SIMSOC has been developed to make social science more vivid to students at the college level and to adults in leadership training programs. It focuses on what is perhaps the most central problem for a student of society: the establishment and maintenance of social organization. When citizens riot, when governments use indiscriminate violence against their citizens, when generals seize power and liquidate political opponents, when armed gangs terrorize their neighbors, we begin to recognize that the existence of order and legitimacy is a mystery to be explained rather than part of the world's natural organization.
There would be less mystery if societies provided full social justice for all citizens. But many instead provide great social, political, and economic inequalities, with some groups excluded and deprived of benefits that are enjoyed by others. Demands for inclusion and social justice inevitably generate conflict. SIMSOC attempts to create a situation in which participants must actively question the nature of the social order and examine the processes of social conflict and social control. As an inevitable by-product, participants find themselves dealing with a host of issues, including interpersonal trust, leadership, "deviant" behavior, social protest, and power relations.
SIMSOC is intended to be used in conjunction with conventional classroom discussion and readings. A selection of such readings is included in this manual. The manual also includes suggestions for study questions based on participation in SIMSOC. The current edition represents a newly revised version of the game, prepared with the assistance of Larry Peppers.
The use of games as a teaching or training device has a long history in many fields. Social scientists have developed a variety of games focused on social processes for use in teaching students about the society in which they live. Like all of these games, SIMSOC does not attempt to imitate a real society in every respect, but includes characteristics that highlight certain issues and problems. One can participate in SIMSOC at many levels. As in real life, what one learns will depend on what one puts into it.
SIMSOC (which is pronounced sim-sock and stands for simulated society) is a dynamic group simulation game that forces participants to cope with the daily problems of governing society. Assuming a variety of roles, the players grapple with issues like abuse of power, justice, diversity, trust, and leadership as they negotiate their way through labor-management strife, political turmoil, and natural disasters. SIMSOC imposes few rules and restrictions upon its participants. There is no programmed outcome. Success or failure is dependent upon decisions made by players and the creativity of the group. To be successful, players must utilize every basic social process from cooperation and reward to threat and punishment. SIMSOC will make participants ask questions about social control, and bring everyday experience and deeper understanding to even the most arcane social and organizational theory.
Included in this Fifth Edition of SIMSOC's Participant's Manual are instructions for playing, materials for play, study questions based on participation, and selected readings about simulation games, leadership, and social processes. New to the Fifth Edition are additional size levels to accommodate larger groups, simplified rules, and readings by authors from Nicholas Lemann to Robert Putnam.
Each SIMSOC participant should have a copy of the Participant's Manual and the instructor a copy of SIMSOC's Coordinator's Manual, which contains additional materials needed for play and directions on how to set up and run SIMSOC. One Coordinator's Manual will be needed for each SIMSOC exercise of up to ninety participants. It can be obtained, for a $5.00 fee, by writing, on letterhead, to:
The Free Press
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Faculty Service Desk
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
