NTERPRETING THE CONCEPTS OF TECHNOLOGY-SOCIETY TO PUBLIC POLICY: THE POTENTIALS OF SYSTEM DYNAMICS AND COMPUTER GAMES

Abstract

In this paper, we explore how Civilization, and – in a more general approach – computer games can enhance public administration (PA) education for interpreting technology-society concepts (or Science Technology Studies). We pose the research question, how computer games at the early stage of PA studies aligned with systematic curriculum design make educational experiences and the learning process more sensitised to system complexity, creativity and understanding the role of technology.The paper shows an educational experiment where Sid Meier’s Civilization series is used at the University of Public Service in Budapest. Civilization is one of the most famous turn-based strategy games, illustrating the complex causalities of economic development, geographical expansion, technology innovation, government structure and warfare. The players experience historical development through the ages of human Civilization – starting to build simple ancient huts to modern space exploration – and choosing different strategies to guide their Civilization through the challenges of allocating resources, managing conflicts, or deploying technological innovations. Civilization has been used in several classroom experiences for teaching history and complex system analysis. Methodologically, we present an experiment ran at the University of Public Service in Budapest during the academic year of 2017–2018 written in a case study format. Our findings suggest promising results using computer games in four aspects of PA:a) Effectiveness and efficiency of learningWe show that students have acquired the learning objectives – knowledge and skills – of technology-society relationships and system thinking effectively and efficiently. We show that the concept of Civilization has proven an effective method to demonstrate the comprehensive approach in PA – showing how the interplay of event, structure, and behaviour works on a grand scale.b) Implications of advanced technologies in public administration studiesOur experiment has revealed that if students are presented with the historical contexts of technology and society relationship, their aptitude for the technology-society relationship becomes creative, sensitive, and opens up for appreciating the importance of public policies in the better functioning of governments.c) Further applications of computer games (different uses of Civilization and others)Based on the experiment, we developed recommendations on how computer and video games can be used in PA education. This is essential given our students’ feedback, given the fact that the genre of PA education needs to be modernised for retaining astute talents for improving the future staffing of PA experts.d) PA problems that can be solved by games: the reception of the ideaFinally, we have suggested ideas beyond the classroom learning for understanding complex PA problems by using simulation games based on our observations. ‘Games’ are the popularised versions of complex dynamic simulations of cause-effect relations that often reveal non-intuitive behaviour of systems, understanding of which is essential for future public leaders.