Board games for participatory research: An experimental ethnography on the trade of Chagra products in indigenous communities in the Colombian amazon

Abstract

This article reflects on a participatory research that led to the design and use of a board game with indigenous people in the Colombian Amazon. The objective of the “Juego de Chagras” is to produce, process and market food, and in its execution, decision making involves the players in discussions and analysis of the studied phenomenon. The strategies of the players and how they connect to the decisions that people make on a daily basis are analyzed by means of experimental ethnography. It is concluded that games hold considerable potential for participatory research, if they are analyzed as cultural performances that reveal the situation of the players on the basis of their decisions in the game, and the social contexts in which they are immersed.