Making the board: participatory game design for environmental action
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Making the board: participatory game design for environmental action Katherine Ball 1 & Kirk Jalbert 1
&
Lisa Test 2
Accepted: 13 November 2020 # AESS 2020
Abstract The US state of Arizona is historically known as a rich source of helium-bearing gas, and market pressures have renewed interest in extracting helium throughout the state’s Holbrook Basin. In response, a group of concerned residents emerged to educate the public and engage with regulators. However, the obscurities of the helium industry and regulatory frameworks complicated the group’s efforts. This paper details a participatory action research project called Helium Futures, a co-designed serious board. We argue that Helium Futures generated capacity for engagement by collaboratively distilling industry and regulatory perspectives, as well as resulted in a device for enrolling allies. Helium Futures, furthermore, highlights how empowerment occurs when situated expertise is accounted for in design-oriented action research. Findings from the project inform research on the public understanding of extraction industries, as well as work studying the impacts of participatory games on public understandings of environmental science. Keywords Serious games . Public engagement in science . Communities of practice . Helium extraction . Arizona
Introduction The US state of Arizona has a long history of natural resource extraction targeting helium-bearing gas. Initial explorations for helium date back to the 1950s, but this short boom ended when major reservoirs were depleted in the 1970s (Rauzi 2003). Market drivers have renewed interest in helium extraction throughout Northeast Arizona’s Holbrook Basin and Four Corners region, both known for producing high concentrations of helium, upwards of 10% by volume—profitable wells generally produce 0.3% or higher helium concentrations (Rare Earth Exploration 2019; Gibbons 2019; Desert Mountain Energy 2020). Recently issued state drilling permits show companies are again targeting helium in this area (AOGCC 2020). This new wave of extraction corresponds with regulatory changes at the state and national levels. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) now provides
* Kirk Jalbert [email protected] 1
School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
2
No Fracking AZ, Holbrook, AZ, USA
guidelines for helium extraction in response to renewed interest in the Holbrook Basin (ADEQ 2018). Meanwhile, helium extraction on federal lands is being encouraged by National Environmental Policy Act rollbacks, as well as the passing of the 2019 Dingell Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, which reduced barriers to helium well permitting (116th Congress 2019). In response to expanding interests by the helium industry, a group of concerned residents formed in 2018 under the collective title No Fracking Arizona (NFAZ). This group initially emerged to protest mineral rights leasing by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on land parcels adjacent to Petrif
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