Play as Macroscope: Transdisciplinarity, Systems Thinking and Education for Planetary Citizenship

Event details

This webinar will discuss insights emerging from a currently evolving hybrid research, teaching and public engagement approach built on participatory mapping and playful design elements, aimed at promoting what Howard Odum called “the macroscope”: a capacity to holistically engage with large patterns.

During the session I will articulate how the creation of playful artefacts is inherently transdisciplinary and rooted in systems thinking, which has been highlighted by OECD as a key approach in addressing “wicked problems” and Sustainable Development Goals. The webinar will discuss the approach’s theoretical groundings and inspirations, with a particular focus on linking participatory methods, the creation of playful artefacts and Donella Meadows’s work on “Leverage Points” for systems-oriented interventions.

The webinar will then showcase and reflect on a number of experiments in playful participatory community mapping facilitated over a 18-month period, with diverse groups of participants across different countries, research projects and formal and non-formal educational spaces, all engaging with the methodology and informing its evolution. I will conclude with a discussion linking the participants’ creations with a vision of education for planetary citizenship, moving beyond dominant anthropocentric and market-centric perspectives.

Enquiries

For enquiries please contact Luca Morini

globallearning@coventry.ac.uk

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