The game, The Mayor of Mancunia, has opened at Manchester Museum as part of the SHIFT research project. Developed with digital story studio Fast Familiar, it invites players to act as the mayor of a fictional city tackling the climate crisis. The challenge: making tough policy decisions to create a fairer, healthier and more sustainable food system.
The SHIFT project explores how changes to our diets can reduce the environmental impact of food and improve health. Instead of only relying on surveys or focus groups, the research team has turned to a new, creative method – inviting people to learn through play, and at the same time giving researchers valuable insights into how people weigh up the trade-offs.
Pete Scarborough, Professor of Population Health in our department who leads the SHIFT research project, said:
‘Food is a great subject for research, because everybody knows about food and everybody has an opinion! Loads of the challenges in the food system are clear to everyone - rising prices in the supermarket, relentless promotion of fast food. But the environmental impact of the food that we eat is mostly hidden from us. This game is a way of making all the challenges highly visible and giving the player the difficult task of deciding what to do about them. Players come away with an understanding of the difficult trade-offs facing policymakers working on food and hopefully some inspiration to make our diets healthier and more sustainable.’
The game was co-created with members of the public in Manchester, including students from Pinc College and participants from Healthy Me Healthy Communities in Gorton. Their perspectives shaped the scenarios and choices players face in the game, ensuring they reflect real concerns such as affordability, access and health.
Georgina Young, Head of Exhibitions and Collections at Manchester Museum, said:
'Mayor of Mancunia at Manchester Museum extends our mission to build a more sustainable world. Located between cases about Climate and Resources in our Living Worlds gallery it acts as a bridge between ideas, helping audiences make connections between research questions, their choices and wider policy change. As a university museum, we regularly share research findings in inventive way, but this gamified approach to complex food systems was something new for us that was only possible through partnership.'
The SHIFT team hopes that by experimenting with creative approaches like The Mayor of Mancunia, they can involve more people in conversations about the food system and inspire change.
The Mayor of Mancunia is open now at Manchester Museum.