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Why a game?

Whether or not we can get the world onto a more sustainable footing will depend on major shifts in structures and patterns of production and finance, on mobilisations from below, new governance and business structures and changes in social and individual practices and behaviours. It will also depend on changing our minds and using our imagination.

This module looks at different aspects of the relationship between globalisation and the environment. This module is an invitation to learn in a different way, through a gamified experience called Project Dandelion.

It will require you to choose one key super challenge to focus on – climate change, food and agriculture and waste  – in order to learn, connect, collaborate and act towards creating pathways to change.

The spark for the game was not only the experience of students feeling depressed, anxious and helpless by the themes of the module, but also by the question Robyn Wall Kimmerer (2013) asks of us:

‘How can we begin to move towards ecological and cultural sustainability if we cannot even imagine what the path feels like?’ (Kimmerer, 2013, p. 6).

In this module, we take this question seriously. This gamified module is an invitation to think through scenarios of environmental change, that start by asking ‘What if?’.

The Game

Game narrative

Video

Transcript

It is 2047.

We have succeeded in generating the fastest transition to limit global warming to 1.4 degrees, halted and reversed biodiversity loss, transformed the way our food is produced, distributed and accessed, as well as reached zero waste. We have created the radical changes needed to transform global systems towards a regenerative path rather than environmental catastrophe.

Tipping the balance was in great part thanks to the work of the Greenmasons.

The Greenmasons were a decentralised but highly organised secret network working to unite forces towards regeneration. Their work was to link up movements and to find and distribute funding to train people, sustain organisations and use the influence of members to create a greener future, ignoring political or religious differences. They created the foundation for a flexible and dynamic local and global counterinsurgency.

But this future was not a given. The early 2020s was a crucial point in history where things could have gone either way. Rising fascism and extreme financial capitalism wrangled with alliances of movements that shared environmental and social justice concerns and wanted radical change.

The reason I am telling you this now is because, as many suspect, this organisation is still running. In fact, this is who we are. We are asking you to join us.

We have developed the first time machine and we are going to use it to go back to the 2020s, which we have identified as the start of the decade of change that could help tip the balance and steer away from ecological catastrophe. This was the year the Greenmasons began their work. Due to its secret nature, there is not much documentation nor details about our work and projects.

Your mission is to go back in time and work with other Greenmasons and report back.

How did we do this?

This is Project Dandelion.

How to play this game and spread the seeds of change

You have now been initiated as a Greenmason, a secret organisation working to create more regenerative ways of living.

You will travel back in time from 2047 to 2020s, a crucial decade for change.

The challenge:

We are living in unsustainable systems. If humans are to survive, we must change. We have to change our relationship with our planet – change our mind, change our practices, change our companies, change our infrastructures, change our habits.

We know it happened. But how?

To figure this out, we need to learn, connect and act.

Throughout the next 7 weeks, we will:

• brief you on critical and more holistic ways of understanding key environmental issues
• give you quests that will drive your learning and test your skills in connecting the personal with politics, theory, and practice (what was/is with what is to come)
• work together on imagining new ways forward.

These quests will lead you to your final individual and group assessments. If you succeed on your quests and assessments, you will become an official member of the Greenmasons and a seed of change in the world.

Part of what we are going to tackle together are three key super challenges – climate change, food and agriculture, waste – you have to choose one in which to participate in order to learn, imagine, collaborate and create pathways to change with your group.

Your Participation in the weekly quests (based on the 3 quizzes) plus the Group Work and Critical Reflection will be submitted to the Greenmasons High Commission (tutors) who will evaluate your success in your mission.

Why Dandelions?

This game is about connecting with place and spreading the seeds of change. What better than the dandelion to lead the way?

Dandelions are prodigious, hardy and generous plants that have much to teach us.

Dandelions are a symbol of resilience. Commonly thought of as weeds and battled by gardeners, they are hard to uproot or avoid. Their deep taproots make them hard to eliminate and any of their pieces will regenerate. Dandelion seeds are made to fly off safely in their little parachutes.

Every part of the plant is healing and nutritious for the soil, as well as humans and non-humans. They help to aerate and loosen hard packed soil and reduce erosion. Their deep taproots bring nutrients back to the surface and make them available to other plants. Their bright yellow flowers attract pollinators and feed numerous animals.

Dandelions have traditionally been used for herbal medicine through the ages. They support health by protecting the liver, gallbladder, and urinary and digestive system, as well as treating skin complaints (Brutton Seal and Seal, 2008). The leaves are nutrient dense and can be eaten in salads, especially the young leaves. Their taproots can be roasted and made into a coffee substitute, their flower buds and blossoms can be used for baking, dandelion heads are used for making wine, and so on.