Method or activity in detail - sustainabilitytools.eu

Short description: “In my community” helps to develop a discussion around the idea of a perfect society and how would this work.

Objectives

To reflect on the concepts of:

Global Reference - Choose SDG's: 11 Sustainable cities and communities, 15 Life on land, 16 Peace, justice and strong institutions

Implementation

Material needed: Flip charts, pens, markers

Step 1. The participants are divided into two groups, representing two different “new” communities. Then they are asked to construct their own community defining the following aspects:
- Name of the community
- Define the local community language
- How do they greet each other?
- Which is their taboo?
- What is forbidden? And what do you do when someone is not respecting the
  “forbidden thing”?
- A local organization in terms of natural resources and market (or exchange)

Step 2. Each group has to “practice” a bit the life in the community.
Step 3. Choose 2 ambassadors in each community, exchange of ambassadors.
Step 4. The ambassador comes back to his home culture and describes the other culture.
Step 5. The two communities come back in plenary, debriefing.

Debriefing: Questions for the debriefing:

● What did you understand about the other community ? to the ambassadors;
● Did they understand correctly? To the communities;
● Do you have a hierarchy? If yes which and how it is functioning?
● How do they divide the natural resources?
● How do you manage the space?
● How do you manage your time?
● How decisions are taken within your community?
● Why did you define this taboo?
● How did you define what is allowed and what is forbidden?
● Why and how did you decide on the punishment?

Evaluation: You can ask your participants if any element from the communities they created they think should also be applied to your society, and how they think they can achieve that. Finally, you can ask what did they learn from the activity and if they think it helped them.

Adaption for other target audiences: You can adapt to younger children by making the debriefing questions simpler and the demands of the communities they have to create simpler, more directed to a child’s view of the word. In this case, the community will be highly imaginative, but you redirect their ideas to create a discussion on how they would be inclusive to everyone.