of this, to leave time for other discussions. Steps 1, 4, 5 are essential, I think.
Step one is to read the original essay (for Japanese readers, in Japanese), and do a reader response writing activity.
Step two is to form teams with a mix of self-identified skills/capacities:
Based on a Japanese puzzle game and the famous speech by early feminist leader Kishida Toshiko, this game asks players to identify the obstacles to the freedom of young women and then remove them one at a time.
Making the game is a key part of the activity. In teams, participants:
Brainstorm:
Got this idea from the video The Story of Solutions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkRvc-sOKk
The game Loud & Proud is designed to played as a rapid-fire competitive matching game. http://store.toolboxfored.org/loud-proud/
It can also be played:
The card game Buffalo, by Mary Flanagan, is designed to be played as a rapid-fire competition between players. (http://www.tiltfactor.org/game/buffalo/)
It can also be played:
A Japanese card game which presupposes inequality both at the outset and as the game proceeds.
The flow:
The players are divided into five groups:
Simple idea:
Play Monopoly (or Life) with an initial distribution of wealth and income that matches the one prevailing in your society.
The flow:
Prepare the game. Joker gives participants a Monopoly set and a source like Wealth Inequality in America (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM) or G William Domhoff's "Wealth, Income and Power" (http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html) and asks participants to divide the property and cash among the players in a way that mirrors the actual division of income and wealth in the United States.
