Imagining Infrastructures, a workshop showcasing new tools and approaches for inclusive policy-making, was held in the city on Thursday.
Imagining Infrastructures, a workshop showcasing new tools and approaches for inclusive policy-making, was held in the city on Thursday.
It was organised by Next Generation Infrastructure Lab (NGIL), a division of Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), a policy research organisation.
Given the scale of urbanisation, the country needs new models to tackle urban problems, said Dr A Ravindra, advisor to the chief minister, Karnataka, on urban affairs. But our town planning departments functioned as though they were still in the 19th century, he said.
The keynote by Dr Juval Portugali, of Tel Aviv University, highlighted the need to look at cities as representing dual complexity — “We give rise to the city and once the city comes into being, it determines our behaviour.”
This was followed by the first game called City game, developed by Dr Portugali. Participants had to work in groups and create a city they want to live in. Groups started with various interpretations — some tried to build an ideal city, some infused reality to their ideal city and some mirrored the city they live in.
There were other games that looked at protocols needed to coordinate between various agencies during an emergency in the Communication Protocol Game. In the Indian Energy Game, participants took on the role of ministry of power, ministry of new and renewable energy, and other agencies to plan for India’s energy needs and Emergency 2012 game where participants assume roles of various agencies to tackle emergencies.
The games, kept the participants engaged. The feedback accumulated will be used to better the games. But, these aren’t just lab experiments, these games have a larger goal.
Dr Robin King from CSTEP said, “There are three goals — To create awareness starting from as early as high school students, to create low-cost training tools that can be used by professionals who are trained to be policy makers, and to create space for debate among policy makers.”
CSTEP had similar workshop two years ago. “We hope to have such events once a year in Bangalore,” Dr King said.
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