What would a just world look like, one that has room for everyone with their individual needs? What even constitutes justice? What resources should everyone have access to, and what should everyone participate in? Is it possible to shift perspectives and reflect on these questions from different viewpoints? And what would such a just world look like – for example, seen through VR glasses?
Students from grades 8 to 10 of the Friedenburg High School participated in a cooperation seminar with medialepfade.org from September 23-27, 2024, to experiment with designing and visualizing just social contracts.
The seminar “Just Justice: What is a Just World?” was conceived as a pilot workshop based on John Rawls’ thought experiment on the “original position and veil of ignorance” from “A Theory of Justice” (1971), serving as a foundation for negotiating an ethically responsible social contract.
Its aim was to foster abstract thinking and an understanding of different perspectives, as well as to encourage unbiased discussion in order to find common solutions to complex societal challenges. The universal principles of justice, fairness, and impartiality were central to this approach.
It was about:
- Reflection on one's own identity
- Practicing perspective changes
- Development of fictional characters (personas)
- Storytelling and empathy building
- Argumentation training on human rights
- Examining and designing just forms of society
- Creation and programming of 3D/VR worlds based on the designed company agreements
- Public presentation of the results
Our journey to “Just Worlds”:
Day 1: Introduction
- Game “Departure to a New Land” from “Compasito. Handbook for Human Rights Education with Children” : What values and possessions are important to us? On their imaginary sea voyage, participants did not “throw overboard” values such as “fair treatment and non-discrimination”, “freedom of expression”, “freedom of religion”, “democratic elections and rules”, and “protection from abuse”.
- The game "Freedom Grip" was created in 2024 during the seminar "The Invention of the Future" on (game) rules, freedoms and prohibitions.
- Engaging with human rights using the board game
"Courage: The Human Rights Game - together we are strong" by Amnesty International Germany: in 8 small groups, each with a main scenario (prosperity, participation for all, gender equality, peace, voice of children, freedom, anti-racism, healthy environment), knowledge questions about human rights and human rights activists were answered,
and creative tasks were completed, e.g., audio and video recordings, drawings, slogans, etc., on the scenario topics.
Day 2: “The Thought Experiment”
(in cooperation with medialepfade.org and Einsteinform Potsdam)
- Reflecting on and describing oneself in the categories of community, beliefs, knowledge, gifts, body, possessions
- “Lottery of Life”: fictional characters were invented from the randomly compiled category descriptions of the participants and additional AI-generated ones, in order to learn about the perspectives of other people and to try to empathize with their viewpoints (storytelling and empathy building)
- What is philosophy? What does philosophy have to do with our individual and social lives? What does a philosopher actually do?:
A conversation with Prof. Dr. Susan Neiman (Director) and Dominic Bonfiglio (Staff Member) from the Einstein Forum Potsdam - Debate game on "Freedom" and "Equality":
Argumentation training on human rights
- "Spaceship Journey": In 5 teams, a contract for a society on the target/new home planet was developed: "Only those who negotiated a society in which there would be room for the developed characters/all people with their individual needs on the target planet were winners." Categories in the contract included: participation and co-determination, fundamental rights, education and research, cultural diversity and freedoms, health and social services, economy and resources
- Each group finalized their societal design. Contracts were drawn up for the worlds "Gaia", "Just World", "Heart and Lungs World", "Astris", and "World"
Day 3: Creating (Image) Worlds
- Collage of life worlds for the developed contract and all characters with their individual needs, 360-degree photos of the created collage as a basis for world programming in 3D
- Start programming 3D/VR worlds with cospace
Day 4: Creating VR worlds
- Continuation of the programming of 3D/VR worlds in accordance with the negotiated contracts for a just world
Day 5: Presentation and evaluation
- Preparing for a presentation in front of guests
- Evaluation of the “thought experiment” and the seminar
- Presentation in front of many guests
Many pictures were taken during the seminar, providing insights into the intensive work process:
In the spirit of sharing best practices, materials on the methodology have been published as OER at https://pad.medialepfade.net/s/oer_urzustand#
Cooperation partners
The event was sponsored by:
It took place as part of the collaboration in the program “Political Youth Education in the AdB” in the project group “Social Question and Political Participation” , funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth .
