The Social Justice Game

A Game About Cents & Sensibility

The Social Justice Game represents an educational parody of the game Monopoly, and more generally, of capitalism. This educational (or ‘serious’) game helps players experience systemic inequity in an embodied way. Unlike Monopoly, which assumes a level socioeconomic playing field, The Social Justice Game more closely reflects actual inequities under the current American economy. It leverages players' prior experience playing Monopoly by forcing them to pit their own expectations of 'fairness' against the economic pressures they experience in the game.

Players quickly find that on the gamut of roles from Owner to Manager to Employee to Unemployed, it is increasingly difficult to avoid bankruptcy as the game progresses. However, this is both the fun of the game and precisely the point! By adjusting these and other rules to effect real-world economic disparities at the start of the game, The Social Justice Game aims to stimulate a frustration so comically absurd that gameplay evolves into a discussion among the players around systemic inequity, and helps players complicate the notion of economic success as a contest among equals.