Simulation I: Model UN, Fast-tracking 3 Millennium Development Goals
On February 16, 2015, the students in SEM 372 participated in a Model UN Simulation Session that explored the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN in 2000. The session was designed to help students observe power relations at work and also to use their knowledge and vocabulary to describe what happened during the session. Prior to the session, students were assigned different roles (national delegates and national citizens), and were required to embody these roles during a Model UN Special Session that sought to fast-track 3 of the 8 UN MDGs. The events of the Special Session were recorded by a class member who was designated as the media representative. Their records were kept on the "official webpage" for the special session: The MDG Times: http://mdgtimes372.blogspot.ch/
The activity was guided by the following learning goals. Students who complete this activity will be able to:
On February 16, 2015, the students in SEM 372 participated in a Model UN Simulation Session that explored the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN in 2000. The session was designed to help students observe power relations at work and also to use their knowledge and vocabulary to describe what happened during the session. Prior to the session, students were assigned different roles (national delegates and national citizens), and were required to embody these roles during a Model UN Special Session that sought to fast-track 3 of the 8 UN MDGs. The events of the Special Session were recorded by a class member who was designated as the media representative. Their records were kept on the "official webpage" for the special session: The MDG Times: http://mdgtimes372.blogspot.ch/
The activity was guided by the following learning goals. Students who complete this activity will be able to:
- Reflect upon how Steven Lukes’ descriptions of one-, two- and three-dimensional power could help us understand power relations in the context of this simulation. That is, what do we alternately see in terms of power relations if we reflect upon one-, two- OR three-dimensional power? Which dimension yields the most interesting questions/concerns to YOU?
- Observe the ways in which even admirable institutions like the UN, are often comprised of what Mills would call “power elites” AND by extension, to problematize this fact.
- Reflect upon power as capacity and to be able to articulate (inventory) the capacities your particular ‘position’ could and could not evoke.
- Begin to think about power in terms of capital, performance, and place
Simulation II: WTO Protest
On May 4, 2015, the students in SEM 372 participated in a WTO protest simulation. The simulation was designed loosely around the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle Washington, USA. The activity simulated a
temporally and spatially-fixed interaction (protest) where various forms of power were ‘in
play', and encouraged participants to (1) reflect upon the various
forms of power operating and (2) use new understanding of power and rhetoric to evoke agency within these power relations and structures.
Students were assigned different stakeholder positions including: members of the police, mayor's office, WTO delegates, activists of various kinds, business owners, media of various kinds, and local citizens. Students met in groups before the 'protest' event and designed goals from their unique perspectives. During the protest, stakeholders were issued prompts that guided and complicated the achievement of stakeholder goals. The events of the 'protest' were recorded by two different media sources, mainstream (corporate) media outlets (TV, News & Social Media), and activist media. At the end of the session, student reviewed and reflected upon the 'memory' of the event through these two lenses:
Official Media: Empire Media News http://empiremedia372.blogspot.ch/
Activist Media: Radical Justice http://radicaljustice372.blogspot.ch/
Students were assigned different stakeholder positions including: members of the police, mayor's office, WTO delegates, activists of various kinds, business owners, media of various kinds, and local citizens. Students met in groups before the 'protest' event and designed goals from their unique perspectives. During the protest, stakeholders were issued prompts that guided and complicated the achievement of stakeholder goals. The events of the 'protest' were recorded by two different media sources, mainstream (corporate) media outlets (TV, News & Social Media), and activist media. At the end of the session, student reviewed and reflected upon the 'memory' of the event through these two lenses:
Official Media: Empire Media News http://empiremedia372.blogspot.ch/
Activist Media: Radical Justice http://radicaljustice372.blogspot.ch/
The simulation was guided by the following learning objectives:
- Recognize/identify and inventory the various forms of power
- Understand and evoke your own power (agency, capacity)
- Apply and use rhetorical vocabularies and tools to achieve goals and manipulate power relations/structures and evoke your own power.
- Reflect upon 'the media' and 'media' as constitutive forms in: (1) the representation of social/political issues, (2) setting social agendas, and (3) being a major source of a community's memory/historical archive.