The women’s journeys card game developed as part of this research will be played in a workshop session this Friday at an international geography conference. Players will attempt to navigate journey stages and distances away from abuse, towards settled accommodation in a safe location. On the way, they will face the ‘chance’ elements that can allow them to leap forward or fall back on their journey.
It is part of a session on “Serious Games” at the RGS-IBG Conference in London.
“Serious games” use the interactions and norms of games – from playing cards or board games to online gaming – to engage and inform in ways that other methods cannot. They may be used in policy contexts to involve decision-makers in addressing problems, in practice contexts to encourage professionals to deepen their understanding and in teaching contexts to generate insights and empathy.
They are still games: fun and entertainment, even competitiveness, are important, but the games also address serious issues and aim to achieve real world outcomes. The goal is not the game itself, but the discussion and potential action that follow.
Serious Games are used to involve participants in thinking about a wide range of difficult issues: examples can be found from migration, to health, to forestry.
Games in the session address a wide range of geographical issues from mapping flood recovery to tackling racist narratives and hateful messages, from mapping journeys for women escaping domestic violence to system mapping future access to fruit and vegetables, and to mapping journeys in the USA to access abortion.
Serious and difficult topics – and the workshop provides the opportunity for manageable debates and respectful interactions by using the method of “Serious Games”.