LESS is More - Game

1. LESS is More - Game A Catalyst For a Sustainable Future Dr Noel Cass – Lancaster University n.cass1@lancaster.ac.uk Liz Horn – LESS liz@lessuk.org

2. Structure of talk • “The challenge” • Gaming for good • Game ideas – slides from our presentation to Catalyst when proposing the project • Theory: • Behaviour Change • Cultural Theory • Practice Theory • ‘Proof of concept’ – what we are doing, where we are at • Participation activity: Q-sort

3. The Challenge Developed economies, with just 20% of the world population, are responsible for almost 80% of the life-cycle impacts of consumption. The challenge for developed economies is therefore, to do more with less. [Tucker et al, 2008] (from our pitch to Catalyst: CITIZENS TRANSFORMING SOCIETY: TOOLS FOR CHANGE!) http://www.catalystproject.org.uk/ [Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff] Pathological consumption has become so normalised that we scarcely notice it. George Monbiot

4. Children growing up in the UK are the most pressured, unhappy and commercially vulnerable in the western world. Unicef 2011

5. Gaming for Good When we are playing games, we are tapping into our best qualities, our ability to be motivated, to be optimistic, to collaborate with others, to be resilient in the face of failure. • Dr Jane McGonigal, Institute for the Future = Super-Empowered Hopeful Individuals

6. LESS is More – Game IDEAS • Create a cross-platform game that crosses the digital - real world barrier to create communal sustainable action. • Players will co-design, curate and moderate the game by setting sustainable challenges and providing rewards. • Mixture of individual and group activities & rewards to test what motivates different people to act. • Rewards in-line with sustainable ethos of the game – leaderboards, PBs, real-life community rewards e.g. Freeshopor Swap Shop items, BARTER points. =

7. Citizen Led research How to successfully motivate pro-environmental behaviour? The game taps into a number of academic areas Fun Theory…. Behaviour Change….. Cultural Theory… Game-ification… How do end-users shape the meaning and development of innovative technologies? Social Practice Theory…. Jeongwon Ji’s electronic designs made of Chinese mitten crab bioplastic

8. Behaviour change • For many years, attempts to convince people to change behaviour (for environmental reasons) have been based on providing information, particularly on costs and impacts of behaviours.

9. Behaviour change • For many years, attempts to convince people to change behaviour (for enfironmental reasons) have been based on providing information, particularly on costs and impacts of behaviours. • “What are the key behaviours central to addressing climate change? • a) What is the abatement potential of these behavioural changes • individually and collectively? • b) What are the key drivers / mechanisms / levers / determinants of • behavioural change? • c) What do we know about the costs and effectiveness of these levers • and initiatives?” (Scottish Government Climate Change Behaviours Research Programme)

10. Behaviour change • For many years, attempts to convince people to change behaviour (for environmental reasons) have been based on providing information, particularly on costs and impacts of behaviours. • “What are the key behaviours central to addressing climate change? • a) What is the abatement potential of these behavioural changes • individually and collectively? • b) What are the key drivers / mechanisms / levers / determinants of • behavioural change? • c) What do we know about the costs and effectiveness of these levers • and initiatives?” (Scottish Government Climate Change Behaviours Research Programme) • Seems to make sense! BUT

11. Behaviour change • This is based in behaviourist models of action, which assume that: • People do things as individuals; • What people do can be broken down into discrete units – behaviours; • Each discrete form of behaviour is decided upon consciously and rationally; • These decisions are based on weighing up information; • Individuals are ‘utility maximisers’;

12. Behaviour change • This is based in behaviourist models of action, which assume that: • People do things as individuals; • What people do can be broken down into discrete units – behaviours; • Each discrete form of behaviour is decided upon consciously and rationally (link to ‘rational choice’ model) • These decisions are based on weighing up information; • Individuals are ‘utility maximisers’; Of course, the (mostly psychological) models of why people do or do not behave in an ‘environmentally friendly’ way have developed over the years.... Here are a few examples of these models

13. Behaviour change

14. Behaviour change

15. Behaviour change

16. Behaviour change “the identified factors do not sufficiently explain pro-environmental behavior [...] There seem to be many more factors that influence pro-environmental behavior. Hines et al. (1986–87) called these ‘situational factors’ which include economic constraints, social pressures, and opportunities to choose different actions.” Kollmuss and Agyeman (2002: 24)

17. Behaviour change

18. CULTURAL THEORY • Based on Mary Douglas’ anthropological work and developed by others to refer to ‘Us’: • Two dimensions of social relations (solidarity and stratification, group and grid) give rise to four ways of life or cultural worldviews : • “A “high group” way of life exhibits a high degree of collective control, whereas a “low group” one exhibits a much lower one and a resulting emphasis on individual self-sufficiency. A “high grid” way of life is characterized by conspicuous and durable forms of stratification in roles and authority, whereas a “low grid” one reflects a more egalitarian ordering

19. CULTURAL THEORY • Based on Mary Douglas’ anthropological work and developed by others to refer to ‘Us’: : • Two dimensions of social relations (solidarity and stratification, group and grid) give rise to four ways of life or cultural worldviews: • Individualism (low group, high grid) • Hierarchism (high group, high grid) • Egalitarianism (high group, low grid) • Fatalism (low group, low grid)

20. CULTURAL THEORY • Based on Mary Douglas’ anthropological work and developed by others to refer to ‘Us’: : • Two dimensions of social relations (solidarity and stratification, group and grid) give rise to four ways of life or cultural worldviews: • Individualism (low group, high grid) • Hierarchism (high group, high grid) • Egalitarianism (high group, low grid) • Fatalism (low group, low grid) • ...each has its own ideals, model of (human) nature, ideas about blame, responsibility and so on.

