Climate Change at Play

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Climate Change at Play

• Negotiating as a Positive Freedom
• David O Kronlid
• Docent of Ethics, the Faculty of Theology, UU
• Senior Lecturer in Curriculum studies, Dept. of
  Education, UU

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Purpose

• Explore the relevance of ludology for climate
  change negotiaiton discourse

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Playing the game?

• Barcelona Climate Change Conference 2009
• African Nations walk out Barcelona
• Sudanese H.E Ambassador Di-Aping CoP15

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Three main Qs

• (1) can climate change negotiations and
  negotiators reasonable be thought of as if
  negotiations are a game and the negotiators
  players?
• (2) If so, what kind of games are negotiations,
  who are the players, what does fair play mean,
  what does foul play and being a spoil-sport mean?
  
• (3) If so, what is the relevance for climate
  change justice, capabilities research and climate
  change negotiators of fleshing out the ability to
  play as a functioning in a climate change
  negotiation context?

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It is a Game!?

• Game Theory
• Negotiation Analysis
• Publik discourse

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Why Ludology?

• Game theory utilitarian reasoning
• Ludology includes more than rational deliberation
  of predicted equilibrium outcomes
• ludology deals with and defines play in coherence
  with play as capability being able to laugh and
  enjoy recreational activities in the
  capabilities literature (e.g. Alkire Black
  1997 Nussbaum, 2003).

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Capabilites research. Content and procedure.

• David O. Kronlid, PhD week, Environmental
  Learning and Research Centre, Rhodes University,
  Grahamstown, SA, Oct 19, 2011.

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Five
One
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Case studies in Mongolia (2010-11), Zimbabwe
(2007/2010-), Nepal (2011-)
(2008-)
(2008-2010...)
4. International book (2011-)
5. SwedishSouthAfricanClimateChangeCapabilitiesEmp
athyTheaterProject
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The s c o p e, s h a p e and c u r r e n c y of
social and distributive climate change justice
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S c o p e of social justice

• the entities that we identify as the legitimate
  recipients of benefits and burdens in society

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pattern of benefits that a theory of distribution
recommends. Pluralistic distribution
according to efficiency, equality, priority, and
sufficiency
S h a p e of social justice?
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C u r r e n c y of social justice

• the aspect of well-being, or unit of benefits or
  advantage, on which our distributive concerns
  should focus
• Welfare, resources or capabilities
• Our concerns here will certainly be different
  from either the recoursist or the welfarist. It
  will not be the aim of distributive justice to
  secure a resource base for future generations
  which is equal to that enjoyed by previous
  generations, or a non-diminishing social welfare
  function, but rather to preserve an environment
  that enables future persons to retain the same
  substantive freedoms to be healthy, well fed, and
  well clothed that their ancestors possessed.

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N o r m a t i v e approach

• Climate change should not exacerbate a persons
  opportunities to enjoy an equivalent array, or
  set, of capabilities to achieve valuable
  functionings, both simple and complex freedoms to
  be healthy, well fed, and well clothed!

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Descriptive and comparative critical analysis of
whether and how climate change affects a persons
opportunities to enjoy an equivalent array, or
set, of capabilities to achieve valuable
functionings.
M e t h o d o l o g i c a l approach
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The C a p a b i l i t i e s approach
1. Capability
2. Functioning
mobility
friendship
Health
Learning
transgress
play
4. Conversion Factors
3. Resources
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1. Different levels of generality2. Sensitivity
to Context3. Explicit formulation4.
Methodological Justification5. Exhaustion and
non-reduction6. Reflexive methodology
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D i f f e r e n t levels of generality

• Draw up the set list of capabilities in two
  stages.
• first, as a generic list that is unconstrained
  by limitations of particular circumstances and
  second, as a pragmatic list which takes a
  particular context into account (Robeyns 200370-
  72).

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List of generic capabilities (Alkire Black,
1997 Robeyns, 2003 Nussbaum 2000 Kronlid 2008b)
1. Life its maintenance and transition being
healthy and safe. 2. Knowledge and appreciation
of beauty - Being rational and their capacity to
know reality and appreciate beauty. 3. Work and
play - Some degree of excellence in work and
play. Being simultaneously rational and animal
and to transform the natural world by using
realities, beginning with their own bodily
selves, to express meanings and serve
purposes. 4. Friendship - Coherence between and
among individuals and groups of persons living
at peace with others, neighbourliness,
friendship. 5. Self-integration - Coherence
between the different dimensions of the person,
i.e. inner peace. 6. Coherent
self-determination - Practical Reasonableness,
coherence among ones Judgements, choices and
performances peace of conscience. 7.
Transcendence - Religion, spirituality being
abe to relate to more-than-human-sources of
meaning and value 8. Other species - Being able
to relate to nonhuman animals, plants, and the
world of nature 9. Mobility - Being mobile in
existential, social and geographical space.
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Formal qualities of play (Caillois 2001)

