On March 22, Kanazawa University Articulation Center for High School and University held a hybrid in-person and online seminar for high school students entitled "Thinking about Social Equality and Inequality through Board Games." Nine high school students from all over Japan participated in the seminar.
The game they played was "Unfair Monopoly." Participants used the board game "Monopoly" and an add-on kit for Monopoly. The add-on kit has "unfair rules" that make it easy for players who start out with an advantageous position to keep it until the end and run away with the win.
First, the students were asked to share their thoughts about equality and inequality in their daily lives, and then they played two games of "Unfair Monopoly." The advantageous and disadvantageous players were switched between the first and second games, so that everyone had the opportunity to play both. In both games, the advantageous player won.
After finishing the game, organizers set topics for discussion such as "What kind of game content could express modern Japanese society?" and "If the game were set in Japan, what kind of players do you think should appear?" and made the participants to think again about equality and inequality in Japan.
Students commented: "I really understood the importance of being in a different position than myself", "I was able to learn about current social issues through the game, which was a great experience" and "I was able to become aware of my own discriminatory attitudes." The seminar provided an opportunity to become aware of and think about social issues through the board game.
This seminar was held as a KUGS High School-University Connection Program Live Seminar.
For more information about KUGS High School-University Connection Program, click here.
※ Additional Monopoly kit developed by the French non-profit organization Observatoire des inégalités (Observatory of Inequalities) for educational purposes.
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Board Games -
Diverse Players -
Various event cards -
Participating high school students
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