Activity title | Conscious Inequality Walk |
Overview | Participants go out of the workshop room/their home to perceive and reflect on how inequality shows up in their surroundings |
Objective | To sharpen one’s view on visible and invisible inequalities through conscious exploration and open discussion |
Materials | Pens and paper |
Time | 45-60 minutes |
Group size | Works for all group sizes |
Instructions for trainers | - Ask the participants to individually (or in pairs) take a conscious walk to reflect about inequality in their immediate surroundings. Choose 3-4 of the following questions to guide them through their reflection and ask them to note them down:
- Where can you perceive inequality?
- For whom is the environment around you built?
- Who is missing, for whom is it hard to be there?
- What role does money play?
- Where can you spot carbon inequality?
- Who might have decided and designed what the place looks like?
- Where around you could there be inequality which you do not see?
- Give them at least 20 minutes for their individual walk and reflection and tell them what time they should be back in the room.
- Either in the plenary or in small groups ask participants to share “Aha moments” which they had during their walk and discuss (20-30 minutes).
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Debriefing and evaluation | For the debriefing read chapter 1.6 “Drivers of inequality”. Some optional ideas for in-depth conversations: - What does an observer’s perception tell about him/herself? About her understanding of inequality?
- Why did some people not recognise inequalities where others did?
- Bring in additional ideas concerning inequalities that might not be visible in our surroundings or that we might not perceive.
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Tips for trainers | A popular activity that uses the physical space to learn about privileges and inequalities is the so-called “privilege walk”. One version can be found below. The method needs to be used with caution and shouldn’t be applied in all contexts, as it can be triggering for people facing forms of discrimination https://peacelearner.org/2016/03/14/privilege-walk-lesson-plan/ |