21. CULTURAL THEORY • (see also Max Weber’s three types of rationality: bureaucracy, market, and religious charisma)

22. CULTURAL THEORY • Applied to energy policy (“Among the energy tribes”), and environmentalism in America (“Risk and Culture : An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers”), the theory was rejected by some because it was seen as dismissing environmentalism as irrational cultism! • It was also seen as reductive/simplistic, functionalist, and deterministic – it fails to deal very well with individual choice and agency. • The ways of life define themselves against each other and compete – ‘dialogue of the deaf’...

23. “Here is a dispute between two who will never agree. No new facts will change the opinions of the pioneering individualist who cheerily asserts that all will be well, or those of the holy man who warns him of terrible dangers to be unleashed if he continues in his ways. Whatever information is tendered, their differences are irreconcilable. Current political contests between Christianity and Islam are in this class, so are the debates about global warming. For such important issues each side devotes large funds to research for new facts about the alleged dangers, but no new facts will resolve the issues.”

24. PRACTICE THEORY “OLD BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS” • In a nutshell, practice theory says that people do what they do because....it’s what (other) people do! • Similar to Giddens (structuration theory), neither individual freedom (‘agency’) nor the system, norms, rules, or psychological factors (‘structure’) fully explain the things people do that make up society and everyday life (‘social practices’). • People learn what to do, consider it the norm, and often ‘go with the flow’ – learning a new habit/practice takes effort, conscious decision, but above all practice. • People can and do change – and so does ‘the done thing’, but it changes slowly, or suddenly, and often unpredictably!

25. PRACTICE THEORY PRACTICES ARE MADE OF LINKED ELEMENTS • Competence: Know-how, muscle memory, learned skills, tacit knowledge, internalised ‘rules of the game’ • Meanings: Mutually understood, exist across practices, ‘image’, discourses in society, ‘logics’ • Materials: Gadgets, pieces of kit, infrastructures, clothing, resources

26. PRACTICE THEORY PRACTICES ARE MADE OF LINKED ELEMENTS ... they are linked to other practices, the links between them can join and break, change in one leads to change in others, they evolve and sometimes erupt (SMS) • Competence: Know-how, muscle memory, learned skills, tacit knowledge, internalised ‘rules of the game’ • Meanings: Mutually understood, exist across practices, ‘image’, discourses in society, ‘logics’ • Materials: Gadgets, pieces of kit, infrastructures, clothing, resources

27. “PROOF OF CONCEPT” – LESS IS MORE • FOCUS GROUPS • With LMC students & Senior Learners • Group at Lancaster University. • CREATIVE GATHERING • Picking brains of localartists, designers, doers, illustrators, hackers, gamers, innovators& dreamers. • Join us! • PARTICIPATORY DESIGN WORKSHOP • To creatively explore design ideas for the game. What is possible? • Q-SORT ACTIVITY • To identify clusters of attitudes towards pro-environmental behaviours. • ONLINE SURVEY • To collect public views on our ideas about the game and how people might be engaged through it to take action.

28. Week of challenges 10th-17th Feb 2014 www.lessismoregame.org • MONDAY: • Ready, Steady, ThermoSETThis is a really quick & easy one to kick you off. Turn your thermostat down by at least 1 degree, preferably to around 18 degrees, and reduce how long your heating is on for by an hour a day. You need to send us proof (photos, video, tweet etc) by 12midnight 10th February to get points, but this is a long term habit to adopt.Mending Bee (11am - 4pm), Skerton, LancasterBring along anything that you’ve got sitting around that needs mending and we'll work together to try to fix it. Get in touch for venue details. And don't worry if you can't make it you can still take the Mend It, Fix It challenge.Film Screening: 'Just Do It a Tale of Modern Outlaws' (8pm, Upstairs at The Borough)A look behind the scenes at the activities and tactics of direct action groups Climate Camp and Plane Stupid. The film will be followed by a discussion on environmental direct action.Week Long Challenges starting todayNO Supermarket SweepCan you go a week without buying anything from a supermarket? This is your chance to support local shops in Lancaster & Morecambe. There are lots more challenges on the www.lessismoregame.org website including the Journey Switch, Team Grot Spot& Sustainable Supperchallenges that you can do any time this week.”

30. INTERVIEWS • To get feedback following the trial of the game. We are looking for people to join in with most of these activities, and particularly with the research activities. To join in with the project, to help us research, or to take part in the game challenge testing, join up at: Website: www.lessismoregame.org Facebook: “Less Is More Game” page Twitter: @LessMoreGame Or email us: n.cass1@lancaster.ac.uk liz@lessuk.org

31. Q-SORT • Rules for doing a Q sort • Take the set of statement cards and do a first sort: place the statement cards into three piles with the ones you agree with the least on the left, the ones you agree with the most on the right, and the rest in between. • Now use the mat to sort through these piles, comparing the statements to each other to fine-tune whether you agree with each more or less than the next. Place the cards onto the mat using the spaces marked in a triangle shape, one card per space, until you have sorted through all of the cards in the piles. • Have a final check over the statements and rearrange or swap any that you want to. • When you are satisfied with the sort, turn over the cards, and record your sort by writing the numbers of the cards in each column in the relevant columns of the “Sort result” sheet. Add your details if you are happy to do so. • Arrange for the result sheet to be collected by the researchers!