 Topics and Competencies
Awareness of Structural Inequality, Knowledge of Identity-General Characteristics of Inequality, Simulations
Grade Level
Middle Grades, High School, College/Adult
Subject Area Integration
None |
Author(s)
Christy M. Byrd
Source
Adapted from the Program on Intergroup Relations, University of Michigan
Date Created/Most Recently Revised
June 2021 |
Learning Objectives
- Understand mechanisms of inequality
- Understand how individual actions are influenced by group identity and societal structures
Materials
- Using masking tape or other markers, divide the room into three areas:
- Apple Grove Estates, the largest area
- Cherry Park, a medium-sized area
- Mango Heights, as small an area as possible (taking into account accessibility needs, uncomfortably small)
- Building supplies like construction paper, markers, scissors, tape, and paper clips
- Designate a table as City Hall
- Optional: Tokens to represent money, a store to sell supplies and/or a jail
Instructions
- This is a simulation in which players work to build up different neighborhoods of a city. The neighborhoods are subject to differential treatment, highlighting structural inequalities.
- Divide participants into three groups. To increase the feelings of inequity, you can make the group in Mango Heights the largest and the group in Apple Grove Estates the smallest.
- Distribute resources to the participants (or give them credit to purchase from the store). Apple Grove Estates should have the most resources and Mango Heights the least.
- Explain to participants that they will be building a city and they have each been assigned to a neighborhood. In order to build within their neighborhood, participants need to apply for a building permit at City Hall.
- You will manage building permits at City Hall. Optional: Designate a storekeeper and police officer. The role of the police officer is to patrol boundaries of neighborhoods, conduct random inspections of buildings, and send people to jail for breaking rules. The storekeeper distributes resources and decides when materials are available and how much they cost.
- The city officials are extremely accommodating to residents of Apple Grove Estates, for example: quickly approving permits, awarding “grants” to encourage new development, and allowing residents to move freely around the city. Residents of Cherry Park are treated well as long as they follow rules. In Mango Heights, residents are highly surveilled and permits are more often rejected than approved.
- Allow participants to play for about 30 minutes. Once participants are invested in their neighborhoods, you can introduce events such as:
- Natural disasters (parts of the city are destroyed)
- Highway development (through Mango Heights to allow better access for residents of Apple Grove Estates)
- New laws, such as curfews and restrictions on movement through the city
- Reflection questions
- What happened in the game? (Make sure to get impressions from members of each of the groups)
- What did you notice about how people were treated during the game?
- Why was it so difficult to be productive during the game?
- What happened in the game that is similar to real life?
- How do people get assigned to groups?
- How do those groups get treated differently?
- How do the groups with more power keep their power?
- How do people with less power react to power differences and being treated unfairly?
- What surprised you about how you played the game? (Focus on assumptions, beliefs about minority groups, rule-breaking or resistant behavior, etc.)
- What in your thinking has changed as a result of playing the game?
- What, as an individual in a group with more power, do to change unequal societal structures?
- What, as an individual in a group with less power, do to change unequal societal structures?
Variations
- University of Arizona Residence Life (n.d.) Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood. Retrieved from https://www.life.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/archiebunkersneighborhood.pdf.
- You can introduce an element of unfair time by having participants wait in a separate room at the beginning. The Apple Grove Estates residents can enter first and have the most time to build, with the Mango Heights residents entering last.
Extensions
Assessments
Evidence of Effectiveness
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