Page - 18 - in options, Volume winter 2021

TH E FU TURE OF TH E RIVER IS IN YOUR H AN D S IIASA RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS ROLE-PLAYING SIMULATION GAMES AS A PROMISING APPROACH TO ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ACROSS SECTORS IN SYSTEMS THINKING AND SOCIETAL UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES. For the past decade, IIASA researchers Piotr Magnuszewski and Junko Mochizuki have been reviving the long-standing IIASA tradition of creating interactive modeling games. “What we are doing particularly differently now as compared to decades ago, is that we have a lot more opportunities to use this type of approach on the ground with policymakers and practitioners. We are using this not only as an opportunity to provide a space for non-scientists to learn about systems thinking, but also for us to learn about collective decisions and to explore ways in which we can better design models within decision- and policymaking processes,” says Mochizuki, about the water-food- energy Nexus Game. In the Nexus Game, players take on the role of key ministers of two countries sharing the same river. After receiving a short introduction and a briefing note from a fictitious superior, they find themselves immersed within a realistic world environment and tasked with solving a resource management problem. Every player has to make decisions that impact others and the game in direct and measurable ways. “We are getting players in a situation where, by compressing time and space, they experience the most important system interconnections. Then they reflect on the game dynamics, but we also make a bridge to the real world situation to which they can relate,” says Magnuszewski. Unlike many games, these social simulations have no winners or losers. Instead, the design and process developed by Mochizuki and colleagues are based on alternating active and reflexive phases that incorporate a balanced mix of actions and observations, as well as abstract concepts and concrete experiences. By applying the concepts of © Centre for Systems Solutions + Rawpixelimages | Dreamstime By Marie Franquin 18 Options www.iiasa.ac.atWinter 2021