• Free in which playing is not obligatory if it
  were, it would at once loose its attractive and
  joyous quality as diversion
• Separate circumscribed within limits of space
  and time, defined and fixed in advance
• Uncertain the course of which cannot be
  determined, nor the result attained beforehand,
  and some latitude for innovations being left to
  the players initiative
• Unproductive creating neither goods, nor wealth,
  nor new elements of any kind and, except for the
  exchange of property among the players, ending in
  a situation identical to that prevailing at the
  beginning of the game
• Governed by rules under conventions that suspend
  ordinary laws, and for the moment establish new
  legislations, which alone counts
• Make-believe accompanied by a special awareness
  of a second reality or of a free unreality, as
  against real life (Caillois, 2001, p 9-10).

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(1) can climate change negotiations and
negotiators reasonable be thought of as if
negotiations are a game and the negotiators
players?

• Yes!

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Four Fundamental Categories of Games
Agon (competition Alea (change) Mimicry (simulation) Ilix (vertigo)
PAIDIA
Tumult, Agitation,, Immoderate laughter Not regulated racing Wrestling etc. Athletics Counting out rhymes Heads or tails Childrens imitations Games of illusion Tag arms Disguises Children whirling, Horseback riding Swingin g, Walzing
Boxing Billiards, Fencing Checkers Fotboll Chess Betting Roulette Volador Travelling carnivals Skiing Mountain climbing Toghtrope walking
Theatre Spectakels in general
Kite flying, Solitaire,, Patience, Crossword, Puzzles Sports in general Simple, complex and continuing lotteries
LUDUS
Continuum
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A rule-bounded-improvising continuum

• The first column refers to that games are played
  in a continuum of turbulence (paidia) and order
  (ludus).
• Paidia is characterized by free improvisation and
  diversity whilst ludus refers to games that are
  disciplined by implicit and explicit conventions,
  principles and rules (Caillois, 200113).

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Agon

• always a question of a rivalry which hinges on
  a single quality (speed, endurance, strength,
  memory, skill, ingenuity, etc.),
• Exercised, within defined limits and without
  outside assistance, in such a way that the winner
  appears to be better than the loser (Caillois,
  2001, p 14).

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Alea

• all games that are based on a decision
  independent of the player, an outcome over which
  he has no control, and in which winning is the
  result of fate rather than triumphing over an
  adversary (Caillois, 2001, p 17).

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Alea Cont.

• The alea-player is passive and awaits the
  potential victory unlike the agonistic player who
  acts out his/her skills to perfection.
• This indicates that the agonistic player has
  retrospective, current and prospective
  responsibility for the outcome of playing whereas
  the alea-players simply surrender to destiny
  (Caillois, 2001, p 18).

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Mimicry

• Games of mimicry is dominated by an orientation
  towards being or passing for another however
  not in a deceptive manner. The players are taking
  account of an incessant mimetic phenomena or
  invention the intrinsic function of
  simultaneously disguising ones conventional self
  and liberating nonconventional and perhaps more
  authentic dimensions of ones self (Caillois,
  2001, p 21).

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Mimicry cont.

• Mimicry hence involves imagination,
  interpretation and illusion and Caillois focusses
  on how spectator games (e.g. theater, drama) are
  illusory for the spectators. This is an important
  aspect of mimicry. The illusion is however also
  as significant for the players themselves as it
  is for the spectators.

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Mimicry cont.

• Having access to spectators is not a necessary
  condition for mimicry, both players and
  spectators are for a given time asked to
  believe in décor, mask, or artifice as more
  real than reality itself (Caillois, 2001, p 23).
  

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Ilinx

• Based on the pursuit of vertigo and which consist
  of an attempt to momentarily destroy the
  stability of perception.
• Inflict a kind of voluptuous panic upon an
  otherwise lucid mind.
• In all cases, it is a question of surrendering to
  a kind of spasm, seizure, or shock which destroys
  reality with sovereign brusqueness (Caillois,
  2001, p 23).

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Ilinx cont.

• A controlled disorder and panic, the players of
  ilinx separate themselves from reality in e.g.
  the spinning of the Muslim dervishes or the
  Mexican voladores who throw themselves from masts
  up to hundred feet high whilst performing up to
  thirty complex turns until the rope attached to
  their waists comes to its end.

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Ilinx Cont.

• In folk music festivals in Sweden couples engaged
  in the dance polska sometimes experience the
  sense of freedom and separation from the
  surrounding world associated with ilinx.

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(2) If so, what kind of games are negotiations,
who are the players, what does fair play mean,
what does foul play and being a spoil-sport mean?
Relate to case.

• ??????????

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(3) If so, what is the relevance for climate
change justice, capabilities research and climate
change negotiators of fleshing out the ability to
play as a functioning in a climate change
negotiation context? Relate to case.

• ??????????