| In-house
news: new website feature!
This a small revolution by our standards: In the summer of
this year, we introduced a dedicated section on our website
featuring updates on our current projects. Be it special events
or new developments at planpolitik – we will inform
you about them as they occur or shortly after. And no, we
still haven't got a facebook account...
More simulation games
at the European House
A few days ago, the European Commission Representation in
Germany has commissioned us to run another 70 simulation games
at the European House in Berlin, aimed at school pupils. In
addition to the existing programme, there will be 10 training
courses for teachers and a newly developed simulation game
about the financial and economic crisis. Also, one of the
simulation games has been specifically calibrated for 10-12-year-olds
and for pupils of general secondary school. We are very pleased
that this successful collaboration is continuing. You can
find more information about the games and how to take part
here.
There is no charge to participating schools.
New EU simulation games for
4th and 5th graders
The European Commission Representation has commissioned us
to run 26 simulation games in the German federal state of
Lower Saxony – 20 of them in primary schools and the
remaining six in secondary schools.
Following an initiative by the European Information Centre
in Lower Saxony's state chancellery, we ran our first simulation
games at primary schools earlier this year – planpolitik's
first ever project for that age group! After some initial
doubt about whether presenting the topic of Europe to 8-10-year-olds,
the sessions eventually turned out to be a resounding success.
Now there will be another batch of over 20 simulation games
over the coming semester. We're happy to be able to announce
that we now run events for all ages from 8-80. We have even
younger kids at home, so we don't need to include that age
group in our work just yet...
Train-the-trainer workshop
in Sarajevo
Between te 28th and the 30th of October 2011, we held a “Train
the Trainer” workshop in Sarajevo, commissioned by the
Konrad Adenauer
Foundation and the German NGO pharos.
The simulation game is fictional but contains strong parallels
to the political realties of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The focus
lay on the question of how strongly the political parties
define themselves along their ethnic origin compared to defining
themselves along their political stance toward political issues,
and how government coalitions can be formed in such a climate.
Immediately after the event, it was decided to hold the first
independent version (e.g. without our supervision and not
in English) in Banja Luka in December, given that the game
has been fully translated by then. We are, of course, hopeful
that many further independent “replays” will follow.
Four-day workshop in Tunis –
democracy up close...
Between the 22. - 25. of September 2011, we were in Tunisia
for the second time. As before, we had been invited by the
Friedrich Ebert Foundation. How much has changed since the
last time we were there! That was in November 2010 –
no-one could have guessed the fundamental changes the country
was about to undergo. Therefore, it was with even greater
interest that we followed the revolution of January 2011 from
afar. And of course we immediately agreed to come back to
Tunisia when we were asked whether we were interested in running
a simulation of an election campaign in a fictional country
undergoing similar change to Tunisia. Afterwards, we also
held a “future workshop” in which the youngsters
were to develop ideas and proposals for the future of their
country. How often does somebody like us, coming from a stable
and often somewhat static western democracy, get an opportunity
enter a conversation with people whose country is undergoing
major upheaval and is facing fundamental decisions about the
creation of its future political system?
It took some time until the idea became a tangible project.
Finally, in late September 2011, we were back – the
revolution was now nine months behind us and the initial euphoria
about the liberties won had given way to a distinctly more
sober view of the country's current political and economic
situation. Particularly the young generation, who is one of
the major forces behind the revolution and is disappointed
that little actual change has happened, does not trust the
political class.
Given this background, we were very curious how our offer
would be received. While the majority of the participating
students came from privileged backgrounds, and therefore probably
didn't accurately represent Tunisian society, there was still
a wealth of rather differing views and ideas about the future
of the country, not least regarding the future role of the
religious parties.
The country is finding itself at a crossroads and so far
it's unclear which direction it will take. The most recent
election of an constitutional assembly have provided first
hints of how political power is distributed in Tunisian society,
revealing that the moderate Islamic party Ennahda will clearly
emerge as the strongest political force. All hopes are resting
on the young generation to continue getting involved, carrying
forward ideas for a fairer and more open society and not letting
the realities of daily political business discourage them.
After all, a democracy needs a lively civil society that controls
those who possess power. The fact that democracy is a demanding
continuous process that requires a lot of work, debate and
nerves makes participation all the more important.
