Changing the game of consumption

Gameboard with chips
Gameboard

Changing the game of consumption is a research communication project that uses large-scale social simulations, so-called megagames, to help groups explore different interests and ideas about transformations towards sustainable consumption related to food, vacations and furnishings.

The research results communicated come from the research project MISTRA Sustainable Consumption, where researchers elicit and study enablers for policy and industry actors to promote sustainable consumption patterns. The aim of Changing the game of consumption is to invite new groups to explore these enablers in a participatory format and help them provide their perspectives on what needs to happen to scale up niche consumption practices to become mainstream.

MISTRA Sustainable Consumption is a cross-disciplinary research project with partners from Lund University, Luleå University of Technology, Linköping University, Chalmers University of Technology, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. It seeks to provide in-depth knowledge on how and under what conditions sustainable niche practices can become more mainstream and how the transition to sustainable consumption practices can be accelerated.
spelbräde slängruta

The enablers derived from MISTRA Sustainable Consumption point in several different directions and affect society differently. Any changes enacted politically would have to have popular support, which means development of enablers requires an understanding of how different groups conceive of just and sustainable consumption patterns. Changing the Game of Consumption offers participants the chance to enact the changes they would like to see, and explore their society-wide consequences over the course of a day. Having participated in a game session is intended to a foster deeper understanding of systems-level relationships between enablers and stakeholders, and provide feedback to MISTRA Sustainable Consumption around perceptions of enablers.

Funding

The project is funded by Formas, 2022 - 2025.

 

Tre personer står framför ett spelbräde.

 

Contact

News and game design blog

For more information on the use of megagames for social transformation and Changing the game of consumption, see the blogg below, and East Sweden Megagames on Facebook for local megagame events.

 

Game design blog

16 Feb, 2024
The workings of a society undergoing change: An intricate dance

What became apparent in Wageningen was that we were onto something with this design, which centred on poker chips in different colours representing food, furnishings, and vacation and population teams assessing the well-being of their part of the population by comparing the piles of chips they had managed to get hold of during the round […]

Game design blog
01 Mar, 2023
Playtesting CGC v0.1: reflections on the rise (but not fall) of a criminal empire

On February 15 2023 the village of Åkervalla opened up for the very first group to attempt to achieve sustainable consumption. The following are some reflections from the first playtest, with some ideas about what direction the development of the game will take. The first decision to make is always whether the concept worked or […]

Game design blog
03 Jan, 2023
The village of Åkervalla: dressing a problem in different (but familiar) garments

The latest development involves myself and my colleague sitting down a few hours to discuss how to proceed with development of the game – and ended up in us rethinking the whole thing. We realised that the problems and solutions the players would be dealing with are very abstract and general in nature, and for […]

Game design blog

External website for the Mistra project

Organisation at LiU

Collaboration

Logotype Mistra Sustainable Consumption