The Potential of Gamification for Humanitarian Organizations to Support Integration in Migration Contexts

The aim of this chapter is to explore the connections between the inherent characteristics of gamification and the current need for sustainable integration activities that are based on meaningful social interactions. By highlighting the potential of gamification for creating democratic spaces of social interaction and engaging diverse actors in joyful encounters, it is possible to underline the notion of social change that gamification can induce. In the area of integration, humanitarian organizations can harness the potential of gamification in their integration activities in order to ensure increased social cohesion. Through a critical analysis of existing gamification and integration approaches, the chapter provides arguments for why gamification is perfectly suited to improve integration processes by highlighting the manifold applications of gamification experience in the humanitarian field.

Designing for Democracy

Designing for Democracy addresses the question of how to “fix” digital technologies for democracy by examining how the design of the built environment (whether streets, sidewalks, or social media platforms) informs how, and whether, citizens can engage in democratic practices. “Democratic spaces”—built environments that support democratic politics—must have three characteristics: they must be clearly bounded, durable, and flexible. Each corresponds to a necessary democratic practice. Clearly bounded spaces make it easier to recognize what we share and with whom we share; they help us form communities. Durable spaces facilitate our attachments to the communities they house and the other members within them; they help us sustain communities. And flexible spaces facilitate the experimental habits required for democratic politics; they help us improve our communities. These three practices—recognition, attachment, and experimentalism—are the affordances a built environment must provide in order to be a “democratic space”; they are the criteria to which designers and users should be attentive when building and inhabiting the spaces of the built environment, both physical and digital. Using this theoretical framework, Designing for Democracy provides new insights into the democratic potential of digital technologies. Through extended discussions of examples like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, it suggests architectural responses to problems often associated with digital technologies—loose networks, the “personalization of politics,” and “echo chambers.” In connecting the built environment, digital technologies, and democratic theory, Designing Democracy provides blueprints for democracy in a digital age.

Sustaining Democracy

Democratic spaces must also be durable. Durable spaces facilitate our attachments to our communities and to other members; they help us sustain communities. Chapter 3 draws from Alexis de Tocqueville’s writing on democracy to explain how the durability of the built environment can be a powerful resource for generating the attachments that sustain democratic communities by (1) continually reminding citizens of their social obligations and (2) facilitating repeated interactions between citizens. The chapter then turns to the example of Twitter—particularly the mechanism of hashtags—to explore these dynamics in a digital environment. Hashtags provide temporary boundaries that are useful for mobilizing, but not sustaining, communities of interest; as a result, Twitter is not a platform well suited for cultivating the attachments required for longer-term cooperative activity. The chapter concludes with suggestions as to how we might design more durable spaces—and sustainable communities—in digital environments.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Boundaries are the first necessary characteristic of democratic spaces. Boundaries facilitate the democratic affordance of recognition; they help communities to form. This chapter outlines the role of boundaries in constituting democratic communities by drawing on Aristotle’s concept of “political friendship.” In clearly bounded spaces, citizens are more likely to recognize their common interests and interlocutors—the things they share and the people they share them with. Boundaries thus help generate ties of political friendship. With this function of boundaries in mind, the chapter turns to the example of Facebook to explain how boundaries can operate in digital environments. It shows how design choices made by Facebook—notably, the dissolution of the boundaries imposed by the early .edu requirement and the more recent turn to reimpose boundaries with Facebook Groups—have clear consequences for the likelihood that Facebook users can develop political friendships with one another, thereby forming communities on the platform.

Africa and The Decline of The Democracy Debate

The debate on the decline of democracy is not new. It can be traced to the period between the First and Second World Wars, and it resurfaced during the 1970s, followed by the most spectacular dem- ocratic resurgence in human history. This lecture focuses on the current debate on the decline of democracy and downward trends in major democracy assessment indices. Africa is among the three least democratic world regions, with 42% of African countries cur- rently designated as not free. Measuring the decline or rise of democracy only by the perfor- mance of institutional politics does not provide a complete picture of the issue. Institutional politics does not account for the resil- ience and thriving new spaces where democratic vibrancy and civic engagement prevail. Examples from African countries demonstrate that democracy indices based on institutional politics alone do not account for alternative democratic spaces and practices. This paper is the edited version of the keynote speech delivered by the author at the 6th Pécs African Studies Conference under the theme “African Realities: Conflict and Cooperation”, September 23-24, 2021 – University of Pécs, Hungary.