“What do I get out
of Europe?” Pupils and professionals in conversation
It was an interesting experiment to let
such heterogeneous groups have a discussion with each other:
Pupils and young leaders in politics, economy and the media.
And, looking back on it, it's safe to say it worked out well!
(Photo: Thomas
Kunsch)
As commissioned by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, we initially
ran a “future workshop” entitled “What do
I get out of Europe?” with pupils from Gütersloh
and Paderborn aged 17-19. At the end of the workshop, we had
established recommendations for three areas of politics. Three
weeks later, during the networking meeting of the Europe Summer
Academy of the Bertelsmann Foundation, these recommendations
constituted the base for the discussions between pupils and
alumni.
The greatest challenge was to actually get the conversation
between the two groups going – the pupils had to overcome
a feeling of awe towards the alumni, who in turn had to engage
the pupils' recommendations. The conclusion was that it worked
better than expected, most likely owing to the fact that at
25 participants, the group of alumni was relatively small,
thus enabling a good working atmosphere. In addition, the
alumni all agreed that the pupils came very well prepared,
facilitating a discussion of equal partners in all four groups.
„Changing Europe Summer
School“ in Moscow
For six years now we have been an integral part of the "Changing
Europe Summer School", organised by Heiko Pleines at
the University of Bremen, in which PhD students present their
research projects. At the beginning of each summer school
we run a simulation game - this time it's a game about the
financial crisis, taking place at Moscow's Higher School of
Economics. We simulated a stock market crash - and crash it
certainly did! The HSE has communicated an interest in continuing
this cooperation. That would be just fine by us!
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American
University Paris
It's something of a regular fixture by now and always a highlight
of our year: Our annual event at the American University Paris
(AUP). For the fifth time and while enjoying the view of the
Eiffel Tower from a room in the elegant 7th arrondissement,
we held a module on conflict management and negotiation with
around 30 highly motivated master students of International
Affairs. The module consists of shorter and longer exercises
and inputs about various aspects of conflict resolution and
good negotiation. In the beginning, there are several simple
negotiation exercises about, amongst other themes, the basics
of the so-called Harvard concept.
Also part of the programme was the simulation game “Panic
on Board”, the basic idea for which was developed by
AUP students during a didactic training course a few years
back: An airplane has been hijacked and while under extreme
time pressure, the governments concerned must decide whether
to negotiate with the “terrorists” and how far
to go in giving in to the their demands. There are, of course,
different “camps” within the governments, the
press are reporting on events as they unfold, always waiting
for the next sensational chapter in the story...This year,
the participants managed to avert the crisis and get all “hostages”
released unharmed – a rather educational insight into
negotiations in a crisis situation.
There was also a round of multilateral negotiations aiming
to resolve a regional conflict about the distribution and
usage of water resources. Apart from the topical issues, the
aim here was to highlight procedural aspects of multilateral
negotiations. The participants learnt that both aspects are
closely related and that as a chairperson, you hold a very
important position, albeit a very demanding one, too...
Once again, a very successful workshop – and the side
programme in a city like Paris is not to be dismissed, either!
A la prochaine!
In-house news part 2: Maps featuring
event locations
We have just uploaded two maps onto our partner
site. These maps show all the locations in which we have
held events in the past six years – one map for Germany,
the other for seminars abroad. When viewing the German map,
one notices a certain concentration of event locations along
a belt leading from Schleswig-Holstein through eastern Lower
Saxony and Thuringia to Saxony – owed in part to the
fact that we have held a large number of events about Europe
in a few loactions in those regions. On the map of Germany,
we differentiate between different event formats (however,
not between frequency of events, otherwise Berlin and Bonn
would need very large markings...), the distribution of which
you can also view separately.
When viewing the world map, one might be forgiven for getting
the impression that we have a strong preference for Eastern
Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. That is not necessarily
so! Of course we very much enjoyed traveling and working in
all the countries we've visited so far, we would be very happy
to receive invitations to North and South America as well
as Sub-Saharan Africa.
New offer: A simulation game about
the debt crisis
As of recently, we can offer a simulation game about the
debt crisis in Europe (so far only in German). In this fictional
game, which was developed on commission by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,
the governments of the participating countries have the task
of creating their budgets over a process of several rounds.
