Global Justice Game

This initiative draws on an entertaining use of information and communication technology (ICT) to educate students and activists about global justice issues. Visitors to Global Justice Game website may learn about the game and access all of the materials for running the game free of charge (but the latter access level requires passwords, which can be obtained by communicating with the organiser via email; please see below). Key to this process is the request that those who use the free game reciprocate for its use by providing systematic feedback including a report of what happened, and participant and coordinator evaluations.

The game is envisioned to be part of a larger, participatory process. In the first phase, participants meet with members from their own teams (groups numbering approximately 12 persons) to discuss strategy. In the "Meeting and Negotiation" phase, participants talk with other team members and try to influence events to their advantage. The third phase involves collaborative decisions about what actions to take for the team. In Phase IV, each team presents a press release with details about its decisions. Finally, media teams present their own perspective of the game's events. In addition, after each case, coordinators facilitate discussion to help participants understand how the game model reflects the operation of the global economy.

Rights, Globalisation.

Here is a summary of the game scenarios that are at the centre of this process (additional detail on each one is available by clicking here):

1. Factory Fire in Fabrikistan - In this (fictional) country in Southeast Asia, 211 people die in fire in an apparel factory used to produce goods for (the fictional) Chic Duds International (CDI). In the wake of the fire, global justice teams explore options to improve factory conditions, and CDI tries to maintain investor confidence, while Fabrikistan is caught in a debt crisis...
2. Selling Green in Fabrikistan - In this scenario, CDI has proposed to build a destination resort and theme park in Fabrikistan to promote eco-tourism. The Fabrikistan Islamic Jihad has made terrorist threats against the park and its attractions, prompting the government of Fabrikistan to seek US military aid Fabrikistan has also applied for a World Bank micro-financing loan to promote small business development and train citizens, especially women, through a CDI programme connected to the theme park...
3. Biopiracy in Plantanoguay - In this (fictional) country in South America, the government has started a producers' cooperative among the indigenous Azmaya to grow and distribute kahote, a medicinal plant unique to the region. The United States government has filed various complaints, such as that this farming violates intellectual property rights, a label used by worker cooperatives violates labeling rules, and a Plantanoguay law banning advertising claims that an infant formula is more healthful than breast milk violates free trade rules...
4. Cancer Alley - In this scenario, HAZMAT (a fictional private investor/company that is the largest private investor in Banglabush, a fictional country) has applied for a permit to build an uranium enrichment plant and a waste-disposal plant among the predominantly African-American communities living in "Cancer Alley", an industrial corridor running 85 miles along the length of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. After the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the US Environmental Protection Agency denied HAZMAT-needed permits to proceed, the company is suing the U.S. government...
5. Race to the Bottom - In this scenario, recent changes in European Union banana tariffs intended to favour former colonies may squeeze socially conscious Poquita Banana (with plantations in Plantanoguay) out of the industry and threaten workers' rights across the globe...
6. Strip-mining Banglabush - In this scenario, the (fictional) country of Banglabush in central Africa is bankrupt and unable to make its loan payments. It has applied for debt forgiveness. HAZMAT is proposing a joint project with the government to strip-mine uranium. The mining operation would displace an indigenous people and destroy their sacred burial ground. A loan application to the World Bank to finance the project is pending...In addition, the government-run water company was recently sold to HAZMAT, which has tripled the price of water...
7. Making a Better World - In this scenario, a large private foundation is financing a conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil, to agree on specific plans for changing or replacing the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) with alternatives. Participants will include both governments from the global South and transnational non-governmental organisations (NGOs); more than a dozen concrete proposals are on the table, and the participants must decide which ones to pursue and recommend....