Johann Schuur
2022
Full text
The serious board game is a participatory activity related to urban spatial planning that engages experts from different backgrounds. The term “serious game” emphasises that it is a game where the primary purpose is something other than entertainment. The serious game, the adaptation process, collaborations and workshops are part of the EU ERC Globescape project developed in Switzerland by Professor Adrienne Grêt-Regamey (ETH Zürich, Grant agreement no. 757565). The game was adapted to local conditions in Helsinki.
The purpose of the game is to engage urban stakeholders in discussions on planning and investment decisions, and to provide researchers with data and material from which to derive insights related to urban planning situations. Ultimately, the goal of the game is to provide players (stakeholders) from different professional backgrounds with opportunities to engage in discussions with each other about urban planning. In the game, the players are challenged to make investments in and negotiate the development of an area to meet certain targets related to their individual pre-set aims. The game requires the stakeholders to discuss potential moves with each other and take joint action to gain maximum points in the area for attractiveness and the social acceptability of the decisions. These discussions and the debriefs that follow are observed and recorded by researchers and analysed for research purposes.