During tough negotiations with domestic actors such as the
Entrepreneur's Association, the Unions or the Civil Servant's
Association, taxes, expenditure priorities and new debt levels
are determined. Credit rating agencies assess the solidity
of the budget policy. But then, without prior warning, the
crisis hits. The states must save their banks and decide on
stimulus packages. The budgets slide into deficit as credit
ratings deteriorate. The Rosanian Union is offering itself
as an emergency lender but it return demands a say in the
planning of budgets...
In combination with our game about financial markets, in
which a stock exchange crash is simulated, and several other
interactive learning devices, students learn what lead to
the financial crisis, what the current debt crisis in Greece
and other EU states is really about and which possible political
answers there are. Our first test run in Bonn in Mid-October
was successful. We sincerely hope that there will be many
more runs. You can't really get more up-to-date than that...
Autumn School in Teheran –
Center for Global Politics
Full of fascinating, if highly ambivalent impressions, we
(Simon and Christopher) have just (20th of October 2011) returned
from Teheran, where we ran a simulation game about international
climate politics with Iranian trainee diplomats as well as
several German students. Beyond some disturbing impressions,
we are left with a wealth of extremely positive memories of
the people and there very friendly, unintrusive and relaxed
manner.
The first thing we noticed was that for Iranians, opportunities
to speak about their country to foreigners must be rare: The
first question asked, no matter whether in a seminar, on the
subway or in a restaurant, is invariably: “How do you
like Iran?”, followed by “What do you think about
politics in Iran?” But contrary to many other areas
of the world, there is no need to suspect any unsavoury intentions
like really trying to sell somebody something or somehow take
them for a ride. The people we met really just wanted to have
a conversation, really were curious what we thought about
the country and its people. In doing that, they are always
exceedingly friendly – regardless of their own opinions
about Iran or “the” west – opinions which,
by the way, were greatly disparate...
Apart from those positive impressions, we were particularly
pleased that the seminar went very well, with all players
participating enthusiastically in the negotiation. During
the evaluation round, many voiced their realisation that there
is much to be gained and learned from playing a simulation
game, both about the actual subject matter and about negotiation
skills – using a method that's rather more refreshing
than a regular lecture. Until now, lectures still seem to
have been more or less the only way of imparting knowledge
at the training academy. The trainee diplomats now want to
push for more practical and interactive elements in training.
Will they be successful? We do not know. In any case, it feels
good when people are letting themselves be convinced by the
simulation game as a method – particularly in countries
where this method is virtually unheard of.
The 80th Partner: eed!
The Protestant Development Service (eed) is the 80th partner
organisation for whom we have run an event – in this
case a short training course simulation games as a method
in cooperation with the giz, which took place near Hamburg
at the beginning of October.
Our partners so far range from the German Foreign Ministry
to the Association for the Support of Political Action; from
the Freie Universität Berlin to the European Commission
– the list is just as varied as our programme. With
some of these partners we have rather regular working relationships,
with others, we have so far only cooperated once. We sincerely
hope that the list of partners will increase further over
the next years – for example, southern Germany has so
far been somewhat underrepresented . And abroad, we are still
waiting for that invitation to Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America
and/or the USA...
But above all, we would like to thank all our existing partners
for their trust and loyalty and are hoping for many future
events together!
The 20th edition of simulation
game “Globalisation” at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung,
Bonn!
Back in the autumn of 2005, when planpolitik was in its
infancy, we wrote 300 letters to all potential cooperation
partners we could think of, just to spread the word about
our new project. We received a whopping ten answers, three
of which were displaying a serious interest in our work. We
are told that's a good hit rate...One of those three answers
came from the Forum for Youth and Politics at the FES in Bonn.
In spring 2006 we travelled there to run the first two simulation
games “Globalisation”, only to return again and
again, and in September 2011 we were able to celebrate the
20th run of that game for FES Bonn! Over time, our offers
gradually expanded so that soon we should be travelling to
our 50th FES Bonn event. Now that's what we call loyal partners!
Many team members within FES have come and gone over that
period, nevertheless we feel right at home in good old seminar
room K1... Thank you very much, everyone at FES!
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